"Serve & Protect" is the fourteenth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season.
The Nine-Nine is on edge because, after being audited by Amy's vindictive ex-boyfriend, they're now being audited by Terry's extremely vindictive ex-girlfriend.
Rosa is convinced that the precinct will close and is lashing out because she's afraid that it will also mean the end of all her friendships. Wanting to help calm his friend, Jake snags a stolen property case that occurred on the set of Serve & Protect, a Law Procedural and the detectives' favorite show. Unfortunately, their investigation is hampered by an executive producer who clearly doesn't want them there and the mad antics of Mark Devereaux (Nathan Fillion), the show's star who's been playing a cop for so long that he can't drop character.
Back at the precinct, Charles becomes so desperate to save the Nine-Nine that he decides to be proactive for once and convinces Holt to try and suck up to the deputy commissioner who will make the ultimate decision regarding precinct closures. As the two prepare to do so, however, a juicy tidbit falls into their laps and they hastily try to rework their plan in order to take advantage.
Amy and Gina team up to try and figure out why Lieutenant Hopkins is so angry at Terry and lock him in the interrogation room until they get to the bottom of things.
This episode provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Where Nathan Fillion goes, Firefly references follow. In this case, the use of blue latex gloves is a plot point, as in "Two by two/Hands of blue". Fillion also played a similar part as the titular Richard Castle on the tv series Castle. In this case, a novelist rather than an actor, assisting actual NYPD officer Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) solve murders.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Terry regrets cutting ties with all his and Veronica's mutual friends, especially Tommy because "Tommy turned Terry on to tennis."
- Becoming the Mask: Mark Devereaux has been playing a cop for 15 years and now thinks he can do the job just as well as professional detectives.
- Better than a Bare Bulb: The episode hangs a lampshade on its own tropes.
- Blatant Lies: When Jake becomes convinced the producer, Gary Lurmax, is behind the theft, he tells him that Serve & Protect sucks, and that he has watched over two hundred episodes of it and hasn't liked any of them.
- Bottomless Magazines: At the end of the Serve & Protect episode in the stinger, "Jake Peralta" gets at least a hundred bullets fired into him from one cop's gun without the need for reloading.
- Call-Back: Amy getting upset over yogurt getting into the interrogation room's grouting is a call back to "Det. Dave Majors", when she gets preoccupied with a crime scene photo that showed blood staining some grouting.
- Comically Missing the Point: Jake is elated that the producers of Serve & Protect use his name... even when the character they use it for is a cannibal, a serial killer and the self-described "grossest pervert in the world".
- Edgy Backwards Chair-Sitting:
- Mark Devereaux is an actor who plays Detective Cole Tracker on a show Serve & Protect. He's a crazy-ish actor who acts like his character all the time. He sits backwards on a chair when he "interrogates" a production assistant on the set in front of real detectives.
- Jake turns around a chair when he interrogates Mark Devereaux in the precinct. It's Mark's character's shtick and Jake wants to throw him off balance a bit. And he loves reenacting scenes from movies and TV shows. Rosa joins Jake in the fun and also sits backwards, while Mark only mumbles "a double Tracker".Mark Devereaux: That's my move!
Jake: Oh, I'm aware.
- Eyebrow Waggle: Instead of blackmailing the deputy commissioner about his affair, Charles tells Holt to make him think that they will, and suggests that Holt waggle his eyebrows in an insinuating manner. Unfortunately, Holt never quite grasps the concept, and the commissioner just thinks he's got a facial tic.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: While Amy tries to get Terry to remember what he did to Veronica, Gina tags along and plays bad cop, which is completely unnecessary and counterproductive.
- Hates Being Touched: Rosa vents to Jake about the precinct getting shut down. She's feeling despondent about the idea of having to "meet a whole new group of people", and the idea that they "won't be friends any more." Jake assures her:Jake: Rosa, we will never not be friends.
Rosa: Thanks, man. Get your hand off me.
Jake: Yep. Forgot the Rosa rule. No touchy. - Innocently Insensitive: Terry ended up hurting Veronica a great deal with their breakup. He stayed with her for another 12-18 months after her mother died, because he didn't want to cause additional heartbreak. When they broke up and he gave her a present to commemorate their time together, he forgot to remove the receipt.
- Insult Backfire: After Jake accuses the producer of stealing the laptop, he retaliates by creating a fictional villain who is "the grossest pervert in the world", naming him Jake Peralta, and having him die a painful death by Bottomless Magazines. Jake was just thrilled to have his name used on a TV show.
- Know When to Fold Them: When confronted with accusations that he's the one who stole Cassie's laptop, Mark dramatically challenges Jake and Rosa to provide some proof:Mark: Ridiculous. I've never been more insulted in my life. [Standing up, getting increasingly dramatic] Your theory is outrageous, and what's more it's just a theory. I dunno how cops around here do things, but where I come we're burdened with a little thing we like to call evidence, of which you don't have a shred.
Rosa: [Drops an evidence bag on the table] We found Cassie's laptop in the trunk of your car.
Mark: [Instant capitulation] I stand corrected. Yeah. You got me. I did it. Good job. - Lost in Character: Mark at first appears to actually believe he's his detective character and constantly gets in Jake and Rosa's way trying to "solve" the case with them. Turns out this is a ruse to detract attention from him as the real culprit.
- Oh, Crap!: Terry when he realizes Veronica knew he'd wanted to break up with her way before he actually did it.
- Perp Sweating: Poor Terry gets thrown into the interrogation room and is put through the wringer by Amy and Gina playing Good Cop/Bad Cop.
- Red Herring: Rosa suspects the executive producer of stealing the laptop, and accuses Jake of falling for his flattery. They find security footage of him entering the lead actress' trailer, but when they confront him, it turns out he went there to take away some pills she had been abusing. The real culprit is the male lead Mark, who earlier mishandled the bag the laptop was in to throw off suspicion.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Terry finally apologizes to officer Hopkins. She forgives him, but by then she had already sent the report, and it was not good.
- Stylistic Suck: From what little we see of Serve & Protect it is... not great television.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Serve & Protect character based on Jake ends up getting shot at least a hundred times for several seconds straight with a gun using Bottomless Magazines.
- Tuckerization: Invoked with Jake asking the producer of Serve & Protect to name a character after him. In the end, the writers name a criminal after him, a cannibalistic serial killer and self-proclaimed "grossest pervert in the world", who then gets a ridiculously gory death scene. Jake is delighted nonetheless.
- Writers Suck: The writers of Serve & Protect are described as being so socially stunted that they can't hold a conversation for more than a few words at a time. Though we really only have the producer's word on this, and we don't get to see it ourselves.
