"Debbie" is the fifth episode of Season Seven of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
When cocaine and weapons are stolen from the evidence lock-up, the squad must investigate the Nine-Nine itself.
This episode provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Downplayed example — Jake is uncomfortable when Rosa points out Debbie has a crush on him and when Debbie attempts to kiss him, but it’s due to Jake being Happily Married and to Debbie being wired on cocaine at the time.
- Artistic License – Gun Safety: Exaggerated. After Debbie gets on coke she starts recklessly waving a submachine gun around. During the climax it goes off much to Jake’s discomfort.
- Badass in Distress: Rosa clearly didn't expect that Debbie would be able to knock her out and tie her up. She passes half of the episode bound in a car trunk or to a chair.
- Bad Liar:
- It takes five minutes for the gang to figure out Debbie is the thief given her terrible lying about knowing anything.
- When it's suggested she was working for Nucci, Debbie's attempt to brush it off involves laughing for 40 minutes.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Debbie is clumsy, clearly not the brightest person inside the 99th Precinct, makes several errors during her crime, is easily manipulated by everybody and panics frequently. But when she is on cocaine, she has absolutely no problem overpowering Rosa, Jake, and a crime boss, each in a matter of seconds.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Surprisingly, Debbie is very skilled at hand to hand combat thanks to taking some classes, able to take out Rosa, Jake and Silvio.
- Department of Redundancy Department: When trying to act innocent before they bust her, Debbie tells Jake, "I need you to find whoever did this and kill them... so they’re dead!"
- Exact Eavesdropping: Debbie's call to Silvio Nucci about the drugs and guns she stole was overheard in the ladies room... by Hitchcock, which grosses out everybody else.
- Freudian Excuse: Rosa initially wants to throw the book at Debbie because when she was younger, she broke into several houses and got arrested for it. No one, not even her own parents, helped her out when that happened and it led her to believe that people should be forced to deal with their own mistakes without support.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Jake sympathizes with Debbie after learning about her dad's medical condition, Rosa points out she could have easily gotten the money for the surgery legally and she needs to be punished for breaking the law.
- Gilligan Cut:Rosa: Still feel bad for her (Debbie) now that she's a cokehead?
Jake: She’s not a cokehead, she’s an innocent girl in a stressful situation who did cocaine one time and will probably never do it again.
Debbie: Wooo! Guess who just did more coke! This is my thing now! - Intoxication Ensues: Debbie starts taking coke out of curiosity and her own naïveté and spends most of the episode completely wired.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Jake and Rosa make a pact with each other at the end of the episode to never let it slip that they both got beat up by Debbie.
- Noodle Incident:Rosa: (to Debbie) You know, I was a lot like you.
Margaret: You were holed up with a ton of cocaine and a bunch of guns?
Rosa: That's my business. - One-Word Title
- Shout-Out:
- Debbie shouts "HIYAH" whenever she kicks or karate-chops someone, which Jake compares to Miss Piggy.
- Debbie says she "missed all the signs with [her] cousin, Jared," implying she's related to Jared Fogle of Subway infamy.
- Debbie is compared to Cruella De Vil when she wears a fur coat; she insists she's more like Perdita, the "romantic lead" of the movie.
- Skewed Priorities: Upon learning that she could face 30 years to life if she's caught, Debbie's biggest concern is that she'd miss fifteen Olympics.
- Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Boyle invokes this, claiming that Amy and Holt speed-reading Debbie's diaries will be fruitless because they're going too fast to absorb the information. Zigzagged in that Charles's slower approach does lead him to make the observation that begins the process of tracking Debbie's location; however, Amy and Holt also have zero trouble retaining the information that they read and are subsequently able to provide reams of useful information to pin her down.
- Stimulant Speedtalk: The episode opens with Debbie acting high-strung and asking a bunch of weird questions. Because of her suspicious behavior, everyone in the precinct figures out that it was her almost immediately.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Debbie stole several bricks of cocaine and guns without being stopped, but personality-wise, she’s still bad at lying and naïve enough to talk about her theft without first making sure she's alone in the bathroom. The rest of the Nine-Nine figures out she stole the evidence during the episode’s Cold Open.
- Even though Debbie realized her screw ups and helped the Nine-Nine take down a notorious drug lord, she's still arrested for stealing the cocaine and guns in the first place. Fortunately, Rosa's influence has Debbie in 10 years of prison rather than the 30 years to life that was mentioned.
- Totally Radical: Holt uses "pwned" when told that Amy bested him at speed reading. "I read the entire Urban Dictionary so I could converse with the other uniformed officers. I finished it in 47 minutes."
- Tough Love: Rosa is an advocate of this, being reluctant to help Debbie out of her situation because back when she was in her teens, Rosa's parents didn't support her when she was shipped to Juvie. She later changes her stance when she watches first hand how Debbie's mother, Margaret, berates her, realizing she wished her parents would've been more supportive to her growing up rather than leaving her to fend for herself.
- The Unfavorite: Debbie's mother is very open about being prouder of her brother Derek. Including a subtle joke where it's revealed that her license plate reads "DEREKS MOM".
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Debbie is upset that her mother never supported her and confesses that her actions were partially trying to show her she's not a screw-up.
