Charges and Specs is the first season finale of Brooklyn Nine Nine.
Jake Peralta gets fired from the the NYPD. Sort of.
While investigating a community leader's potential corruption, he's warned off the case by New York's (also corrupt) police commissioner. In refusing to stop investigating, he earns himself a suspension and a disciplinary hearing. When all else fails, Holt orders him to act out and get himself fired for good, and implores Jake to trust him. He does.
After Jake's firing, he's approached by Holt and representatives of the FBI, and told that - now the NYPD leadership have no power over him - his investigative skills are required by the FBI.
Tropes present in this episode:
- Bait-and-Switch: When Rosa and Charles bemoan the state of their love lives, one might think the show's going with the Dogged Nice Guy trope after all. Nope...
- Bedmate Reveal: Charles and Gina wake up together at the end of the episode. Both scream in horror.
- Book Ends: The Pilot starts with Jake quoting Donnie Brasco, the season ends with Jake going undercover to infiltrate The Mafia...just like Donnie Brasco.
- Breakup Bonfire: Rosa recommends burning his ex-fiancée's stuff to Charles, after his painful breakup with Vivian. However, Boyle gets second thoughts and starts trying to pull stuff out of the can, then tries to douse his hands in Rosa's drink, which happens to be hot coffee.
- Call-Back:
- Commissioner Poldolski returns, and apparently still resents Peralta for arresting his son.
- The Santiago's sex tape joke gets referenced again in this episode.
- Continuity Nod: Jenny Gildenhorn's dress looks suspiciously like Santiago's dress from "The Bet".
- Deep Cover Agent: The reason why Peralta had to get fired from the NYPD. He goes undercover to infiltrate in the mafia.
- Drowning My Sorrows:
- Jake in the cold open is mighty drunk. It appears he tries to drink away his sorrows after being fired from NYPD and as if he's trying rather to hard to look cheerful.
- One of the last things that Rosa recommends to Charles for dealing with Vivian's break-up with him is alcohol.Rosa: That's it. Boyle, no more eggs. You are drinking your troubles away.
Terry: Start with this. [hands him a glass] I'm gonna get some bottles from the bar.
- Firing Day: This episode opens with Jake Peralta walking into a bar, buying everybody a round of drinks, and explaining that he was just fired from the NYPD. The rest of the episode shows his ever-worsening relationship with NYPD brass that leads up to his disciplinary hearing. The final scene reveals that the entire first scene was a performance, as Jake is infiltrating the Mafia and needed to be publicly separated from the NYPD.
- Foreshadowing: The Bedmate Reveal at the end doesn't come completely out of nowhere: Gina's the one who keeps suggesting Charles have some rebound sex to get over his breakup.
- Hidden Depths:
- Both Peralta and Holt are shown to be pretty good ballroom dancers. Especially Holt.
- We find out Terry can speak Japanese.
- Holding the Floor: During Peralta's hearing, the rest of the Nine Nine drag out their testimonies as long as possible, to give Peralta time to find evidence that could indict Wint and therefore save himself. Boyle keeps derailing his testimony to talk about Vivian, Rosa puts awkwardly long pauses between every individual word, and Gina just confuses everyone at the hearing with her new habit of verbal emojis.
- How We Got Here: The cold open is Jake announcing his getting fired, and then the episode shows us exactly how that happened.
- I Can't Dance: In stark contrast to Holt and Jake's prowess, Amy is quite terrible.Jake: How did you manage to step on both of my feet at the same time?
- Love Confession: Jake Peralta's declaration to Amy Santiago. It's a sad one because he knows she dates someone else, but he goes undercover and wants her to know how he feels. They can't be in touch and he might never see her again.
- Turn in Your Badge: Invoked and subverted. When Holt puts him on leave, he takes off his gun and badge and slams them on Holt's desk.Jake: Fine. Here's my gun and my badge.Holt: I don't need those, you're not suspended yet, you're on administrative leave.Jake: [taking them and storming out] You never let me do anything cool!
- We Need a Distraction: Said verbatim by Jake when they can't get past a security guard to get upstairs at the ballroom competition. Amy then provides said distraction by faking an ankle injury on the dance floor.
- Wham Episode: Jake admits to Amy that he has feelings for her.
- Wham Line:
- "I'm Jake Peralta and I just got fired from the NYPD."
- "I dunno what's gonna happen on this assignment, and if something bad goes down I think I'd be pissed at myself if I didn't say this. I kinda wish something could happen between us. Romantic-stylez."
- Whole Episode Flashback: Well, most of the episode was told through flashbacks.
