The Slaughterhouse is the twentieth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season. It aired back-to-back with "Your Honor".
Jake and Rosa try and fail to bust Billy Ocampo, a diamond fence. In doing so, however, they also inadvertently ruin a months-long sting operation being conducted by a task force headed by Lieutenant Melanie Hawkins, a cop so tough even Captain Holt is intimidated. Trying to make amends, Jake and Rosa go back to Hawkins to help catch Ocampo and find themselves competing for an open slot on Hawkins' team.
Meanwhile, Terry finds himself having to deal with Hitchcock and Scully suddenly becoming worst enemies and loudly, and destructively, disrupting work at the office. Charles joins Terry in trying to solve the problem by using their father instincts.
Also, Holt accidentally loses Amy's prized pen and decides to use it as an opportunity to teach his protégé how to stand up for herself rather than rolling over to avoid ruffling other people's feathers.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch:
- Charles tells a story of how he got Nikolaj and another boy to get along by giving them a puppy puzzle to solve. Terry infers from the story that he should give Hitchcock and Scully a case to solve together, but Charles literally meant giving Hitchcock and Scully a puppy puzzle.
- Gina scolds Charles and Terry for treating Hitchcock and Scully as children. Terry realizes that they should have treated them as adults, but Gina actually meant that they should be treated as animals, and gets them to make up by scolding them like dogs and offering them treats.
- Cliffhanger: Jake goes back to use the bathroom and catches Melanie making a deal with Billy, revealing that she's a dirty cop.
- Commonality Connection: Diaz and Lt. Hawkins bond over their mutual love of motorbikes. Then, Peralta and Lt. Hawkins bond over their mutual love of Die Hard.
- Companion Cube: Amy regards her favorite pen as an actual friend.Gina: That pen is her best friend! I'm not even saying that as an insult. I've heard her say it.
Later
Gina: Amy! Someone lost your pen, Girl!
Amy: Gina! You better be joking. That pen is my best friend! - Dirty Cop: Hawkins turns out to be corrupt and using Ocampo to line her own pockets.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Amy and Holt's discussion about how he can't make her angry sounds a lot like a couple discussing how the man can't give his girlfriend an orgasm.Amy: It was good. Just because I didn't get angry doesn't mean I didn't get anything out of it.Holt: Yeah, but the whole point is for you to get angry. Did you even get close? - Uh What about your last CO? - Could he make you angry? You know what? I don't wanna know.
- Take That!: The show fires a few shots at the Die Hard franchise's diminishing returns with Jake showing off that he's a hardcore fan by owning the "Justin Long one" on Blu-Ray and having watched A Good Day to Die Hard in an empty theater with one other person.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Rosa puts caffeine pills in Jake's water to make him all jittery. She also puts them on the half-and-half milk in the break room, knowing he would drink that instead of coffee.
- Unmanly Secret: Gender-flipped. The normally tough and unflappable Rosa is embarrassed when Jake lets slip that she enjoys romantic comedies, particularly the works of Nancy Meyers, to Lieutenant Hawkins.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Amy is all too willing to let her pen issue go to avoid conflict with Holt. Holt realizes that this isn't healthy behavior and decides to push her into telling him off for losing her pen so she can learn to be more self-assertive. In true Amy fashion, she takes to it with aplomb and then goes a step too far.
