"Halloween" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American televisionpolicesitcom series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It is the 6th overall episode of the series and is written by Lesley Arfin and directed by Dean Holland. It aired on Fox in the United States on October 22, 2013. It is the sixth episode to be broadcast but it's the seventh episode to be produced. The show revolves around the fictitious 99th precinct of the New York Police Department in Brooklyn and the officers and detectives that work there. Jake Peralta is an immature yet very talented detective with an astounding record of crimes solved, putting him in competition with fellow detective Amy Santiago. The precinct's status changes when the captain retires and a new commanding officer, Cpt. Raymond Holt, is appointed. Conflict arises between Jake and Holt due to their respective methods in the field. In the episode, Amy and Boyle are assigned to assist in a drug case during Halloween, much to Amy's dismay as she hates the holiday. Also, Jake and Holt hold a competition to see if Jake can steal Holt's Medal of Valorbefore midnight without being caught. Also, Terry sets out to find out Rosa's secret. The episode was seen by an estimated 3.77 million household viewers and gained a 1.5/4 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the episode's plot execution and Samberg's and Braugher's performances.
Plot
It is Halloween, but Amy Santiago is the only one who despises it, citing the low standard everyone makes of it. While talking to the gang, Jake Peralta brags that no one would catch him if he were a criminal. Raymond Holt overhears and tells him he would catch him easily. They then decide to make a bet: Peralta will need to rob Holt's Medal of Valor by midnight. If Peralta wins, Holt will need to do Peralta's paperwork and call him his greatest detective; if Holt wins, Peralta will have to work five weekends with no extra salary. Terry Jeffords finds that Rosa Diaz went to Catholic school until she dropped out and sets out to find why she left. Meanwhile, Santiago and Charles Boyle are assigned a case to bust a drug deal at a Halloween party, which involves costumes, to Santiago's dismay. Due to Santiago's insecurity with her costume, she pays Michael Hitchcock to replace her. Peralta uses many schemes to try to get into Holt's office, where the medal is secured in a locked vault that can only be accessed with a key and code that only Holt knows, but encounters problems such as falling through a vent and failing to replicate the key. Jeffords contacts the Catholic school and finds out that Diaz was a good student but left voluntarily to enter a ballet academy. He decides not to tell anyone about it. Holt is sent to the interrogation after Peralta is arrested for trying to climb the building with a blowtorch. However, Peralta reveals his plan to Holt: without Holt knowing, Peralta secretly used Diaz to open the cabinet, Jeffords and Santiago to open the office's window, and Jeffords and Boyle to copy Holt's fingerprints on the phone with a plastic paper and use it to open the vault. Peralta ends up winning the bet and Holt begins working on the paperwork. The episode ends as Diaz attacks an escapee inmate, telling Jeffords that she left the ballet school for punching a classmate.
Reception
Viewers
In its original American broadcast, "Halloween" was seen by an estimated 3.77 million household viewers and gained a 1.6/4 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This was a slight increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 3.43 million viewers with a 1.5/4 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 1.6 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 4 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it. With these ratings, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the second most watched show on FOX for the night, beating Dads and The Mindy Project but behind New Girl, fourth on its timeslot and ninth for the night in the 18-49 demographics, behind The Goldbergs, New Girl, The Biggest Loser, Chicago Fire, Person of Interest, , Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and NCIS.
Critical reviews
"Halloween" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Roth Cornet of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.0 out of 10 and wrote, "There are those who don't care for holiday-themed episodes of television, but I've always had a fondness for them. There are certain standard storylines that are utilized, sure, but there are certain behaviors that we see repeated in our lives around the holidays: over-enthusiasm, under-enthusiasm, and all around grinchyness to name a few. In that way it feels as though the TV tropes are fairly in sync with the world and regular holiday happenings. A character's response to the festivities will often reveal things about them that other circumstances may not." Molly Eichel of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A-" grade and wrote, "'Halloween' is a holiday-themed episode, which ostensibly dooms it to cliche from the start. Then other layers of overdone are packed into the plot: distaste for a holiday that leads to learning the lesson of said holiday, the co-worker with a secret, challenges accepted. But 'Halloween' all worked in a way that on paper it really shouldn't have, in part because the main plot could have happened during any episode, holiday-themed or not. It was augmented by the Halloween backdrop, but it certainly wasn't dependent on it."
