Return to Skyfire is the eighth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fifth season and follows on from the event of Season 4's "Skyfire Cycle".
DC Parlov, the highly successful author of the Skyfire Cycle has gotten in touch with Terry and Jake, asking them for their help after his laptop containing the manuscript for his latest book is stolen and held for ransom. Terry is ecstatic at getting to meet his favorite author again as is Jake, who became a fan after reading all the books in prison. Roping a reluctant Rosa along, the detectives find that the situation is more complicated as Parlov and rival author Landon Lawson point fingers at each other and other authors of the fantasy genre.
Back at the Nine-Nine, Dr. Ronald Yee visits the precinct to teach a course on forensic science. Holt and Amy hope that by doing well in and earning a certification that they will be able receive a grant and set up a crime lab in the Nine-Nine itself. Unfortunately, they have to deal with Charles and his annoying predilection for telling inane, tangential, stories and their attempts at shutting him up make things go from bad to worse. Hilarity Ensues.
This episode provides examples of:
- Brain Bleach: Jake and Terry find that Parlov's browser history is unsurprisingly "a nightmare".
- Broken Pedestal: Terry's pedestal for Parlov gets broken again, and this time, it affects Jake, too. Downplayed in the end, since even though they now realize Parlov is a total asshole, they still really love his books. (They don't feel too bad about reading the latest manuscript before it's supposed to be released, though.)
- Call-Back: Parlov pulls. He pulls.
- Character Development:
- Jake becoming more open minded. He mentioned in the previous season he started reading Harry Potter, and he has expanded on his newfound reading habit while in prison and became a fan of the Skyfire Cycle. He happily geeks out with Terry while he was previously dismissive of Terry's fanboying.
- Rosa starts out dismissive of the Fantasy Genre. At the end of the episode, she decides to give it a chance after seeing how her normal clothing was a match for a popular character, and she has become a fan of the genre.
- Jake points out that Terry has become a better cop and detective over his years on the force, and he is sure he'll become a better writer. Additionally, Terry doesn't let the fact that he's a fanboy stop him from realizing Parlov committed a crime.
- Captain Holt originally is focused on the getting the license, but he realizes that Charles' well-being is far more important.
- Converted Fanboy: During his time in prison, Jake read all the Skyfire books, and wound up loving them as much as Terry does. Rosa also warms to the fantasy genre after reading a steampunk novel with a cool heroine.Rosa: This heroine is my heroin.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Challenged to give Terry's novel a genuine compliment, all Jake can think of is that he liked the map (for which Terry used a map of the Chesapeake Bay and just slightly changed the names) and "the spaces between the words".Jake: That's not helpful.
- Did Not Think This Through: Tired of listening to him speak, Holt and Amy hastily slather Charles' face in plaster, neglecting to lubricate his face first, resulting in their having to hide him away in a storage closet to try and keep their mistake away from Dr. Yee.
- Fan Convention: Most of the A-Plot takes place at LegendCon, where Parlov and Lawson are participating in a panel.
- Hidden Depths: Jake, whose cultural tastes lean more towards The Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has apparently read Cujo.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Jake and Terry scoff that fiction is for nerds, not for cool cops like them. Ten seconds later, the two lock arms and skip out of the precinct while singing the elven hunting song from the Skyfire cycle.
- Informed Attribute: Jake and Terry say that the son of the married woman Parlov slept with looks exactly like Parlov. The resemblance isn't really that strong.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Parlov seems to be being genuinely nice to Terry and Jake this time around, but he's still a slimy, smug jerk. And now we have the added "bonus" of him being a slimy, smug, crime-committing jerk.
- Jerkass: Landon Lawson has all of Parlov's character flaws and is even colluding with him on the crime, but doesn't bother pretending to be anything close to a nice guy.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Jake and Terry are over the moon that they have another investigation involving DC Parlov.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: After discovering that Parlov and Lawson both slept with another author's wife (and accidentally ruining that marriage in the process, as said author had been unaware of this), Jake and Terry uncomfortably note that the author's kid looks nothing like him.Jake: Ooh! That was a rough 70 minutes.
Terry: Yeah, buuuuuu...
Jake: That kid looked exactly like Parlov?
Terry: 100 percent!
Together: Eugh! - Not So Above It All: In the end, Rosa finds herself admitting that Fantasy is actually a pretty good genre and buries herself in a book.
- Oh, Crap!: Holt and Amy's shared reaction when they realize that they majorly screwed up by not applying lubrication before burying Charles' head in plaster.
- Saying Too Much: Jake ends up giving away that he didn't like Terry's book by making a reference to it without thinking.
- Sequel Episode: To last season's "Skyfire Cycle".
- Serious Business: Parlov and Lawson spent an hour arguing about how to pronounce Smaug's name. Jake admits that Lawson got it right.
- Steampunk: The genre is referenced when Rosa, needing a costume for the convention, is informed that her usual attire is a dead ringer for every female bounty hunter in any given steampunk novel; all she needs are welding goggles (which she has in her car). Rosa's "costume" gets her some approving nods from some identically-dressed fans, and the resemblance to such characters convinces her to start reading a steampunk novel, which she quickly falls in love with.
- Take Our Word for It: Terry's apparently awful writing is never shown to the audience, but it only takes reading a single sentence to convince Rosa that no one could honestly claim to like it.
- Take That!: Rosa dryly notes how the panel on "Diversity in Fantasy" is made up entirely of white men.Rosa: Real diverse diversity panel.
- Terrible Artist: While Terry is a legitimately talented artist, as a writer, he's apparently terrible; Jake considers his book to be the worst thing he's ever read and is instantly convinced of Parlov's guilt when the author claims that he liked it. After reading a single sentence of Terry's book, Rosa immediately agrees with Jake. Despite this, Jake encourages Terry to keep at it so he can get better, especially since he clearly enjoys it.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In his prior appearance, Parlov was only guilty of having sex with women who were in relationships and lying to Terry about remembering his childhood fan-mail (for a very understandable reason). This time, he's actually committing a crime and manipulating the cops.
