Young Hitchcock and Scully...What happened?!?!
"Hitchcock and Scully" is the second episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's sixth season.
An investigation is launched into a drug bust that Hitchcock and Scully worked on back in 1986, resulting in the arrest of a mob boss. Wanting to get to the bottom of things, Holt orders Jake and Charles to interrogate the Nine-Nine's resident couch potatoes.
Believing that this investigation of Hitchcock and Scully is a part of Commissioner Kelly's ongoing harassment of his precinct, Holt, with Gina's assistance, prepares to launch a media campaign against the draconian policing methods the new commissioner is implementing throughout the NYPD.
Meanwhile, the Nine-Nine's uniformed officers are forced to share office space with the detective squad, leading to a culture clash between the two. Terry and Rosa face off against Amy as the Nine-Nine's "upstairs people" and "downstairs people" struggle to see who will come out on top.
This episode provides examples of:
- Almost Famous Name: Gina mentions that her speaking patterns helped one "Ellen Musk". When Amy asks if she meant "Elon Musk", Gina corrects her.Gina: Ellen Musk.
Holt: Season one winner of VH1's Queen Bitch. - Badass Decay: In-universe as Hitchcock and Scully were once two of the NYPD's all-time best cops before turning into incompetent messes.
- Brick Joke: Hitchock nicknames their pair "Flattop and the Freak" in 5x24, which made Jake wince in second-hand embarrassment and seemed to directly follow up a joke earlier in the episode. 6x02 reveals they've actually had these nicknames since they were successful studs in the '80s, much less weird in this context
- Broken Record: Charles is being scammed. He was contacted by someone who is supposedly a brother of his adopted son Nikolaj. Jake is like a broken record during one conversation:Charles: There were so many warning signs about Dragomir. Nikolaj had never heard of him.
Jake: He's 45.
Charles: He asked for money.
Jake: He's 45.
Charles: He didn't have a birth certificate.
Jake: He's 45.
Charles: He looked older than 15.
Jake: He's 45.
Charles: Fine. He was 45. - Bulletproof Vest: During the climactic siege, Charles notes that neither he nor Jake are wearing vests. Hitchcock and Scully decide to improvise and strap tubs of Slut Sauce to their torsos. Surprisingly, it works!
- Call-Back:
- Charles was made completely sterile by a Groin Attack.
- Jake calls Holt "dad" once again.
- Holt talks about how he "give(s) a hoot", a call-back to the previous episode.
- Scully still eats cheese even though he's lactose intolerant
- It was previously revealed that Hitchcock held the precinct's arrest record, because "Brooklyn in the eighties was basically The Purge".
- To "Jake and Amy", in which we first learned Scully and Hitchcock's nicknames: Flat Top and The Freak.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Marissa, the drug dealer's wife in the Cold Open. Turns out, she was helping Hitchcock and Scully with the investigation, but then the NYPD wouldn't put her in witness protection. So, Hitchcock and Scully stole one of the duffel bags of money and gave it to her, so she could change identities and start a new life.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Lampshaded and parodied to hell and back with the "downstairs people" (aka the uniformed officers) and the "upstairs people" (the detective squad).
- Dumbass Has a Point: Scully, when Jake and Charles are interrogating him and Hitchcock, taunts Jake by reminding him that he's lactose intolerant and had a 4-cheese pizza for lunch, and that Jake is trapped in a room with him.Scully: It's a *bleep*ing dutch oven.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Jake and Charles both agree that young Scully and especially young Hitchcock were a snack.
- Failed a Spot Check: A uniformed officer somehow missed the backup piece strapped to Gio Costa's ankle, despite clearly being shown patting down the mobster's legs.
- Fair Cop: We've seen plenty of indications in past seasons that Hitchcock and Scully were competent cops before they got old and lazy, this episode reveals they were handsome enough to make Jake and Charles drool over them, and even had cool nicknames and dropped snappy one-liners after making an arrest.Jake: What the hell happened to you?!
- Fan Disservice: In-universe. Young Hichcock and Scully are handsome, chiselled men straight out of an action movie. They're also, well, Hitchcock and Scully, the two disgusting old men everyone low-key despises. Jake spends a good part of the first half of the episode reeling over this.
- Faux Affably Evil: In his first on-screen appearance, Commissioner Kelly is extremely cheerful as he threatens Holt and the 99. Holt lampshades it.Holt: I don’t like your threats, and I don’t like the cheery manner in which you’ve chosen to deliver them.
- Formerly Fit: Before getting addicted to chicken wings, cocaine, and aging 35 years, they were the "office studs" who frequently attended the gym. When Jake and Charles saw their photo from the '80s, they couldn't believe they were the same people.
- "Good Luck" Gesture: Scully and Hitchcock cross their fingers on both hands and chant "desk duty, desk duty, desk duty" when Captain Holt announces that it was found out they did steal the money, but used it to help someone who would end up a victim.
- Hairstyle Inertia: Scully had the same flat-top hairstyle as a young man that he does now, it even used to be his nickname.
- Hidden Depths:
- Turns out, Hitchcock and Scully were actually attractive, competent, and cool detectives back in the 80's.
- One of the running gags is the two of them constantly eating at a restaurant called Wing Slutz. Turns out, they go there to check on an informant in hiding who manages the place.
- Hitchcock reveals that he's ridiculously broke, as if it's a point of pride. The reveal of the episode is that, despite having no money and nearing retirement, the only time they ever stole from a bust was to help someone else.
- Hypocrite: Took down Gio Costa in The '80s for trafficking cocaine, during the time in their lives when they were themselves doing massive amounts of cocaine. Overlaps with Necessarily Evil since it's implied doing cocaine was the only reason they ever got any work done.
- Improvised Weapon User: Hitchcock and Scully decide to try and use tubs of Slut Sauce as bulletproof vests since no one has any Kevlar. It works.
- In-Series Nickname: Scully and Hitchcock used to be nicknamed Flat-top and The Freak.
- Insult Backfire: Amy's reference to upstairs people. Rosa takes it as a compliment, to Amy's irritation.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Hitchcock and Scully used to be a pair of hunks, before gluttony took its toll on them.
- Jabba Table Manners: Hitchcock and Scully are absolute animals when eating wings, smearing sauce all over themselves.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The eponymous duo are revealed to have taken it upon themselves to protect a confidential informant for decades after the NYPD refused to hide her from her murderous husband.
- Not Me This Time: Commissioner Kelly denies being behind the IA investigation into Hitchcock and Scully, though it does give him an idea.
- Oh, Crap!: Jake when he realizes the investigation of the drug bust was actually a ruse by Gia Costa to track down his informant wife Marissa.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: The flashback to their takedown of Gio Costa looked like something out of an action-packed cop show, rather than the workplace comedy this show actually is.
- Retired Badass: Not technically retired, but flashbacks show that Hitchcock and Scully were total badasses in The '80s.
- Retcon:
- Hitchcock and Scully were previously shown to have been detectives as far back as the 1970s. This episode shows that they were fairly young detectives in 1986.
- Previous flashbacks dating back to the 1970s and 1980s showed Hitchcock and Scully as having always been incompetent messes while looking the same with darker/more hair. This episode shows them as being young health-conscious hunks and popular supercops in 1986.
- Running Gag:
- The "hoot" thing looks poised to be one.
- Jake, in varying levels of disbelief, to Hitchcock and Scully: "What happened to you?!?!"
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: When their old captain refused to put their informant in witness protection, they stole a duffle bag full of money from evidence to help her disappear.
- Serious Business: The feud between the downstairs and upstairs people in the precinct gets a grieving widow of a dead detective that bought the microwave in the breakroom to sign a contract to ban the downstairs people from its use.
- Shout-Out: The episode begins with a flashback to 1986, and the overall 80s noir-style of the scene, including the sultry jazz saxophone underscoring, is highly reminiscent of the Lethal Weapon (1987) franchise.
- Some of My Best Friends Are X: Terry says he has good friends who are "downstairs people", referring to Amy's uniform squad.
- Take That!: Hitchcock utters a couple of Trumpisms, which Jake sarcastically comments make them sound innocent.
- Taking the Bullet: Hitchcock and Scully unhesitatingly use their bodies to block two bullets meant for Marissa Costa.
- Tempting Fate: The young 80's Hitchcock and Scully before eating a Wing Slutz wing Marissa offered them: "One wing can't hurt".
- The Triple: the positive version of Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:Jake: What the hell happened to you?
Scully: Are you body-shaming us?
Jake Peralta: No, I'm personality-shaming you. You were so alert and cool and job-doing. - Unishment: When Holt has to punish them for taking money from the Costa case without permission, Hitchcock and Scully openly pray for desk duty, and cheer when they get just that.
- Underestimating Badassery: Jake and Charles didn't realize just how good Scully and Hitchcock were as detectives in the 80's.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Marissa probably didn't expect a simple offering of food to turn two handsome, competent detectives into the Hitchcock and Scully we know today.
- Time-Shifted Actor: In a departure from previous flashbacks, young Scully and Hitchcock.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Wing Slutz, the beer and wing joint Hitchcock and Scully frequent.
- Younger Than They Look: Charles thinks Nikolaj's brother just looks older, but Jake thinks it is clearly a middle-aged man trying to scam him.
