The Favor is the eleventh episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fifth season. It aired back-to-back with "Game Night."
Holt is confronted by Seamus Murphy, who now wants to cash in on the marker Holt owes him for the information that was used to get Jake and Rosa out of prison. Murphy's request: permits for a block party. Knowing that the request is cover for a nefarious scheme, Jake and Charles volunteer to infiltrate the Murphy Crime Family to find out the party's true purpose. Their target: Kyle Murphy, Seamus' nephew. Their problem: Kyle is a complete moron who's been locked out of the loop due to his sheer idiocy.
Meanwhile, Amy and Rosa set off to obtain the permits Murphy requested. Unfortunately, they hit a bureaucratic kink when it turns out that one form needs to be approved before a second can be approved but that the second form needs to be approved before the first can be approved. Amy finds herself at a complete loss at the realization that the bureaucracy that she so long admired is actually irreparably broken and Rosa, of all people, has to find a way to get the detective to dig deep and find a solution.
Also, Gina asks for a private space where she can pump milk now that she is back at work full time. Terry gives her the use of Hitchcock and Scully's nap room only to discover that Gina isn't actually using the room but sneaking off to an unknown location instead.
This episode provides examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Amy and Rosa's plan to sidestep their bureaucratic obstacle (see Loophole Abuse below) has but one catch - the form must be submitted by a man. Fortunately, Hitchcock is on hand to help:Hitchcock: I'm here to humiliate some hussies, and I'm in a hurry.
- Book Ends: The episode starts and ends with Seamus finding Holt at the diner where he eats breakfast.
- Broken Pedestal: Amy is giddy about meeting Florence, the "legendary" file clerk whose work she admires. She discovers Florence is a cat hoarder and that her "system" was her acting out of spite, incompetence and dyslexia.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Amy goes to the woman who wrote the forms, and is disappointed to find out that she's a cat hoarder.
- Crazy-Prepared: Jake bugged the bottle of whiskey that Kyle would give Seamus, but Kyle ends up breaking it. No matter, Jake also bugged the spare bottle, only for Kyle to break that one too. That's when Jake reveals that he also bugged the car keys.
- Failed a Spot Check: Jake arranges for Kyle to see Seamus' impounded Rolls Royce, but every time they drive by, Kyle fails to notice it. Even when Jake claims to see two birds having sex (Charles' original plan to get Kyle's attention), Kyle can't even recognize it until it is pointed out to him.Kyle: We're never going to see those birds.
Charles: Look behind that white 1980 Rolls Royce!
Kyle: Ugh! I wish the stupid car would move!
Jake: Kyle, isn't that your uncle's car? - Fat Idiot: Kyle is a bit on the husky side, and has roughly the IQ of a coloring book.
- I Never Told You My Name: Charles accidentally refers to Kyle by name before he has a chance to tell them. Fortunately, Kyle is dumb enough to believe that they knew "because [they]'re so connected".
- Innocently Insensitive: Amy, to the permit office file clerk:Amy: Another day in paradise?
Rosa: She actually means that. Please don't be offended. - Lock-and-Load Montage: Done when Rosa gets ready to go to a "kickass mission" with Amy, which turns out to be going to get the permits for Seamus. It gets parodied when Amy gets ready to get the permits again — with office supplies.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The key problem with targeting Kyle is Jake and Charles realizing the guy has been kept out of the family business due to the fact he's a complete idiot.
- Logic Bomb: Amy completely freezes when she realizes that there's no solution for the bureaucratic problem in front of her.Amy: This is just a puzzle, and I can figure it out! To get an approved 1290, I need an approved 1021J...which I can't get without an approved 1290 which I can't get without an approved 1021J which I can't get without an approved 1290 which I can't get without an approved 1021J [Amy repeats the line over and over, faster and faster]
Rosa: [To the clerk] OK, she's in a loop. You broke her brain. I'm gonna take her out of here. [Rosa guides Amy, still repeating her line on a loop, out of the office] - Loophole Abuse:
- Holt defying this trope drives the A-plot. He refuses to give Seamus the permit until he finds out for sure that it's a cover for something else. He won't use loopholes in the law, like Jake suggests.
- Amy and Rosa ends up invoking it — they comb through old city forms and manage to get the permit by filling out an obsolete form that was never decommissioned.
- Not so Dire: Kyle thanks Jake and Charles for befriending him and helping him get back his uncle's car, saying that when they first met he was having some dark thoughts about giving up... on his rap career.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Zig-zagged. The clerk who prevents Amy and Rosa from obtaining their permits isn't trying to be unhelpful but neither can she do anything because there's a Logic Bomb hardwired in the necessary forms. Played straight with Florence, who didn't put much care into setting up the filing system and even deliberately screwed with it out of spite.
- Oh, Crap!: Holt gets one of these when he sees Murphy again at the diner. Murphy has found out that the Nine-Nine has Kyle in protective custody, and is intent on taking revenge.Murphy: You mess with my family, I mess with yours. You tell your husband Kevin I'll see him real soon.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Jake is shocked that Holt knows nothing about The Godfather, especially his referring to Fredo Corleone as "Diane Keaton's brother-in-law".
- Shout-Out:
- Jake's plan to befriend Kyle is inspired by The Godfather, identifying him as the Murphy family's equivalent of Fredo. Jake also mentions Minority Report as one of his previous plans.
- Rosa references the Simulation Argument
when she notices Amy is barefoot in the office.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Charles refers to The Godfather as a "Diane Keaton movie" and insists on referring to everyone in the film by their relationship to Diane Keaton's character. Jake tells him to stop, but Holt replies that it's really helping him to understand the plot.
- Suddenly Significant Rule: After a block party application is stymied by bureaucracy, Rosa and Amy dig up an old but still valid form requiring the city to grant any application to shut down streets for the purposes of "shaming loose women". The clerk points out that the form can only be submitted by a man, but Hitchcock turns out to be more than willing to help "humiliate hussies."
- That Came Out Wrong: Any time Holt uses the word "hole" in Charles' presence, the latter is uncharacteristically savvy about its usage in innuendo, and is repeatedly disgusted by the word and analogy of "no hole" and "main hole" Jake and Holt also use.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Scully becomes furious when he learns that there was a deal on all-you-can-eat pancakes and Jake hadn't informed him.
- Amy has a mild case of this towards Florence, the woman who designed the filing system, after learning that she screwed it up (partially intentionally) out of incompetence, spite, and dyslexia.
