"The Oolong Slayer" is the 4th episode of Season Three in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine television series. It aired on October 18, 2015. Viewers give it 8.4 out of 10 on IMDb.
With Raymond Holt at the public relations office and the Vulture as captain of the 99th precinct Jake Peralta and Raymond Holt attempt to solve the case of a serial killer off the radar. At the Precinct, Rosa Diaz and Amy Santiago are forced to plan the Vulture's birthday party. Stressed from having a pregnant wife on bed rest, work and more, Terry Jeffords can't stop himself from stress eating cocoa nibs.
The vulture orders the squad to only handle misdemeanors
The Vulture conducts his morning briefing and sees that Jake Peralta has a large file in front of him. Jake nervously claims that the case is open and shut, before admitting that it is a homicide. The Vulture orders him to give the case to the major crimes division and Jake complains that they have already given all of their felony cases to major crimes. The Vulture tells them that he has an ongoing bet with the captain of the 84th precinct on who can solve the most cases, and orders the squad to only work on easy to solve misdemeanors.
Gina, Holt and Jake decide to work together in secret on the case
At One Police Plaza, Gina Linetti approaches Captain Raymond Holt who is despondent in his office and tries to cheer him up, before Madeline Wuntch enters. After a quick exchange of insults, Wutch tells Holt that she is here regarding the NYPD's new smuggling task force. Holt begins to perk up as he thought Wuntch was here to give him another vapid PR assignment but she reveals that his original suspicions were correct. Wuntch wants Holt to come up with a new name to replace the phrase "task force", as research shows that the name was too aggressive. Since Holt faced initial setbacks in his subway campaign, Wuntch assigns Bob, his subordinate, to supervise him as an act to demean him. In the bullpen, Jake excitedly tells Terry Jeffords that a B & E case he discovers suggests that a serial killer, "The Oolong Slayer" is involved. Terry considers the connection to be far fetched, especially since Chief Garmin, the chief of detectives, failed to find the slayer and the Vulture ordered them to only work on misdemeanors anyway. As Jake sets the file on top of his desk, the Vulture overhears him and sees that Jake is disobeying his orders. He takes away Jake's overtime privileges for the month, threatening to do so to anyone caught working on a case he didn't assign them. Jake decides to work on the Oolong Slayer case anyway. In the break room, the Vulture tells Rosa Diaz and Amy Santiago to plan his birthday party for him, leading the pair to realize that the Vulture asked them due to his sexist beliefs that women love to plan parties. Rosa suggests that they ruin the party as a prank, but Amy finds that she is unwilling to disobey her captain, even if it is the Vulture. Meanwhile, Terry and Charles Boyle are working through misdemeanors, with Boyle telling Terry that he kept his spirits up by eating a cacao nib each time he closes a case and offers some to Terry, who enjoys the taste. At One Police Plaza, Gina tells Jake to leave before Holt sees him, as Wuntch is looking for any excuse to punish and humiliate Holt. Jake pretends to agree to leave, but hides in the bathroom so that he can meet with Holt privately. Holt confirms Jake's suspicion that the Oolong Slayer is back, and offers to work on the case with him in secret. Gina then announces that she will work with them as well, revealing to their surprise that she is also in the men's bathroom. Gina explains that she enjoys visiting the men's bathroom as the "acoustics are amazing" for singing.
A visibly overweight Terry yells at Boyle
That night at Holt's house, Holt works on the case with Jake and Gina. As they each plan to explore different angles, Holt raises a toast of Portuguese Wine to their success. Ten days later, Terry has visibly gained weight and is overconsuming the cacao nibs. Boyle attempts to tell Terry to stop eating the nibs, but is instead reprimanded by Terry for objectifying him. Jake meets with Holt and Gina to tell them he traced the tea that the Oolong slayer used as a calling card to a shop in China Town. At the shop, Jake and Holt stage a fight to distract the store owner so that Gina is able to obtain the client list from the store's computer. Six days later, the Vulture asks for Amy's suggestion for his party and turns down her idea of a formal dinner. The Vulture tells them he plans to use the party as an opportunity to seduce his dead brother's widow, leaving Amy and Rosa horrified. Holt meets with Jake in private to reveal that the records show only one person has been buying the tea since the serial killings began and the two head to the address listed to arrest the suspect. When they arrive however, they find only an elderly woman who tells them that their suspect is dead. The next morning, Wuntch and the Vulture berate Holt and Jake for their efforts and suspend them both from duty for a week. As Holt and Jake proceed to leave, Jake decides to stand up to the Vulture and re-enters the office, only to return to Holt moments later to reveal his suspension has been increased to 10 days.
Jake tells Holt that he found the Oolong Slayer
Nine days later, Jake meets Gina at Shaw's bar and tells her that he is depressed. He inquires how Holt has been since he has refused to speak to Jake, and Gina tells him that Holt has also been miserable, only contacting her once to tell her that he has decided to rename "task force" to "do groups". Jake tells Gina that he developed a taste for Portuguese Wine after Holt introduced it to him, something that has made his apartment seem classier. Jake then has a revelation and runs off, as Gina yells that he has forgotten to pay his bill. At the precinct, Amy is still trying to plan the Vulture's party, to the point of friending the Vulture on Facebook so that she can discover his interests. Rosa and Amy then discovers that the Vulture is in a band, giving Amy an idea. Six days later, Holt and Gina are at a diner when Jake surprises them as a waiter. Gina confirms that she set up this meeting as Jake has discovered something important. Jake tells Holt that all the victims did not have alcohol in their apartments as they were all reformed alcoholics who attended 12 step programs, headed by the same individual, James Dylan Borden, who fits the profile they created. Borden works the night shift at a mannequin factory and Jake offers to go with Holt to arrest him, but Holt refuses out of fear of what Wuntch would do to him. Jake insists that stopping a serial killer is a detective's dream but Holt tells him that his dream was to be captain of the 99th precinct, a dream that is over for him. Holt advises Jake to give the case to major crimes and leaves. At the precinct, Terry tells Boyle that he has decided to stop eating the cacao nibs and gives a speech on using willpower to overcome addiction, not realizing that his bag is leaking cacao nibs. Terry admits that he is unable to stop eating the nibs and Boyle suggests that he is stress eating, which only distresses Terry further, since he has another child on the way and his life will become more stressful. That night, Jake follows Borden to an isolated area in the mannequin factory before Borden ambushes him from behind with a gun. As Borden eerily tells Jake that they are going to have a tea party, Holt appears behind them and arrests Borden.
The squad celebrates Holt and Gina's return
As Borden is taken away, Holt thanks Jake for allowing him one final chance to become a real police officer, before he spends the rest of his life in the PR department. Holt tells Jake to take sole credit for the arrest, as Wuntch will only use Holt's involvement to further punish him, thanking Jake one final time before leaving. Meanwhile, the Vulture is playing with his band at his party, unknowingly embarrassing himself on stage with his antics, such as his tear away pants being stuck. Rosa compliments Amy on her idea to hire the Vulture to play at his own party, with Amy commenting that everything the Vulture does is a prank on himself. Boyle tells Terry that he understands why Terry would be stressed and reveals that the entire squad, including Holt and Gina, have offered to spend their off days helping Terry babysit his kids, with Boyle cooking dinner once a week. Terry thanks Boyle but ends up chastising him again, when Boyle says he misses Terry's muscles. The next morning, Jake meets with Chief Garmin, the chief of detectives, to reveal that he has caught the Oolong Slayer. Jake suggests that it would be politically embarrassing for Garmin that Jake managed to single handedly find the Slayer while Garmin spent a decade hunting him, and offers to instead tell everyone that it was Garmin who caught the Slayer. Garmin asks what Jake wants in return and offers to give him a "do group", but Jake smiles and says he has something else in mind. Later that day, Holt arrives at the 99th precinct to the squad's surprise and announces to their delight that he is once again their captain. Terry asks how this could be and Holt says someone was looking out for him, before looking knowingly at Jake. Boyle inquires as to where Gina is and Holt tells them Gina wanted to make "a proper entrance." As confetti explodes in the bullpen, Gina is sitting at her former desk and asks "Or was I never really gone?" to the squad's applause.
Madeline Wuntch
Oh, there it is. The shriveled husk of Raymond Holt.
Raymond Holt
Look, Gina, is that a talking raisin?
Madeline Wuntch
Enough foreplay.
Raymond Holt
Are you insane? We were just suspended for screwing up this case. I shouldn't even be talking to you. Wuntch can probably hear us right now. She has super sonar hearing, because she's a bat.
Rosa Diaz
Did you choose us because we're women?
Keith Pembroke
Women love planning parties. It's in the Bible.
Jake Peralta
Looks like we've both got a pretty bad case of jerk boss.
Raymond Holt
Yes, yours is an idiot, and mine is a fork-tongued lizard witch.
Jake Peralta
Amy's been doing her best to cheer me up. She gave me this sticker this morning just for waking up.
Gina Linetti
Ew, it's like you're dating your teacher.
Jake Peralta
I know. It's so hot.
Jake Peralta
I think I just figured something out. I got to go.
In this episode Holt tells Jake to call the Oolong Slayer "punk" when he arrests him. He did this in Christmas, when it is first revealed that Holt had the habit of addressing the criminals he arrests as "punk."
Gina reveals that she is taking an Abnormal Psychology class, with the entire class being obsessed about her in this episode. She was first introduced to Abnormal Psychology in The Party where a professor of Abnormal Psychology and other psychologists are fascinated by her, claiming that she demonstrates a "complete overlap of ego(reality) and id(instinct)", a phenomenon that was only theorized.
Jake tries to use his friendship with Gina Linetti since childhood as a compliment so he'll let her see Holt in this episode. This was established in the Season 1 episode The Apartment and comes up again in the Season 6 episode The Tattler.
Gina says "Y'all Ready for This?" a reference the song the song Get Ready For This by 2Unlimited. Jake says the same thing in Unsolvable.
Holt punches Jake in the face per his request. He'll do it again in the Season 4 episode Coral Palms Pt. 3 when they stage a fight to get out of jail. Earlier in the Season 1 episode The Mole Holt slaps Jake across the face per his request.
The Vulture refers to Jake's ass as stupid. In the earlier episode The Vulture he makes multiple comments about Jake's big white ass, including slapping it.
Terry's eating disorder is poked fun at in this episode featuring him wearing a Fatsuit. It was established in the Pilot episode when he explains that his nickname was Terry Titties. He wears a fatsuit again in a flashback in Bad Beat when he is vulnerable and tells Holt about his addiction. He is triggered in Windbreaker City when Federal Agents make fun of cops for being fat.
Holt tells Gina that he does not know why she insists on eating at the Two Daughters diner.
In "The Wednesday Incident", it is revealed that the Two Daughters diner is his favorite diner as it does not have specials, and he eats breakfast there everyday before work.
Behind The Scenes
Despite this episode obviously occurring after "Boyle's Hunch" as Captain Holt and Gina return, it has a lower production code (303).
Rosa refers to the vulture as "dummy" when she says "We have complete control over that dummy's birthday party"
Dean Winters' character in 30 Rock, Dennis Duffy, called Liz Lemon "Dummy" throughout the show
