"Suicide Squad" is the eighteenth and final episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's sixth season. It aired back-to-back with "Sicko" as a two-part season finale.
Having learned that Commissioner Kelly is engaging in illegal surveillance, Jake, Amy, Charles, and Holt resolve to take him down. Realizing how desperate the situation is, Jake assembles his very own Suicide Squad: Madeleine Wuntch, Jason Stentley, and the Vulture! Unfortunately, Jake's plan goes awry due to a combination of inflated egos, clashing personalities, and general incompetence.
Holt, not trusting Wuntch, asks Terry and Rosa to tail his rival to make sure that she doesn't try and double cross them. As the two do so, Rosa discovers that Terry is in serious denial over his impending exit from the Nine-Nine and tries to get him to face reality.
This episode provides examples of:
- Answer Cut: When Terry learns that he won't be transferred because of a change in personnel at the Nine-Nine, he asks who got transfered. Cut to Raymond Holt, now a traffic enforcement agent, directing traffic.
- Bittersweet Ending: Kelly is caught red-handed and removed from the NYPD, and Holt got Terry's transfer cancelled, but it's revealed Kelly then got an even better job and faced no serious consequences for his unconstitutional and illegal activities, and Holt is demoted to traffic.
- The Chessmaster: After his first plan to expose Commissioner Kelly blows up, Jake coordinates a second plan with Wuntch in private.
- Comically Missing the Point:The Vulture: Your *bleep* is cooked.Jake: That's not a saying. It's goose.The Vulture: Who cares about a goose? I'm talking about cooking a penis.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Lampshaded many times by Holt as they can't trust the Suicide Squad. Subverted in that all the obvious betrayals and double-crosses, especially Wuntch's, were all, unknown to Holt, according to Jake's plan.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Wuntch might be willing to resort to some dirty tactics in pursuit of her rivalry with Holt, but even she thinks that Kelly conducting illegal surveillance with a Stingray is crossing the line.
- Faked Kidnapping: Jake's plan is to stage a kidnapping, with Stentley as the victim, to get Kelly's attention, and have Wuntch plant a bug on Kelly to catch him in the act. Easier said than done.
- Generic Cop Badges: The Vulture wears a detective badge despite being a captain.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Holt brags to Wuntch that he got promoted to detective in just a month, which according to her isn't legally allowed. This ends up becoming the leverage she needed to demote Holt once she becomes Acting Commissioner.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Because of his frat boy personality, the Vulture doesn't realize that who he claims are his two worst detectives are actually very competent at their jobs.
- CJ still believes the Nine-Nine loves and misses him, while forgetting their past sabotages and ignoring their active contempt.
- Imagine Spot: When planning the fake kidnapping, the scene constantly switches between the characters talking and various versions of how it will go down.
- Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Subverted. It appears that Stentley, Vulture, and Wuntch all screw over the Nine-Nine as expected. Only for Jake to reveal that it was all according to plan.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A rare Triple Subversion. Wunch initially claims to be working to stop Kelly out of genuine moral outrage..and then turns out to be a double agent working for Kelly...and then turns out to be a triple agent working for Jake and still working to take down Kelly...and then turns out to have actually been plotting to get the ability and excuse to demote Holt out of spite.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Wuntch ends up coordinating with Jake in order to get Commissioner Kelly fired and seemingly makes peace with Holt in the process....but then it turns out that while she did want better for the NYPD, she also wanted the Commissioner position for herself and once she gets it her first action is to demote Holt.
- Karma Houdini: Kelly loses his commissioner position; but immediately gets a much higher paid job in the private sector, seemingly facing no real consequences for his unconstitutional actions.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Boyle complains that it's been a full year since he's seen Jake & Amy kiss.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Holt does this twice, both times involving his longtime nemesis Madeline Wuntch. He sets Terry and Rosa to spy on Wuntch, the only competent member of the "Suicide Squad," causing her to Rage Quit. And he brags to Wuntch of having only served a month as a beat cop, which gives her the opportunity and motivation to force him back onto the beat.
- Oh, Crap!: Jake and Amy when CJ bungles on their kidnapping plan.
- Jake when the Vulture busts in arresting him. Subverted though.
- Kelly when figuring he has been Out-Gambitted.
- Quickly-Demoted Leader: Because Holt was promoted to detective much earlier than allowed, Wuntch has him demoted. The final shot of the episode is him directing traffic while "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra plays in the background.
- Rank Up: Wuntch is named Acting Commissioner after Kelly is forced out of his position.
- Selective Obliviousness: Not only is Terry in denial of his possible transfer, he freely admits to being in denial. At the end, the others decide to humor him.
- Self-Serving Memory: Describing his "two worst detectives", the Vulture has them seen as total losers in horrible clothes. When the real duo showed up, they're professional and obviously great cops.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Wuntch lets her hair down for the Policeman's Ball, to the appreciation of all.
- Shout-Out: The Vulture's two "worst" detectives are named Kimble and Gerard.
- Smug Snake: John Kelly is in fine form this episode, lording over Holt and delighting in making the captain suffer.
- Spanner in the Works: The episode is filled with them.
- Holt gets Terry and Rosa to tail Wuntch, only for the two of them to get caught and Wuntch angrily quitting.
- Stentley is too dumb to know what's going on and keeps derailing the plan due to his idiocy.
- The Vulture accidentally puts his two best detectives on Stentley's kidnapping, putting the Suicide Squad at risk of being caught.
- Surrounded by Idiots: In a rare reversal, Jake actually comes up with a rather effective and elaborate plan to expose John Kelly but it gets screwed up through combination of CJ and the Vulture's incompetence and Holt undermining him.
- Too Dumb to Live: CJ believes eating raw chicken is healthier than cooking it.
- Villainous Breakdown: Kelly has an especially satisfying one once it's revealed that Jake and Wuntch have just played him like a violin. His usual Faux Affably Evil smarminess is quickly replaced with fear and confusion, followed by barely-restrained, impotent fury.
- Wham Line:
- Wuntch approaches Kelly and is greeted with: "Right on time, Madeleine! Did Raymond buy it? Did he think you were bonding?"
- And later, Wuntch goads Kelly into gloating to Holt only for her to turn away and announce: "We got it, Peralta!"
- Wham Shot: Raymond Holt, traffic enforcement agent.
- Xanatos Gambit: Wuntch's allegiances shift as she takes advantage of the changing situation for her own purposes.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: After his initial plan falls apart due to a combination of The Vulture's jerkassery, CJ's incompetence, and Holt and Wuntch's rivalry undermining the plan, Jake comes up with a totally new plan on the fly.
