Monster in the Closet is the sixth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season.
Adrian Pimento is back! After spending several months in an Uzbekistani prison, the detective is finally back in New York and looking forward to reuniting with Rosa. After a hot and passionate tryst in the briefing room, the two come out into the squad room and announce that they want to get married the very next day.
Amy is given the task of organizing the wedding in 14 hours and is excited by the challenge. Working with Charles, Terry, Holt, Hitchcock, and Scully she tries to throw the best event possible, but finds that her coworkers are more of a hassle than she expected.
Meanwhile, Jake goes on a road trip with Pimento and Gina to find a pawnshop where Pimento had sold his grandmother's ruby earrings. Wanting to get the heirlooms back to give to Rosa, the three find that the pawnshop has been burned down and then discover that it was part of an insurance scam. Hilarity Ensues as Pimento and Gina decide to get back the earrings the fastest way possible while Jake tries to keep everyone out of prison.
This episode provides examples of:
- Call-Back:
- Rosa says that she is a fan of Nancy Meyers movies, as she did back in "Lockdown"
- Pimento is still intimidated by Gina, after she established dominance back in "Terry Kitties."
- Chekhov's Skill: Pimento mentions he can fly planes during his Noodle Incident story, which later allows him, Jake and Gina to commandeer a plane to make it to the wedding on time. Ultimately subverted when he admits he learned to pilot via the internet and unknowingly flunked the course.
- Do Wrong, Right: When Pimento wants to break down the door of the pawn shop owner's home to retrieve his grandmother's earrings, Jake chides him for breaking the law and Gina appears to agree with Jake, before instead suggesting that he simply climb up to an open second-floor window.
- Floorboard Failure: Jake and Gina escape the pawnshop owner's home out the second door window, and as Jake notes that the trellis they used to climb up won't support all three of them at once, the porch roof they're standing on gives way, dropping Jake and Gina to the ground.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Given a dose of realism; both Rosa and Pimento, having not even been on a single date, begin to get cold feet about getting married and eventually drag their friends into chaos as a result of their attempts to avoid the wedding. They end up mutually agreeing that they're rushing into things and decide to cancel the wedding, but agree to actually start dating and see how things work out from there.
- Funny Background Event:
- When Terry informs Amy that Rosa has gotten Boyle drunk with her, Holt can be heard continuing to passive-aggressively pop the balloons on his balloon arch one by one even when the camera's off him.
- As Jake asks Pimento if he really wants to go through with the wedding, Charles can be seen in the background clumsily trying to entertain the wedding party with his devil sticks.
- Hidden Depths: Rosa and Pimento, both hyperviolent cops with hair-trigger tempers are passionate fans of the romantic comedies of Nancy Meyers and get royally pissed whenever someone confuses her work with that of Nora Ephron.
- Insurance Fraud: Pimento finds out that the pawnshop owner holding his grandmother's earrings burned the shop down and kept all the items for herself.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Jake, Gina, and Pimento are attacked by a man with a katana after they're caught breaking into the pawn shop owner's house.
- Klatchian Coffee: Terry attempts to sober Rosa up with 18 shots of espresso, saying that this was how he got through the early days as a father.
- The Load:
- For Jake: Gina and Pimento go out of their way to break as many laws as possible in their quest to find Pimento's grandmother's earrings. All he can do is try and make sure the two don't go too far.
- For Amy: Rosa gets drunk on Bellinis and proceeds to get everyone sent to sober her up drunk as well by preying on their insecurities. And Holt doesn't help matters by insisting on constructing a balloon arch (which Amy doesn't approve of) and then spitefully taking it apart by bursting one balloon at a time with a pen.
- Surprisingly averted by Hitchcock and Scully, who take their assignment deadly seriously and do such a good job that Amy is impressed.Hitchcock: We are nailing it today!
- Only Sane Man: Jake and Amy find themselves trying to wrangle their coworkers' various quirks and foibles with varying degrees of success.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Pimento just breaks into the pawnshop owner's home to take back the earrings, rather than take Jake's advice and let the local cops take care of it. When Pimento later says it's okay because they're cops, Jake points out that they're being "the opposite of cops".
- Spotting the Thread: Pimento is able to deduce that the pawn shop owner was committing insurance fraud becuase he noticed that she was wearing a necklace he'd pawned in the past.
- Strange Minds Think Alike:
- As it turns out, Rosa shares Holt's infatuation with wedding balloon arches.
- Pimento and Gina are both equally obsessive over what they perceive as "signs"
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: In the Cold Open, Nikolaj believes there's a monster in his closet, so Charles opens it to show him that there's nothing there. Except there is - Pimento was hiding there.
