"Valloweaster" is the 11th episode of Season Seven in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine television series. It aired on April 09, 2020 to 2.04 million viewers. Viewers give it 8.1 out of 10 on IMDb.
Episode Synopsis[]
The squad competes for 4 gems to determine who is the greatest human/genius, except events push the holiday of the heist further and further from Halloween.
The episode opens on two uniformed officers chatting in the elevator. When the elevator opens, they are surprised to see the precinct filled with bunnies fighting. Four bunnies run out to the rooftop to see a fifth bunny rappelling off the roof. The episode then cuts to six months earlier, where the squad is in the briefing room preparing for the 2019 Halloween Heist.
Jake is at the podium discussing the Heist. He reveals that people will team up randomly using cards and be handcuffed, to ensure that no one betrays their partner. If someone uncuffs themselves, it’s an automatic disqualification. Rosa gets Scully, while Jake and Amy get Holt and Charles respectively. Terry decides to bow out, as he already won the previous Heist. The prize is a set of gems that come from a gauntlet similar to the Infinity Gauntlet from Avengers: Infinity War.They will be guarded by Bill, who came back for the Heist a third time.
When all the teams have split up, Amy is in the middle of discussing her plan with Charles when smoke begins to fill the precinct. Jake reveals to Holt that he set this up to grab the gems, having organized how to walk around the precinct without being able to see. He manages to get the gems, but trips on a chair and drops them. Luckily, Holt brings back Cheddar, using him to grab the gems. However, Holt finds that Cheddar ended up swallowing the gems, much to everyone’s dismay.
Holt reveals that he and Kevin had put Cheddar on a diet after noticing that he was gaining weight. Taking Cheddar to the vet, the squad decides to wait until Cheddar passes the gems and continue the Heist on another holiday. It then cuts to four months later, in which the precinct is seen holding the Heist on Valentine’s Day.
As the Heist continues, someone walks into the precinct with flowers for Bill, who is once again guarding the gems. Soon, the entire precinct is filled with flowers, causing everyone to leave their stations. Rosa reveals this was her doing, and she took the gems and gave them to Scully, who placed them in his mouth. However, Scully ends up swallowing the gems, ruining the Heist again. The squad once again waits until the gems are passed and then continue the Heist two months later, on Easter. Once again, Bill is guarding the gems.
Scully is forced to forfeit as his doctor has ordered him to stop partaking in the heist to prevent a “shenanigan-related death”, and Rosa somehow ends up with the file cabinet as her new partner. Amy, Charles, Jake and Holt all dress up as bunnies, knowing that there will be a horde of bunnies coming into the precinct later as a distraction. When the bunnies arrive, everyone rushes to get the gems, and they end up getting into the brawl that was seen in the cold open. They suddenly see another bunny grab the gems and the gauntlet, and rush out the roof where the bunny is seen rappelling off. They assume it’s Terry, but then Terry shows up behind them, in the same bunny costume, pulling the filing cabinet behind him. They then realize the bunny who rappelled off the roof was Rosa, who took the gauntlet and the gems.
After being applauded by the squad, Rosa reveals her devious plan: she had been feeding Cheddar ham for the past year, which caused him to gain weight and prompted Holt and Kevin to put Cheddar on a diet. She then covered the gems in ham, which prompted Cheddar to swallow them during the first Heist, forcing the squad to delay the Heist. She then did the exact same thing with Scully during the second Heist, delaying it the second time. After switching partners, Rosa enlisted Terry’s help in cutting off the handle to the filing cabinet, so that she wouldn’t have to uncuff herself and risk getting disqualified. She then reveals that she swapped the gems during Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Jake, Amy and Holt had always been bickering about who was the winner of the fifth Halloween Heist, and therefore the only two-time Heist winner. However, by swapping the gems during each heist, Rosa has effectively become the first three-time Halloween Heist winner.
The squad is then seen at Shaw’s, officially congratulating Rosa on her Heist victory. Holt then makes a comment about how Scully was Rosa’s partner during the first two Heists, which would also make him the winner. The squad then proceeds to argue about who really won each Heist, as Rosa watches on and grins wickedly.
- 2 patrol officers talk about the Kristaps Porzingis trade from the New York Knicks to the Dallas Mavericks.
- Jake mentions Betty Rubble from the cartoon The Flinstones and the wife, Jane Jetson from The Jetsons both give him boners
The squad attempts to steal three gems from Bill.
- This is the first heist to occur on three different holidays. The heist was originally planned on Halloween, but subsequent incidents result in the heist being postponed mid-action twice. Therefore the heist takes place on Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and Easter: ergo the title is a portmanteau. Val-Low-Easter.
- Jake makes a rule that each player must play as a pair and be handcuffed to their selected partner, or is otherwise disqualified from competing (Jake is paired with Holt, Amy with Charles, and Rosa with Scully). Terry voluntarily retires, and Hitchcock is nonchalantly snubbed. The rule is suggested as a way to prevent betrayal of any kind as has happened in the past, particularly the last heist. (It is later revealed that Jake rigged the envelopes to team up with Holt, and manipulated Rosa into picking Scully. It is also revealed that Amy wanted Jake to do this, as Jake and Holt would not be able to work together.)
- In the first attempt on Halloween, Jake fills the bullpen with smoke, and he and Holt retrieve the gems from Bill in an orderly sequence before knocking over a moved chair and dropping the gems on the floor.
- Holt uses Cheddar to search for the lost gems. He and Jake were to be initial champions until Cheddar swallowed the gems, forcing the first postponement of the Heist.
- In the Valentine edition of the heist, Rosa fills the bullpen with people delivering flower bouquets for Bill. She and Scully retrieve the gems with Scully holding them in his mouth. Scully then accidentally swallows the gems, forcing yet another postponement.
- In the Easter edition of the Heist, Rosa replaces Scully with a filing cabinet as her partner and Jake fills the bullpen with people in bunny costumes, which he and Holt use to blend in. Amy, having learned of Jake's plan, also has herself and Charles dress up as bunnies, causing confusion.
- Rosa wins the heist by having Terry take her place with the filing cabinet, and wearing the same bunny costume, steals the gems in the chaos before jumping off the roof, falling on a crash mat and igniting a fire that spells her name on the ground while everyone deduces the winner. She still has part of the cabinet chained to her to exploit a loophole in the heist ruling.
- Rosa purposefully postponed the heist each time to claim victory for winning the most heists, as it is revealed that Rosa has claimed all three versions of the gems from each heist. During the first attempt, she swapped the gems with fake ones before Cheddar could spot them; in the second attempt, she exchanged the new gems during the bouquet debacle before putting the old ones in Scully’s mouth; the third was with the fake ones that discolored after Scully ate them.
- While celebrating at Shaw's, Rosa escalates the heist-related arguments between the detectives.
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- Rosa Diaz
- Bill Hummertrout
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- Amy Santiago
- Bill Hummertrout
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- Jake Peralta
- Jake Peralta
- Raymond Holt
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- Jake Peralta
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- Everyone
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- Jake Peralta
- Bill Hummertrout
- [gross hand gesture that's blurred out.]
- Charles Boyle
- Jake Peralta
- Terry Jeffords
- Jake Peralta
- Terry Jeffords
- [later in episode]
- Terry Jeffords
- Jake Peralta
- Rosa Diaz
- [flashback to Scully walking past ham on the kitchen table.]
- Norm Scully
- [picks it up and eats it]
- Norm Scully
- [back to the present]
- Norm Scully
Cast[]
| Actor | Character | |
|---|---|---|
| Andy Samberg | ... | Jake Peralta |
| Stephanie Beatriz | ... | Rosa Diaz |
| Terry Crews | ... | Terry Jeffords |
| Melissa Fumero | ... | Amy Santiago |
| Joe Lo Truglio | ... | Charles Boyle |
| ... | Argyle James Hopford | |
| Andre Braugher | ... | Captain Ray Holt |
| Vaughndio Forbes | ... | Stunt double: Andre Braugher |
| Dirk Blocker | ... | Michael Hitchcock |
| Joel McKinnon Miller | ... | Norm Scully |
| Winston Story | ... | Bill Hummertrout |
| Gabe Fonseca | ... | Flower Delivery Guy |
| Matthew Jones | ... | Dr. Millford Cream |
| Carmella Riley | ... | Dr. Gabbie Wince |
| Kenny Stevenson | ... | Officer Mark |
| Becky Wu | ... | Officer Janice |
| Stephen Wu | ... | Flower Delivery Guy 2 |
| Stella | ... | Cheddar |
Cool Cool Cool Things[]
Trivia[]
The heist was postponed from:
- Halloween because Cheddar ate the gems
- Valentine's Day because Scully ate the gems
- Easter so Rosa could win 3
- Hence the episode title, Val-Low-Easter
- Cheddar has been learning Latin
- Amy hired an actor to pretend to be Jake's therapist
- Jane Jetson & Betty Rubble give Jake boners
- Amy spied on Jake's therapy sessions
- Rosa did too
- Holt doesn't talk to his vet about the squad
- Rosa secretly fed Cheddar & Scully ham everyday for months
- The blue vests on the bunnies add "gravitas"
Soundtrack[]
- I Wanna Be your Dog by the Stooges plays during Cheddar's entrance
Running Gags Mentioned[]
- Bill Being a Male Prostitute
- Charles Obsessing Over Jake and Amy’s Relationship
- Scully's Health Issues
- Terry Loves...
Featured Relationships[]
- Michael Hitchcock & Norm Scully
- Jake Peralta & Raymond Holt
- Rosa Diaz & Terry Jeffords
- Jake Peralta & Amy Santiago
Connections to Other Episodes[]
- Rosa mentions that she never brings Arlo, the dog she got in 9 Days.
- This is the second time the Halloween Heist is postponed to a different holiday, the first being Cinco de Mayo.
- Rosa says "What's up, losers ?" when the squad finds her. When Gina won the Halloween Heist in Halloween IV she said, "'Sup, losers?"
Videos[]
Images[]
Behind The Scenes[]
- The Halloween part of this episode takes place before Amy got pregnant. Through previous episodes we know that Jake and Amy were trying from August and got pregnant only sometime after December. Therefore, Amy's costume in this part was used so that Melissa Fumero's pregnancy could be hidden.
| Filming Location | City, State | Details | Scenes |
|---|---|---|---|
| NYPD 78th Precinct | Brooklyn, New York | Building exterior | Establishing shots meant to represent the 99th Precinct |
| South 5th Street | Next to river, beneath Williamsburg Bridge | Ensemble walking down the street in the Title Sequence | |
| CBS Studio Center | Studio City, California | Stage 12 | Scenes that take place in the 99th Precinct |
| Stage 10 |
| ||
| NY Street Backlot | Establishing shots meant to represent Shaw's Bar |