"Cinco De Mayo" is the sixteenth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's sixth season.
After last year's Halloween Heist was postponed due to a pipe explosion, the Nine-Nine decides to hold it on Cinco De Mayo, to calm Terry's nerves before he takes the Lieutenant's exam. The result: even more elaborate schemes and betrayals than usual.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Always Identical Twins: Scully has an identical twin brother named Earl, with the only difference being Earl wears glasses.
- Bait-and-Switch: Everyone attempts this at some point.
- As usual for a heist episode, everyone ends up with the bracelet at one point or another. Unusual for this episode is that Kevin ends up with the bracelet at some point, leading the audience to believe that someone outside the 99 will win the heist for the first time in the history of the show. The audience is baited AGAIN when it's revealed that Terry is the winner for this year's heist, with him even accounting for Kevin's involvement this year.
- Batman Gambit: Everyone has a gambit, but they're all outdone by Terry's Xanatos Gambit.
- Big Eater: Terry says that he's been stress eating due to his upcoming exam and is later seen digging into a huge bowl of hard-boiled egg yolks.
- Those are his his stress-eating eggs. He also has another bowl of snack eggs.
- Birds of a Feather: Jake and Amy truly are meant for each other. Both of them thought to put tasers into every gift they got each other that year.
- Bottle Episode: As with every other heist, this one takes place almost entirely within the precinct.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: When Jake announces the heist, he looks to the camera and says "we're still working on the title"
- Brick Joke: Early in the episode it's explained that this year's Halloween heist had been cancelled due to a pipe explosion that the precinct had to deal with - with both Jake AND Holt initially assuming it to be faked and the victims to be actors, but eventually being convinced otherwise. This just seems like the in-universe explanation for the heist episode not being on Halloween this season...until the end where it's revealed that Terry did in fact hire actors and fake the emergency to control when the heist would take place to better suit his plans.
- Bring the Anchor Along: Jake handcuffs Terry to a railing, but he didn't count on Terry tearing out the cage wall the railing was attached to and bringing it with him.
- Call-Back:
- To several Halloween heists, but particularly the last one. Turns out this was intentional by Terry, who wanted to remind Holt, Jake, and Amy about the dispute over who won, to help build up tension.
- After Terry is revealed to be the winner, Jake attempts to fave by claiming he was in on his scheme as his partner, as he did with Amy in in the third heist.
- To "The Bimbo", where Terry, Amy, and Rosa briefly discuss how New York actors are desperate enough to do anything for cheap.
- To "The Slump", where Boyle proudly informs Terry that "some jobs take brains, some jobs take muscles, some jobs take dainty little fingers. Did I ever tell you I had to wear a woman's wedding ring?"
Terry: I can't believe everyone says you're not helpful during the Halloween heist - just because they all think your fingers are too big. - Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: EVERYONE.
- Jake betrays Terry TWICE.
- Although Terry always intended to betray him.
- Holt betrays Amy for Rosa, but tries to justify it by pointing out that he was going to double-cross Rosa, too.
- Rosa backstabs Boyle.
- Jake betrays Terry TWICE.
- Competition Freak: Everyone has this, even Kevin, by the end.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Holt's plan involves Amy pretending to be pregnant to distract Jake. Amy later does this after Jake tazes her (which he only did after she tazed him)
- Easily Forgiven:
- Terry fakes a pipe explosion, but doesn't face any legal consequences.
- The Scully brothers reconcile at the end.
- Though we don't see what happens to him in the end, it's safe to assume Bill got away with faking his own death, which is fraud.
- Et Tu, Cheddar?: "Cheddar! You duplicitous bitch."
- Everyone Has Standards: They all drop what they're doing to get Terry to what they believe to be his Lieutenant's exam, but it's subverted with almost everything else; Amy, out of desperation, lies to Jake about being pregnant, and it turns out they both got each other only gifts with tasers in them that year. Terry goes so far as to fake a pipe explosion, seven months before the Cinco De Mayo heist.
- Evil Twin: Norm Scully regards his twin brother Earl as one because Earl slept with Norm's wife. However, they work things out by the end.
- Faking the Dead: Bill, as part of Boyle's plan.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Terry is seen wearing the fancy suspenders from "The Honeypot," which he was saving for a previous lieutenant exam (which he failed).
- Gambit Pileup: Everyone's gambit ends up crashing into each others', just as Terry had planned.
- Gasshole: The Scully brothers. In an impressive display of unintentional synchronization, they spill their beers and then fart at the exact same moment.
- Heist Episode: This time, whoever has Scully's bracelet at the end of the day wins. Cue elaborate thefts and betrayals.
- Human Mail: Rosa chloroforms Boyle, packs him in a box without air holes, and mails him to Trenton, New Jersey. He escapes by getting the box wet enough to break free (You Don't Want to Know how).
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Jake betrays Terry twice to try and win the heist alone. The second time, Terry rips off the door he was handcuffed to and reveals to everyone how Jake double crossed him. Jake angrily says his betrayal of Terry was all in good fun, but Terry's betrayal really hurts.
- After Jake finds out that Any was lying about her pregnancy, she says that she did it because Jake tased her. Jake points out that she tased him before that too.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Played with.Holt: The only thing you won last heist was a lifetime of mediocre heterosexual intercourse with Jake.Amy: How dare you! No one thinks you won last year.Jake: Wow, really thought that "how dare you" was going to be linked to his mean sex comment, but ok.Amy: Right, sorry. I'll have you know that Jake and I wear each other out every. single. night!Jake: Good lord, overcompensating. You know, maybe we shouldn't talk about this at work.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Earl Scully wears glasses while Norm Scully doesn't.
- It's All About Me: As usual, everyone backstabs everyone else to claim the prize themselves.
- Jerkass Realization: Jake pretends to have one after double-crossing Terry, but only so that he can triple-cross him.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Several mentions are made to how the usual Halloween heist wasn't held in 2018. In-Universe, it was because of a gas explosion. In Real Life, it was because Fox cancelled the show and NBC picked it up as a mid-season replacement so no episodes aired in the fall that season.
- Terry asks how no one knew Scully had a twin brother.
- Jake has included in his plan a voice-activated banner specifically to add emphasis for his "gloating recap" once he's the victor.
- Living MacGuffin: Scully volunteers his medical bracelet for the heist. That means he and Hitchcock get locked in a storage closet together (they don't have a problem with this).
- Manipulative Bastard: Everyone, but Terry takes the cake, going so far as to fake a pipe explosion to delay the heist until Cinco De Mayo.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: As part of Jake's plan, Terry disguises himself as the gold Gina statue to get the bracelet hidden in Cheddar's chew toy.
- Not So Above It All: Kevin, who ends up enjoying the heist (and even ends up enjoying it enough to engage in trash talk regarding next year's heist)..
- Only Sane Man: At first it appears Rosa is going to fill this role, but it turns out she secretly teamed up with Boyle, while secretly being teamed up with Holt. Kevin then fills it, until he gets drawn into the heist madness and ends up enjoying it.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Holt concludes that Terry got a concussion because he can't focus his eyes and hasn't referred to himself in the third person.
- Potty Emergency: In the cold open, Amy mentions crapping her pants during her AP Calculus exam due to stress.
- Precious Puppies: Once again, Cheddar plays a large role in the heist and is thoroughly adorable while doing so.
- Properly Paranoid: Jake and Holt assume the pipe explosion which interrupted the originally scheduled Halloween Heist was faked, and proceed to treat the "victims" very poorly. As it turns out, they weren't wrong (but they didn't know it at the time).
- Red Herring: Kevin, who is thought to have stolen the bracelet due to his disdain for Holt's competitive side, until it's revealed that Terry actually has it shortly after. It then turns out Kevin enjoyed participating in the heist.
- The Reveal: There are a lot of them, but the ultimate one is that Terry has already passed his Lieutenant's exam, then kept it secret from everybody. Anything for the heist!
- Running Gag: Several characters notice that the gold-painted Terry looks like the Oscar.
- Self-Deprecation:
- Rosa initially pretends to bail on taking part of the Cinco De Mayo heist because in her view, 5 heists were more than enough and they've thoroughly exhausted its potential.
- Several characters bring up how much more mean spirited everyone becomes with their jokes and schemes during the Heists.
- Serious Business: The Halloween Heist is treated like this, as usual, although it was partially subverted in the last year's postponed heist to deal with a pipe explosion (but only partially, because Jake and Holt [correctly] assumed the "victims" were faking and harassed them for it).
- Sibling Rivalry: Scully and his identical twin brother, Earl. Luckily, it gets resolved by the end.
- Skewed Priorities: Jake and Holt had this during the flashback to the pipe explosion that postponed the originally scheduled heist; they berated the victims and (correctly) assumed they were faking it.
- Sore Loser: In a Call-Back to the previous heist, Holt has gone from claiming that there was no winner, to claiming that he was the true winner in retrospect.
- Take That!: The episode takes a jab at acting schools/method acting with Terry berating an actor he hired for doing a poor job and the actor retorting that the Lee Strasbourg Institute did nothing but take his money.
- Third-Person Person: A Discussed Trope. After Terry's "concussion", Holt says that Terry's failure to refer to himself in the third person is proof that he hasn't recovered yet.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Terry, after being the butt-monkey in previous heist episodes, finally wins this one.
- Too Much Information: When Holt says that Amy didn't win the previous heist and instead got mediocre, boring heteronormative sex with Jake, Amy overcompensates in her rebuttal and claims that she and Jake tire each other out every night.
- What the Hell, Hero?: To Amy, who fakes being pregnant to stop Jake from tazing her. Terry to everyone right after when he points out how their competitiveness has caused so much backstabbing that Jake and Amy haven't bought each other gifts that year that weren't secretly tasers. Though it turns out this was insincere.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
- Not so much an "injury", but still a medical condition; Amy, out of desperation, uses Holt's idea of pretending to be pregnant so Jake wouldn't taze her again.
- Terry fakes a concussion so that the team would take him to his "exam", where he could reveal his victory.
