Casecation is the twelfth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's sixth season.
Jake is assigned to watch over a mobster who got shot and is in a coma, hoping that when he wakes up he'll be willing to talk. Because he and Amy haven't gotten to spend much time together in a while, Jake invites her to spend their anniversary in the hospital. Their date is interrupted by an elderly lady named Pam, who becomes invested in their relationship. However, after talking, they realize that Amy wants kids, while Jake is hesitant. Amy decides to solve the problem by having a debate (moderated by Captain Holt). During their debate, Jake reveals that the real reason he's unwilling to have children his due to his horrible father, and his fear that he'll repeat his father's mistakes. Terry and Rosa then arrive to provide backup, and they split into teams, where Terry and Rosa reaffirm Jake and Amy's positions, respectively. After a mobster arrives, appearing to be headed to the victim to finish the job, they take him down, but Jake realizes he was a decoy and goes into the victim's room, where he discovers that Pam is the actual assassin, having been offered money by the mob to take care of her granddaughter, in exchange for detonating a bomb in the same room as her and the victim. Jake uses Amy's debate strategy to talk her down, and in the process, realizes that he does want to have children.
This episode contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: Pam, who despite nearly killing a potential witness (for money for her granddaughter), herself, and Jake, is nothing but nice to Jake and Amy throughout their interactions, and even offers to let Jake leave the room before she detonates the bomb.
- Bait-and-Switch: Rosa and Terry are brought in to weigh in on the argument over Jake and Amy having kids someday. Surprisingly, it's the incredibly emotionally-closed-off Rosa who supports Amy's argument that they should have kids, while family man Terry plants himself firmly in Jake's anti-kid camp.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Jake and Amy both make fairly good arguments as to their position on having kids.
- Bottle Episode: Takes place entirely in a hospital (mostly in one room), aside from one cut to Holt's office.
- Brick Joke: early in the episode, long before the "devastatingly sad conversation" about having children, Santiago points out that "the Bumblebee movie", a film Peralta wants to see, is a kids' movie. Peralta retorts that it's "for teens." Later in the episode, when Jeffords explains that, as a father, he never gets to watch anything that isn't a kids' movie, Peralta is disgusted:Jake: I don't want to watch kids' movies. I want to watch movies for adults... adults and teens!
- Call-Back: Jake, after securing the bomb, uses the same joke Amy said in her vows ("Your butt is da bomb").
- Chekhov's Gunman: Pam, who ends up being the mob assassin.
- Competition Freak: Amy and Jake even decide to turn the decision about having kids into a competition (in the form of a debate).
- "Eureka!" Moment: Jake remembers Terry's story about one of his girls distracting him while the other steals from the cookie jar and realises the criminals are doing the same thing. Terry himself is confused when he uses this metaphor.
- Evil Old Folks: Pam, who almost goes through with detonating a bomb, which would kill her and the patient.
- Forced into Evil: Pam was basically tricked into triggering the bomb, being told that her granddaughter will get money if she does.
- Freudian Excuse: Jake claims he doesn't want to be a father because of how awful his father was.
- Gilligan Cut: Rosa assures Amy that Terry is the right guy to convince Jake into wanting kids. Cut to Terry telling him "DO! NOT! DO! IT!"
- Hidden Depths: Rosa surprisingly thinks it's screwed up that Jake doesn't want kids.
- Hypocrite: Amy calls out Jake's opening statement because it is lacking in evidence and is an appeal to emotion and Holt agrees so point to Amy. Amy's opening statement pretty much uses the same fallacy, giving no evidence and appealing to his emotions and... it's a point to Amy.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Amy was perfectly willing to put the conversation off until a later date. Later on in the episode, however she gives Jake an ultimatum to decide on whether he wants kids. However, she does bring up a good point that women are on a ticking clock and it would be unfair to her if she waits two years, only to have Jake be certain that he doesn't want kids.
- Innocent Innuendo: Amy has one in the very first line of the episode.Amy: Hey, what's up? I came as fast as I could.
Jake: Title of your sex tape! - Know When to Fold 'Em: Jake at first tries to go along with Amy's debate idea for deciding whether to have children, but when it becomes clear he can't beat her using logic he just tells her this is a stupid way to decide and opens up about his worries about not being a good father.
- Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: While staking out a hospital room, Amy (Cuban) and Jake (white Jewish) reveal to an older woman that they are thinking about having kids. She remarks that mixed babies are the cutest, to Jake and Amy's slight discomfort.
- Nausea Fuel: In-Universe. Pam tells Jake and Amy that if there's a... leak from her bagnote , they'll know.
- Noodle Incident: Jake and Amy's top fives of their first year of marriage.
- Not So Above It All: Rosa, of all people, is dancing and clapping along with Terry when they enter the hospital room (all the time maintaining a stoic expression, of course).
- Oh, Crap!: Jake, when he realizes Pam is the assassin.Pam: Your jaw just dropped!
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Jake and Amy, in a flashback, discuss the subject of children. Or, Amy does anyway. Jake thinks that she's talking about going to a waterpark.
- Out of Focus: With this being a Jake and Amy episode, the rest of the characters don't appear much, Boyle has a couple of cameos in the first few minutes and is absent for the rest of the episode. Holt has a cameo in the opening scene and is a supporting character in a scene that lasts a few minutes but doesn't appear in any other scene. Also Terry and Rosa are absent in the first half and last quarter. (Except for Terry with a background cameo at the end.)
- Overly Long Gag: Jake and Amy's debate goes through a string of moderators over the phone (each pedantically introducing themselves and giving out their official registration number) as each finds themselves having a conflict of interest with the two sides.
- Precision F-Strike: Rosa and Amy.Rosa: It's *bleep*ed up.
Amy: Aww! It is *bleep*ed up. - Serious Business: Holt towards moderating Amy and Jake's debate. When he feels he cannot be impartial, he has his husband Kevin on the phone, who is also a professional moderator. And he in turn has another moderator on line. Who also has the head moderator on his phone. When Jake dismisses debate out of frustration they're all terribly offended and he gets reported and has to pay a fine to the local Debater's Guild.
- Shout-Out: Several characters sing a rewritten version of The Go-Go's' "Vacation" as a Title Drop.
- Skewed Priorities:
- Jake and Amy, while discussing whether or not to have kids, also discuss planning to go to a water park simultaneously.
- Also, Jake assuming Amy was talking about a water park (as opposed to kids) in the first place.
- Too Much Information: Pam describes her bowel movements in great detail, squicking out Jake and Amy.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Amy and Rosa towards Jake, for not wanting to have kids.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Pam uses her "twisted bowel" to gain sympathy from Jake and Amy, and lower their guard so that she can kill the victim, however, the trope it ultimately subverted because Pam does indeed have a twisted bowel; however that doesn't stop her from nearly going through with it.
