Paranoia is the twentieth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's third season.
Rosa and Pimento got engaged, in the midst of a foot chase, no less, and drop the bombshell on a shocked detective squad. Terry makes it abundantly clear that he does not approve of Rosa rushing into marriage with someone as unstable as Pimento.
Jake becomes Pimento's best man and, in addition to putting together the bachelor party, is tasked by Rosa to change Terry's mind about objecting to her wedding. Although Jake tries his best to reassure Terry that Pimento has dramatically improved since coming back to the Nine-Nine, Pimento goes off and drops an even bigger bombshell: someone is trying to kill him!
Meanwhile, Charles, Amy, and Gina become Rosa's co-maids of honor and compete to see which one of them can put together the best bachelorette party and impress their normally stoic co-worker.
This episode provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: The hitman is surprisingly polite and cooperative once he's been caught.
- Bait-and-Switch: Gina, Amy, and Boyle's party ideas all initially seem lame until they explain further:
- Gina's idea is to go to her teenage nephew's birthday party... which is a paintball party. Meaning they get to shoot a bunch of teenagers.
- Amy's idea is a quiz game where you drink if you get a question wrong. The twist is that the questions are all about Rosa, so everyone is going to lose.
- One of the questions has Gina, Amy and Boyle write down various fighting moves in response to "What was Rosa's first word", and we only hear the question after they give their answers (correct answer was Dada.)
- Boyle's idea is to go to a restaurant that only serves small intestines... which shut down (because it only served small intestines) and demolish the place.
- Best Woman: Charles is named maid of honor for Rosa's wedding, which he gladly accepts.Charles: It would be an honor! Oh my god... that's why they call it that.
- Big Brother Instinct: Terry vehemently opposes Rosa's engagement to Pimento because he believes Pimento's too unstable and will only hurt Rosa.
- Black Comedy: Adrian's subplot.
- Cassandra Truth: Terry initially refuses to believe that Pimento is being targeted by a hitman because Pimento is normally paranoid and spouting nonsense.
- Dresses the Same: Jake meets with the man who ordered the hit on Pimento and they joke that they came wearing matching ski masks.
- Drinking Game: Amy's party idea is a The Dating Game-type quiz about Rosa, where they have to take a drink for every incorrect answer. Needless to say, everyone is wasted by the end.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Boyle doesn't seem overly bothered by the fact that a restaurant which only served small intestines to the customers is closing down.
- Faking the Dead: Jake takes a photo of Pimento pretending to be dead to fool the man targeting him and be able to track him down. Later, Pimento decides to leave the force for good, taking advantage of the fact that his enemies now think he's dead.
- Foreign Queasine: Charles takes Rosa to Le Petit Colon, a restaurant that only serves intestines. Everyone else finds it repulsive... so it's no surprise that it was closed weeks ago and they are there to help tear it down. Charles helps himself to some leftover tripe as the girls go wild on the furnishings.
- Hidden Depths: Rosa's well-hidden desire to find a meaningful romantic relationship drives the plot of this episode and, surprisingly, is what gives this episode its emotional heft.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: The hitman sent after Adrian's, apparently. Once he's been caught, he sits there quietly and politely, and answers Jake's questions with no hassle. Jake notes that he didn't expect a professional killer to be so cooperative.
- Meaningful Background Event: at the end of the episode, when the team is meeting to decide what to do about Figgis, Rosa, who, throughout the episode, only wanted Terry to recognise that Adrian is a good man for her, has a real genuine - albeit very sad - smile when she hears:Terry: Pimento is a good man, and he's one of us, so let's catch these bastards for him - and Rosa.
- Mood Whiplash: The episode turns darker when they find Adrian's hitman.
- No Dead Body Poops: Discussed when the team is faking a picture of the dead Pimento. Pimento asks to have water poured on his crotch to make it seem that he relieved himself upon death. The others find it gross and decide to just shoot him from above the waist.
- Paintball Episode: Gina's idea for a bachelorette party is to take Rosa and the others to her nephew's birthday party and beat him and his friends at paintball.
- Properly Paranoid: Turns out someone is trying to kill Pimento after all.
- Rule of Three:
- Rosa and Pimento saying yeah when the squad questions them on their engagement.
- The first time.
Terry: Engaged engaged?
Pimento: Yeah.- The second time.
Amy: As in, to be wed?
Rosa: Yeah.- The third time.
Terry: Seriously?
Together: Yeah!- Jake taking people off the party bus to talk to them privately:
- The first time is for Jake to tell Terry to give Pimento the benefit of the doubt and at least allow him to argue his case to them.
- The second time is for Jake to tell Pimento that if he wants the squad to trust him, he needs to dial down the confrontational paranoia and explain things calmly and rationally.
- The third time, before Pimento can calmly and rationally explain things, Scully asks he and Hitchcock can see Jake privately outside, leading to this:
Jake: What?
Scully: I dunno. Everyone else got to go outside.
Jake: Get back on the bus! - Rosa and Pimento saying yeah when the squad questions them on their engagement.
- Stag Party: Both storylines.
- Jake plans a classy bachelor party for Pimento, consisting of a party bus and a steak dinner, but no strippers (to Hitchcock and Scully's disappointment). It all goes horribly wrong when Pimento thinks someone is trying to kill him, and then turns out to be correct.
- Rosa's maids of honor (Amy, Gina and Charles) can't agree on a bachelorette party theme, so they just do all three of their ideas. Gina's is to crash her nephew's paintball birthday party, Amy's is a quiz game with a drinking component, and Charles' is to demolish an abandoned restaurant. Rosa chooses Charles' party as the best.
- Take Our Word for It: Once Pimento decides to fake his own death to get the mob off his back, he whispers to Jake to pass a message for Rosa. We don't hear it, but Jake's cringing faces and calling it 'graphic' has us believe it's something too disgusting to say out loud. Knowing Pimento, it's probably best that it remain under wraps.
- Walking Armory: Pimento pulls out enough weapons to arm five people out of his pants.
- Wham Shot: Jake tailing the man who put the hit on Pimento and discovering that he works for the FBI.
- Written-In Absence: Holt is said to be off at a conference and only makes a very brief appearance in the stinger.Holt: Sounds like I missed a hell of a week.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Pimento is initially this when trying to explain that he believes someone is hunting him, to the point of wildly accusing Terry of being in on it. Ultimately subverted, however, as Jake takes him aside and tells him that if he wants anyone to believe him, he needs to offer some facts and calmly explain his case. Pimento actually takes the advice on board and is a lot more reasonable from that point on. He also admits once the truth has been revealed that he would have had a hard time believing him as well had he been in their place.
