"99" is the ninth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fifth season and the show's ninety-ninth episode overall.
The Nine-Nine travels to Los Angeles to pay their final respects to the recently-deceased Captain McGintly, Holt's overly permissive predecessor. While at the funeral, Holt receives bombshell news: he's been short-listed as a candidate to be the next Commissioner of the New York Police Department!
The detectives are ecstatic at the news that their commanding officer is being considered for such a prestigious position and make plans to promptly head back to New York so that Holt can attend the interview. However, on their way to the airport, they happen to pass by Fox Plaza aka Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard. Uber-fanboy Jake insists that they stop and look around, but an unexpected delay results in a madcap series of missed flights, dodgy cars, explosions, and Boyle cousins.
This episode provides examples of:
- The Alleged Car: Jake buys a rundown RV to try and drive cross-country. It breaks down spectacularly while they're in Texas.
- Answer Cut:
- Jake wonders if Charles' Texas cousins wear bolo ties and cowboy hats. Cut to the Boyles wearing plain beige clothing.
- Terry asks where they're going to get fresh clothes after their luggage blew up in the RV. Cut to the Nine-Nine doing a Team Power Walk while wearing the Boyles' trademark beige and khaki.
- Batman Gambit: Holt causes them to miss their flight by banking on Jake being distracted by Fox Plaza.
- Brain Bleach: Scully uses the RV's bathroom, and spends fifteen minutes inside horrifying his fellow detectives. Even Hitchcock!Scully: You guys didn't hear that, did you?
Terry: I'm still hearing it. I'm never gonna STOP hearing it! - Buffy Speak: Jake thinks cargo planes are called "thing planes."
- Call-Back: Holt is sabotaging his chances of making commissioner due to the favor he owes Seamus Murphy back in "The Big House" arc, and fear of what he'll use it for if Holt does get appointed.
- When Jake solves the mystery of the sabotage (see Something Only They Would Say below), his j'accuse includes the robot sounds from "Pilot":
Jake: [mimicking a robot] Bovine. Transport. Unit. Meep morp. Zeep. - Continuity Nod:
- The episode begins with the funeral of Captain McGinley, whom Holt replaced as captain of the Nine-Nine in the pilot.
- Holt uses contractions throughout the episode calling back to Episode 5 of this season. It's his "tell".
- Facepalm: Amy buries her face in her hand when Jake wants to prove to Terry that he learned how to do the worm and starts showing off his dance moves.
- Finagle's Law: The detectives try to get Holt back to New York, but everything that can go wrong does. Subverted when it turns out Holt was actually invoking this by sabotaging their trip at every turn, and later, Amy's detailed and convoluted plan to get them at the Monday meeting Just in Time goes off without a hitch.
- Freudian Slip: Jake is overcome by emotion upon learning that Holt compromised his own position to get him and Rosa out of jail:Jake: You did all of this for us? I love you, da...aptain. Daptain. It's the cool new way of saying Captain. It's from the world of hip-hop.
- Gender-Blender Name: One of Boyle's indistinguishable cousins.Boyle: Steve! Tommy! Becca!
Jake: Becca is a man. - Internal Reveal: Why was Holt trying to sabotage his own chances of becoming commissioner? Because he feared the deal he made with the Seamus Murphy in the season premiere would put him in a position to make unethical decisions. The audience already knew about the deal, but this is the first anyone In-Universe finds out.
- Jerkass Has a Point: In context of the events of the episode; when confessing to his sabotage of the group's attempts to get back to New York, Holt points out that Peralta really should stop eating cheese puffs, considering that putting a few of them into the RV gas tank ended up causing it to explode.
- Logo Joke: For the Dr. Goor Vanity Plate; instead of the "Shh!" after "Not a doctor", we hear a cow mooing.
- Loophole Abuse: Amy's scheme to get the gang back to New York involves exploiting a NYPD union rule that allows cops to be reimbursed for ambulance rides for medical emergencies and then using a federal loophole that allows any law enforcement officer to commandeer any civilian vehicle for national security purposes.
- Made of Explodium: The artificial chemicals in the cheese puffs are volatile enough to cause the Nine-Nine's RV to catch on fire and eventually explode.
- Milestone Celebration: This episode is the series' 99th, hence the title.
- Running Gag: "Look! It's [background to an incredibly specific and often quite background event that occurred in Die Hard]; take my picture with it!"
- Shipper on Deck: Boyle is obviously delighted to find out about Rosa's girlfriend, and presses her for details. (Or at least the woman's name.)
- Something Only They Would Say: When the cattle truck the team is driving is pulled over for suspicion of drugs, Jakes realizes it was Holt because only he would describe the truck as a "grey bovine transport unit".
- Spotting the Thread: Once Jake realizes Holt called the police in order to get then pulled over, he very quickly figures out that Holt's responsible for everything else going wrong, too.
- Team Power Walk: Parodied; the squad walking out of the Boyle ranch house is shot like this...but they all look disgusted at having to wear drab Boyle family clothes.
- Wham Line: One for the B-plot, which focuses on Boyle trying to get Rosa to tell him about her new boyfriend. He overhears her talking on the phone with somebody, and then he and the audience hear a woman say, "Babe, are you alright? Is everything okay?"
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Holt is responsible for most of the distractions that delay the crew's return to New York and spends most of the episode pulling off ultra-quick gambits to counter Jake's plans. He consciously drives past Fox Plaza, knowing that Jake's Die Hard obsession would force them to visit it, then removes the prop from the door so that they're locked in. He claims that there are no car rentals available at the airport, forcing them to rent an RV. He tricks Scully into using the bathroom by suggesting he buy three corn dogs for 99 cents, thus encouraging the others to make pit stops. He sabotages the RV tank by putting cheese puffs inside them (underestimating the flammability of the chemicals they're made of). Finally, he calls a fake tip to the police that the truck they're driving is trafficking drugs; the fact that he referred to the latter as a "bovine transportation unit" is what tips Jake off.
