Jake and Holt spend the night interrogating dentist Phillip Davidson to determine if he murdered his partner. The task proves difficult as Davidson appears to have a defense for all of their accusations and strategies, leaving Jake to take drastic measures.
Episode Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Jake notes that Davidson just had to make sure that Holt and Jake knew how smart he was, Holt notes that he knows someone like that. Jake, naturally, won't take the snub since he just solved the case and jokes, "Yeah. Kevin." Holt actually starts laughing at the quip.
- Berserk Button:
- Assuming College Professors aren't real Doctors is apparently a HUGE one for Holt, being married to one. Holt even lampshaded it after.Holt: I know we live in a world where "anything can mean anything", and nobody even cares about ETYMOLO— [smash cut] Apparently that's a trigger for me.
- Davidson's is being called sloppy or impulsive, as Jake realizes... then steps all over to get him to confess.
- Assuming College Professors aren't real Doctors is apparently a HUGE one for Holt, being married to one. Holt even lampshaded it after.
- Bludgeoned to Death: How the victim, Dr. Tupper, was killed. As Phillip explains, he made the weapon out of a dental polymer and melted it back down after the murder.
- Bluffing the Murderer:
- Jake proposes that they claim a witness saw Davidson dump the body. Holt dismisses the plan, pointing out that if Davidson doesn't fall for it, they'd lose all credibility. Jake tries it anyway, and it goes exactly as Holt feared.
- He does it again when he realizes Davidson's weakness, saying he has figured out the murder and that Davidson was a damn lucky crook. This is much more effective, and Davidson confesses in a rage.
- Bottle Episode: Other than the main hallway, the episode primarily takes place in the interrogation room.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Peralta never said the witness was supposed to be the neighbor. No, it could've been a squatter or a hunter or a squatting hunter, not all hunters have homes.
- Break Them by Talking: The entirety of the episode is Jake and Holt trying to do this to Davidson (with him giving as good as he gets). He proves incredibly resilient to manipulation, until Jake finally figures out his weakness and how to exploit it.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Jake does a quick (and rather accurate) impression of David Attenborough while bragging about watching Planet Earth with the British narrator.
- Call-Back:
- Jake tries to get Davidson to talk with his guitar playing from "48 Hours". And just like that episode, it doesn't work.
- Jake's tendency to make up Addams Family-themed rhymes were also in "Return to Skyfire."
- Jake's inquiry about Bugs Bunny's opera (see Shout-Out for explanation). In "Halloween IV", Holt announces the heist with a marching band playing Ride of the Valkyries.
- Caught by Arrogance: Jake is able to get a confession out of Davidson by claiming that he was just some idiot who got lucky, getting him to confess to premeditated murder.
- Control Freak: Jake eventually and accurately pegs this as Davidson's weak-spot; he's so careful, meticulous and controlling of everything he does (and smug about it) that he left no evidence behind, and has an answer to every question. But this same tendency means that, when Jake argues that the murder was committed in a panic and he got away by sheer luck, Davidson angrily reveals all the careful planning that went into it.
- The Door Slams You: Jake throws a chair at the one-way mirror, only for it to bounce off and hit him in the face.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Jake has one when he realizes that Davidson shares his desire for recognition.Holt: Is this about your ego? Are you that desperate for everyone to know how great you are?
Jake: It's not about everyone, okay? It's just, I wanted you to know... Oh my god... I got it! - Exasperated Perp: Holt and Jake try various things to exasperate Davidson, most of which fall flat. Jake finally gets him to confess by calling his methods sloppy, saying he was lucky he didn't get caught, which throws Davidson into a rage, causing him to object that nothing about the murder was left to chance.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Davidson pauses after he confesses in a rage, only then realizing what he just said.
- Extremely Short Time Span: The episode takes place over eight hours.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Jake is incapable of scaring anyone even when he's really angry because, in Holt's words, he has "a boyish face and a big, goofy grin".
- Fatal Flaw: Lampshaded. Davidson did everything right — but he wanted to be recognized for how smart he was, which caused him to crack.
- Foreshadowing:
- The first time we see a crack in Davidson's cool demeanor is at the beginning of the interrogation. When Jake says it's lucky that there wasn't anybody else at the office to witness anything, Davidson quickly responds with "It wasn't lucky" and then follows it up with a slower, more controlled "because there was nothing to witness." On repeat viewings, it's easy to see that Davidson is reflexively defending his planning and then trying to pass it off as another clever dodge. Later, it cracks again when Holt mocks the idea of dentists calling themselves 'doctor'. It doesn't go anywhere, as Davidson manages to turn it around on Holt, but it shows that poking at his prestige actually works. Davidson's pride turns out to be the key to getting him to confess.
- On a far more minor note, Holt shuts Jake down when he suggests going crazy/angry in the interrogation room, saying Jake's face makes him impossible to take serious angry. Sure enough, later when Davidson makes Jake flip out into an actual rage and rant, Davidson can't contain his laughter when Jake is done.
- Funny Background Event: Captain Holt spelling his own four-letter surname to his beloved significant other when explaining that he won't be able to make it to the opera.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Holt suggests a variation, Smart Cop/Dumb Cop, with Jake as the Dumb Cop, of course.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: During the course of the interrogation, the only time Davidson truly slips up is when he mentions where the body was found, and Jake replies that the information hadn't been reported. That likely isn't enough to get a conviction (he recovers and claims that the widow told him), but it does confirm that he's lying.
- Lying to the Perp: Jake wants to do this to get Davidson to slip up and confess, pointing out that it's perfectly legal. Holt refuses, knowing that it might backfire badly, but Jake goes against his orders and lies... and sure enough, it does backfire.
- Manipulative Bastard: Davidson spends the entire episode toying with his interrogators. He turns almost every tactic they use on him back on them.
- When they try to make him feel physically vulnerable by invading his space, he quickly identifies Jake's poor dental hygiene, and harps on it until Jake is the one feeling worried.
- When Holt pokes at his pride by mocking the idea of dentists calling themselves doctors, he responds by pointing out that they have more right to the phrase than college professors. Since Holt is both married to a college professor and a stickler for the proper meaning of words, this causes him to briefly lose control.
- When they try to get under his skin about his relationship with his murdered boss, he needles Jake about the fact that his boss is horning in on the interrogation, and implies that Holt doesn't trust him, and the accusation clearly lands.
- Motive Rant: Davidson gets an epic one... then realizes he just confessed to murder. The event also qualifies as a Villainous Breakdown.Davidson: No. I knew exactly where I was driving, I left my phone in the office on purpose, I was in the surgical suite by design, and I didn't use some glass award that any idiot would clearly see was missing. I made a rod out of a special dental polymer, killed him with it, then melted it back down. It's already in a patient's mouth... son!
- Near-Villain Victory: Davidson was eight minutes away from getting away with the perfect crime and even planned to use the fact that they lied against him in the interrogation during the trial, but Jake figures out how to trick him into confessing the murder by attacking his ego which works too well.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: Holt tries to provoke Davidson by saying dentists aren't real doctors. Davidson turns this around on him by mocking college professors who call themselves doctors. Holt, who's married to a university lecturer and generally a stickler for details like this, nearly explodes.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: This is Holt's reasoning for Jake playing dumb (or at least, that's what he tells Jake), making Davidson think Jake is an idiot to throw him off when Jake turns on the heat.
- Oh, Crap!: Davidson, seconds after realising that Peralta has successfully provoked him into revealing how he committed his crime.
- The Perfect Crime: Davidson had carefully devised a plan to kill his business partner Robert while making sure there's no sufficient evidence for him to caught and convicted. He chose a location where the DNA of the crime scene could easily be cleaned off, killed him using a murder weapon made of a special polymer that he can melt back down so that no one can figure out what it is and find it, got rid of his dead body without any evidence pointing to him by driving Robert's car and leaving his phone in the office so he wouldn't be traced while driving, and chose a place to dump the body where there are no nearby witnesses. After that, he constructed a perfect alibi that can't be proven false because he of how many truthful details he had in it and then he prepared answers to every possible question the detectives could throw at him. However, Davidson's primary failing is that he took pride in all of this and when Jake realizes it, he tells Davidson the version of events he formulated where Davidson left so many things to chance and was just a lucky criminal which angers Davidson into smugly explaining how the plan actually went down and only realizing that he was tricked into confessing after he fully explained his plan to Jake.
- Perp Sweating: What the entire episode entails.
- A Rare Sentence: Jake says that when he gets Davidson to confess, it will make Holt say "Oh, damn!" three times, which Holt denies. Sure enough, when Jake does get the confession, Holt is so impressed that he does go "Oh, damn!" three times.
- Say My Name: Jake tells Phillip to say Dr. Tupper's name in an attempt to break him by effectively making him confront his victim. It... really doesn't work.Jake: Look your dead friend in the eyes, and say his name.
Davidson: Robert.
Jake: ...Okay, maybe say his full name.
Davidson: Robert Tupper.
Jake: His middle name is Henry.
Davidson: Robert Henry Tupper.
Jake: His wife called him "Rob". Work that in.
Davidson: Rob Tupper.
Jake: Work it into the full name.
Davidson: Robert "Rob" Henry Tupper.
Jake: Now say it with a frown on your face.
Davidson: [frowning] Robert "Rob" Henry Tupper.
Jake: Now try not to blink, so tears come into your eyes.
Davidson: [with his eyes as open as possible] Robert "Rob" Henry Tupper.
[Smash Cut of Jake and Holt in the observation room]
Jake: Man, this guy is a good murderer! - Shout-Out:
- The episode is essentially a comedic remake of the Homicide: Life on the Street episode "Three Men & Adena", with the main difference being that the suspect confesses to being guilty. (Well, that, and the fact that he's presumably not a pedophile.)
- The episode opens with Jake preparing the interrogation room to be as uncomfortable as possible in an homage to an episode of Law & Order: SVU. One of the things he does is remove a pad from a chair leg, which is what Eliot Stabler did in the SVU episode.
- Jake asks Captain Holt if the opera he is seeing is the one Bugs Bunny sang. "What's Opera, Doc?" is the 1957 Looney Tunes short which parodied the operas of Richard Wagner, particularly The Ring of the Nibelung (especially Die Walküre), and Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser.
- Jake's been trying out Addams Family-themed rap wedding vows:"I'm Gomez, you're Morticia
I feel so happy when I'm wit'cha."
- Sleep Deprivation: Peralta and Holt interrogate their suspect through the night. Peralta gets the confession in the morning. They go outside to breathe some fresh air. Holt suggests they get some sleep after they talk, and then Boyle greets them — their new shift is just about to start. Both are so pumped by their success that they barely care.
- Smug Snake: Davidson, to a T. He's told outright, from the start, that they think he's the murderer, and he's clearly smart enough to know that he's under no obligation to talk to the police, particularly without a lawyer present. Nonetheless, he spends the whole night answering their questions, for no other reason than to toy with police and prove that he's smart enough that they can't trip him up. Eventually, Jake realizes that using his pride against him is the only solution.
- The Sociopath: Implied to be the case with Davidson. He meticulously planned the perfect crime, and doesn't seem to have a hint of remorse about it. He also clearly gets a kick out of tormenting Jake and Holt.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Holt's tone when apparently confirming that the opera he and Kevin are attending is, in Jake's words, "the one Bugs Bunny did" clearly implies that he's just going along with Jake's Book Dumb nature rather than wasting time correcting him (not least because the cartoon in question wasn't a parody of a single specific opera but of the works of Richard Wagner in general).
- Sympathy for the Devil: Even in the midst of proving that Davidson is the murderer, Jake takes a couple of brief moments to sympathise with him over the addiction that lead to the crime, pointing out that addiction has a significant genetic component so it's (likely) not his fault. The murder definitely is, though.
- Third Act Stupidity: Davidson has been ahead of the cops at every turn, but snaps and rattles off how he killed the victim just because Peralta spun a story about how he did it, but was bumbling and got lucky at every turn (bruising his ego).
- Too Clever by Half: Davidson's intelligence and meticulousness allowed him to commit a very well-planned murder, leaving no real evidence, and makes him almost impenetrable to interrogation. But these same qualities work against him, because he's proud of how carefully he arranged everything and wants to be recognized for it. The suggestion that he was sloppy causes him to lose control.
- Torment by Annoyance: Once again, Jake breaks out the ol' guitar and shrieking bit to try and get the perp to talk. And once again, it doesn't work. At least it was in tune this time.
- Underestimating Badassery: Davidson clearly doesn't think much of Peralta, which comes back to bite him. Holt falls into this trap a bit as well; he causes offence to Jake when he naturally positions Jake as the "dumb" cop so that he can play the "smart" cop in a way that implies he thinks little of Jake's actual intelligence.
- Villainous Breakdown: Davidson gets one triggered by Jake pretending to assume that he was sloppy.
