"Game Night" is the tenth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fifth season. It aired back-to-back with "The Favor."
Rosa, realizing that Charles is awful at keeping secrets, decides to come out to the Nine-Nine in order to make sure she can do it on her own terms. Once that is done, she turns to Jake to help her with an even more daunting task: coming out to her parents. What follows is a series of increasingly awkward encounters as Rosa's traditional parents struggle to understand what their daughter's recently-confessed sexuality means.
Meanwhile, back at the Nine-Nine, the detective squad struggles to get work done as the recently-moved-in Cyber Crime division is hogging all the bandwidth. When their attempts at politely asking for some consideration fails, the detectives decide that they have no choice to break out the big guns: Gina Linetti!
This episode provides examples of:
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Jake demonstrates his powers of observation by correctly figuring out who everyone drew as their Secret Santa.Holt: (beat) Should we draw the names again and leave Jake out?
Everyone in unison: Yeah!
Jake: No!! Sherlock wants a present! - Bittersweet Ending: Rosa's father doesn't fully understand her bisexuality, but assures her that he loves her and promises to make an effort. Unfortunately, her mother is less accepting, so their family functions are on hold. Jake then initiates family game night with the 99 which seems to make her feel better.
- The Bus Came Back: After a nine-episode absence, Gina makes her return this episode.
- Black Comedy: Jake casually drops a line about a (very good looking) suspect's suicide at the start of the show- which is then played for laughs.Holt: Thank you for that shockingly dark update.
- Christmas Episode: Christmas Cold Open. They have fun with Secret Santa drawing.
- Coming-Out Story: After coming out to Charles in the previous episode, Rosa comes out twice in this one. First, to the rest of the Nine-Nine, all of whom are perfectly fine with it. Then, to her parents, who are not. Her father begins to come around, but her mother doesn't — at least, not yet.
- A Day in the Limelight: Rosa is the primary focus of the episode.
- Family of Choice: When Rosa's dad tells her that, even though he's coming around to trying to accept her sexuality, Rosa should probably avoid family game nights so as to not upset her mother, Jake and the rest of the squad decide to start up their own family game nights at Rosa's apartment in order to support her.Rosa: (opening her apartment door and seeing the squad) What's going on?
Jake: Family game night. - Food as Bribe: For their second attempt at talking to the Cyber Crime team, Boyle decides to use "the universal language of pork" and offer them a cold cuts platter.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Played With in that Charles does this to attempt to avoid accidentally outing Rosa.Charles: Bye, Rosa. (Beat) I mean, not "bi," but "bye." I mean, see ya! I mean, have fun only having sex with men! Just bangin' dudes, left and right!
- Hollywood Board Games: Rosa is playing Pictionary with her conservative family. She's in the middle of her coming-out arc and, predictably, her family is writing off her bisexuality as a phase despite Rosa being a grown-up woman. Being as Hot-Blooded as she is, Rosa devices to throw a jab at her homophobic parents and draw a lesbian wedding. Her mother is so delusional in that nobody can't truly fall in love with people of their same gender that she writes them off as very close friends, then sisters, then business partners. Queer erasure at its finest.
- Hope Spot: After Rosa's parents react negatively to her coming out, her dad visits her at work to apologize and tell her that he loves and accepts her. They share a tender moment, but then he reveals that her mother "needs more time", and uninvites her from family game night as not to upset her.
- Mistaken for Romance: When Rosa brings Jake with her to the dinner with her family to help her come out to them as bisexual, her parents think that what Rosa wanted to tell them during this dinner was that she and Jake were dating.
- No Bisexuals: Rosa's father subscribes to this initially.
- Noodle Incident: Every time someone talks of how great the sex crimes division was, they bring up "remember the Christmas party?" and everyone grins.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rosa, notorious for the extreme lengths she'll go to keep her personal and professional lives separate, begs Jake to be there to help her through things.
- Retcon: Rosa previously complained about her family being cheerful and affectionate, with one episode showing that her sister is incredibly bubbly and another showing Rosa wearing a goofy shirt for a family outing. This episode, however, shows her parents as being very quiet and reserved (showing a family dinner eaten in complete silence), albeit more sociable than their surly daughter. (It is possible both cases could still coexist, since in the former case shows Rosa with her sister's own family (i.e., her children), and that the goofy shirts had been Rosa's idea.)
- Secret Santa: The cold open features one (see Sherlock Scan below).
- Sherlock Scan: Jake does this in the cold open using a mixture of his detective skills and his co-workers' stupidity to figure out who has him for Secret Santa. He also had his name legally changed to Jack Sherlock Peralta to drive this home.
- Shout-Out: Rosa says that she realized that she was bisexual when watching Saved by the Bell in seventh grade.Rosa: I was watching Saved by the Bell and I thought, "Zack Morris is hot." And then I thought, "Lisa Turtle, also hot."
Jake: The fact that "Kelly" and "Kapowski" didn't just come out of your mouth is lunacy. - Skewed Priorities: Rosa's parents are shockingly comfortable at the idea of her dating an engaged man, as long as she's dating a man. This realization shocks Rosa so much it prompts her to come out to them.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Gina named her daughter "The Enigma".
- You Monster!: Devin calls Gina this when she reveals his most embarrassing secret to his co-workers, he pooped in a reflecting pool during a field trip to Washington D.C.
