“The Night Shift”
Original Airdate: October 11, 2016
Holt tries to lighten the mood by telling a few jokes, but the team is too down to appreciate the effort. Plus, Captain Holt’s jokes are terrible. One of the former night shift detectives, Lowhank, stops by to gloat, telling Jake and Boyle that they’ll never solve a case on the night shift. Determined to prove him wrong, they dub themselves the “Night Boys,” and take off to look into a case. It’s a B&E in a jewelry store. Jake and Boyle role play the crime scene to figure out what happened. Boyle decides to pretend they’re French cat burglars on vacation in America, because why not.
They discover a cigarette butt presumably left by one of the robbers and take it to the lab for testing. There’s only one lab tech on duty at this hour and he’s clearly starved for attention. He finally runs the DNA after Jake and Boyle agree to attend his birthday party, and they get a match — Dave Smith is the perp.
Back in the precinct, Holt has evolved from telling jokes to instructing the team to smile while they work. He read in a science journal that the act of smiling can make you happy, but it doesn’t work on the team. Next attempt: forced laughter. This too is a bomb. After this failed cheering up, Amy, Hitchcock and Scully decide to go out for coffee and spot Rosa on a park bench, just sitting looking at her phone. Amy is furious that Rosa left her to do all the paperwork so she could just sit outside in the dark.
Meanwhile, Jake and Boyle are visiting precinct after precinct trying to find one that can help them get the file on Dave Smith at such a late hour. Boyle is insistent that they need to be done by sunrise so he can get home to make breakfast for his adopted son Nikolaj. Unfortunately, by the time they finally locate the file, it’s broad daylight. Jake’s determined to still solve the case and tries to convince Boyle to help, but Boyle has to be home with his son. So Jake, who’s still walking with a limp and a cane after being shot, decides to go track down Dave Smith alone.
Holt hasn’t given up on boosting morale for the Nine-Nine. Now that the night shift is over, he leads the team to the breakroom for a surprise. He’s decorated the room, put out snacks, has music playing, and taped up signs that read “Party.” No one is impressed. Holt, frustrated, finally admits that he’s miserable too. He’s exhausted, he never gets to see his husband, and the night segments on NPR are trash. He tells them all to just go on home.
As Rosa’s packing up to leave, Amy finally confronts her about skipping out on their paperwork. Rosa’s eyes fill with tears — something that I’m pretty sure has never happened — and admits that she’s been waiting for her fiancé, Pimento, to show up. The whole reason he had to go into hiding was because Figgis was out to get him, but even though Figgis is behind bars now, Pimento still hasn’t shown up. They’d made plans to meet on the park bench when the coast was clear, but it’s been weeks and there’s been no sign of him. Amy immediately feels awful for being so hard on Rosa, but Rosa storms out.
Back out on the streets, Jake has finally tracked down Dave Smith’s address. Just as he’s about to knock, Dave Smith comes out, sees him, and takes off. Jake tries to hobble after him but Dave hops on a motorcycle and drives away. Jake flags down the first car he sees. It’s Jess from New Girl! He tells her he needs her car to hunt down a suspect. Not believing he’s actually with the NYPD, Jess refuses, saying this is Schmidt’s mom’s car and she’s more scared of her than some “thug.”
Jess finally agrees to let Jake use the car to track down the suspect, but she refuses to get out. They speed through traffic trying to catch up to Dave Smith, arguing the whole time (I would expect nothing less). Distracted by Jess, Jake crashes the car and Jess spills the soup she’s been holding all over herself.
Jake heads back to the precinct, dejected about Dave Smith getting away. Lowhank shows up again and offers some advice. Turns out he’s actually pretty good at advice. Jake admits that what he’s really upset about, in addition to being "hobbled" and Dave Smith getting away, is that things have changed with Boyle. Boyle always used to be the one person he could count on and now Boyle has a son and his priorities have changed. Lowhank encourages him to make peace with the fact that Boyle’s life has evolved and be happy for his friend. Jake decides to take the advice and heads over to Boyle’s house to apologize. He’s brought a present for Nikolaj, and he’s decided to be zen about the fact that Dave Smith is now the day shift’s problem, not his.
Amy and Rosa also make peace, and the team makes it up to Holt for being such jerks earlier. They tell Holt they appreciate his honesty about being miserable too, and know that means he’ll work hard to get them reassigned to the day shift. In the meantime, they agree to make the most of night shift duty.
It’s so good to see the team back together again! Holt and Jake in Florida was hilarious but they’re back where they belong and I couldn’t be happier. Jess popping up in this episode was also fantastic, albeit short-lived.
Bullets on the Bulletin Board:
- “I’m sorry. My wife says when I get tired I get ‘night sassy.’”
- “Why do all your characters get STDs?” “Because they’re living life!”
- “I thought Henri didn’t have an accent?” “It comes out when he’s excited!”
- “It kind of seems like you’re prioritizing work over our friendship.” “Because I barely know you.”
- “We’ve got snacks, games…decorations, chairs.” “Yes! Chairs!”
- “Why is no one having a good time? I specifically requested it.”
- “It’s a crossover! It’s a crossover SUV and you can’t have it!”
- “Name one law.” “Don’t kill people?” “That’s on me. I set the bar too low.”
- “You took an oath to serve and protect. That applies to my soup!”
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