Valloween is the eleventh episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's seventh season.
It's heist time, once again, at the Nine-Nine. This time, the squad is splitting into teams with the added twist that teammates have to remain handcuffed together for the duration, Jake with Holt, Amy with Charles, and Rosa with Scully. Terry, meanwhile, declares he's retired and Hitchcock is ignored. As usual, Hilarity Ensues.
However, things go awry and the heist, which began in Halloween, 2019, is still ongoing in Easter, 2020!.
This episode provides examples of the following:
- Call-Back: Rosa mentions her dog Arlo, who appeared exactly once in "Nine Days".
- Chained Heat: The twist to this year's heist is that diametrically opposed teammates have to remain handcuffed.
- Jake (sloppy) and Holt (fastidious)
- Amy (self-confident) and Charles (walking doormat)
- Rosa (tough and competent) and Scully (anything but)
- Gambit Pileup: Each team piles on gambit after gambit until it's impossible to tell who's trying to outwit who.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Jake notes that each heist is meaner and more vindictive than the last, drawing attention to the escalating nature of each heist episode.
- Holt questions why Bill keeps returning for heists.
- The episode is unsubtle about hiding Melissa Fumero's pregnancy by pointing out the strange outfits Amy wears and blatantly hiding her abdomen behind set dressing.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The characters make some metatextual commentary on the nature of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's heist episodes and their gags.
- Not So Above It All: Although he keeps saying he's out, Terry eventually decides that he wants to participate.
- Overly Long Gag: Cheddar's introduction is the same sequence played over and over again to pad for time.
- Time-Passage Beard: Bill goes from being clean-shaven, to scruffy, to fully bearded (and completely beaten down) across the episode's three time periods.
