It’s Christmas Eve and Lieutenant Duke DeTain is the only cop on patrol without a partner.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia: Frankie Lupelli is afraid of ghosts...and astronomers. So naturally, Duke dresses up as the ghost of an astronomer to scare him.Duke: Boooo! I know a lot about planets!
- Alone Among the Couples: Lt. DeTain is the only one on the squad who doesn’t have a partner for the night shift and he sits alone as the rest of the couples, both romantic and professional, all volunteer to work together.
- Then as he’s driving through the city, everywhere he looks he seems to be mocked for being alone.
- Badass Santa: Santa is able to hold his own quite well as Duke’s partner in crime-fighting.
- Bait-and-Switch Comparison: Daisy Kaboom is at the whipped cream factory to steal Little Hubert’s Secret Ingredients - “Explode-a-Boom-Boom-Oxide”, which is a light vanilla flavoring and “Vanilla Safetium”, which is highly explosive.
- Brick Joke: When Duke arrests Santa at the beginning of the episode, he says that it’s like trying to get his arms around “a bowl full of jelly”. Then at the end of the episode, Santa tells Duke that his driving scares the “jelly” out of him.
- Car Hood Sliding: Santa does this on Duke’s cop car at the end of the episode.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Twirly Hat 2.0 for Billy that is Santa’s last gift to deliver ends up being what he uses to save Duke and get rid of the whipped cream ingredient bomb later in the episode.
- Christmas Episode: The thing Duke wants most for Christmas is a partner, but little does he know that Santa himself will step into that role on Christmas Eve.
- Christmas Miracle: When the canister Daisy stole from Little Hubert’s factory blows up, it erupts into a Christmas tree-shaped firework. Duke asks Santa how he did that, but Santa tells him he had nothing to do with it.Santa: Honestly, I’m a little freaked out.
- Companion Cube: Duke treats his teddy bear, Cubby the Cop, like his partner - talking to him and even strapping him into the passenger seat.
- Crazy-Prepared: Lt. DeTain carries 27 pairs of handcuffs with him at all times.
- Drives Like Crazy: Duke, as usual.Santa: I soar thousands of feet in the air in a sled being pulled by magic flying quadrupeds, but your driving scares the jelly out of me!
- Faint in Shock: Frankie Lupelli does this when he sees Santa.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Vito tricks Little Hubert into telling them his passcode to the vault by playing on his rivalry with Big Hubert and Medium-Sized Hubert. Little Hubert then tries to backpedal while saying “I mean, ‘I’ll never tell you!’”
- Invisible Subtle Difference: When they finally get into the vault, Vito wonders how they’ll tell the two ingredients apart because the vault is stacked high with identical canisters with smiling faces on the front. However, Daisy insists that they’re obviously different.Daisy: Half have a happy smiley face for those who like light vanilla flavoring, and half have a more nuanced sinister smiley face for those who like blowin’ things up!
- Not in Front of the Kid: While Duke is chastising the man he thinks was breaking into a house for committing crimes dressed as Santa, he points out that the kids are watching. However, when they look up at the window, no one’s there because all of the children are asleep and waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.
- Parking Problems: Santa’s sleigh gets towed when he parks it on a restricted side street.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Little Hubert’s code to open the vault is “1”.Daisy: 1? Your vault code’s 1?! Not much of a code is it?
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Little Hubert says as much when he’s being interrogated by Daisy Kaboom.Little Hubert: I’m Little Hubert! Why don’t you pick on a Hubert your own size!
- Pun-Based Title: A play on “Feliz Navidad”.
- Relocating the Explosion: Santa attaches the souped up twirly hat to the canister of “Vanilla Safetium” to send it up into the sky right before it explodes.
- Schmuck Bait: When Santa opens his bag and tells Vito and Daisy that he has something much better for them inside, Vito rushes over and sticks his hands in, only to pull them out handcuffed together.Vito: Aw, I was hopin’ for a waffle iron!
- Something Only They Would Say: Santa proves to Duke that he’s the real Santa Claus by quoting the letter he sent him the year before.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Mayor Fleck looks out his high rise window to see Duke dangling off a helicopter while holding onto a can of explosives, followed by Santa chasing after them using a twirly hat to fly. It doesn’t seem to phase him much though, as all he has to say is “Hmm. That’s odd.” Although he is a Mayor that constantly wears a corn suit, so it probably takes a bit more than that to surprise him.
- Win-Win Ending: Duke and Santa win by preventing Daisy from using explosives to break her partner out of prison. However, when they arrest her, things end up working out pretty well for Daisy too because she’ll get to spend Christmas in jail…with her partner!Daisy: It’s a win-win!
