The Puzzle Master is the fifteenth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fifth season.
Amy's sergeant's exam results are in and, to no one's surprise, she passed. Knowing that their time together as colleagues will soon come to an end, Jake presents Amy with one last case they can work on together: a serial arsonist who leaves crossword puzzles behind as clues. And, to make the case even sweeter for Amy, Jake enlists the help of Melvin Stermley, a highly celebrated puzzle master. Surprisingly, it turns out that Vin, as Melvin likes to be called, is an incredibly handsome man who also happens to be a swimsuit model and Jake finds himself jealous at how well Vin gets along with Amy.
Holt, meanwhile, is preparing for the final round of assessments to determine who the next NYPD commissioner will be with Gina's help. All of the preparation goes out the window, however, when one of the three old white male candidates is replaced with Olivia Crawford, a young female captain who is every bit as intelligent as Holt. Holt also finds himself in a position where he can take advantage of the systemic discrimination that had suppressed him for years and questions if he can, in good conscience, use such an ugly tool to further his own career.
Also, Terry requisitions a brand new top-of-the-line cruiser for himself but then has to deal with a jealous Rosa, Hitchcock, and Scully wanting to use the car themselves.
This episode provides examples of:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: After calling out the voting committee for being prejudiced, Holt finishes his verbal smack-down by insulting the crab cakes the biased committee member had been raving about.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: Similar to his realization back in "Full Boyle", Holt gets confronted with the reality that despite his past struggles, he's very much part of the Old Guard and susceptible to wanting to preserve traditions.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Holt uses his speech to reveal that a member of the voting committee told him Crawford was there for PR only and was not actually being considered for the spot.
- Casting Gag: Sam Jepsen, the crossword constructor Vin replaced, is played by New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The loony crossword fan Jake and Amy meet in line turns out to be the arsonist they were after.
- Cup Holders: When Terry shows off the Nine-Nine's new squad car, Hitchcock and Scully mention the "burrito holders".
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Jake is extremely jealous of Vin's easy rapport with Amy but tries hard not to let it show.
- Played for Laughs with Charles at the end who rushes Vin out the minute he suggests he and Jake hang out.
- Insecure Love Interest: Jake admits he's jealous of Vin because he's constantly worried Amy is going to wake up one day and realize what a loser he is, and that she could be with someone as smart as she is, like Vin. When he finally admits his worries to her, she reassures him that she is with someone as smart as she is—for all his eccentricities, Jake is a great detective—and that his intelligence is just one of the many reasons she wants to marry him.
- Loony Fan: The arsonist Helen Gorbelson.
- Mr. Fanservice: Melvin is envy-inducingly good-looking and jacked.
- Red Herring:
- Jake overhears two people talking about another crossword master who is down on his luck and resents Vin, and assumes that he's the arsonist. He tries to tell Amy, but she feels it's best to follow their original plan of deciphering the clues left by the arsonist so they could predict where they'll strike next and catch them. Jake leaves his stakeout post to follow his hunch, which not only leads to a dead end, but also causes him to miss the arsonist when they strike the very building he was staking out.
- Amy and Vin deduce that the arsonist's clues spell out their name, which so far reads MA. When the next letter turns out to be R, Jake realizes that it's not spelling out a name, but the words "marry me", which leads to the crazed female crossword fan he met earlier.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: The female fan Jake and Amy encounter tells them she wants to marry Vin for his "face, body, and brains, and body." Later on Charles tells Jake that he has the right to be jealous of Vin because of his "body, and face, and brain, and body."
- The Tell: Hitchcock and Scully figure out that Terry cheated during the name drawing because surveillance footage show him clenching his buttocks when he takes the first piece of paper.Hitchcock: The butt don't lie.
- Too Kinky to Torture: At the start of the episode Amy, freaking out about possibly getting rejected, twists Jake's hand to stop him opening the letter, he smiles and asks her to do it harder.
- Your Television Hates You: Or rather, Your Crossword Hates You. To enter a club for crossword experts Jake and Amy have to solve anagrams, Amy's is "Meet a brainier stud, A" which she gets and is allowed in leaving Jake with his "Sad, Anus, Loser. I go in".
