S01E12 - The Heist

"The Heist" is the twelfth episode of Season 1 of We Can Fix Pawbert and the second part of a two-part B99 crossover.

Synopsis

The team returns to Precinct 99 for the annual Halloween Heist. Pawbert repurposes skills his family taught him—spotting fakes, reading misdirection—for harmless fun and wins the Heist on his first attempt, earning the title of Ultimate Heist Champion/Genius. Jake names them a "pack" for the first time.

Plot

The cold open finds Jake Peralta standing on a desk in the Halloween-decorated Precinct 99 bullpen, trophy held aloft, announcing that the annual heist is beginning. The trophy—gold-plated and ridiculous, engraved "ULTIMATE HEIST CHAMPION/GENIUS"—will belong to whoever holds it at midnight. Gina Linetti has designed this year's trophy case, which she calls "The Linetti Labyrinth": an elaborate display with mirrors, multiple locks, and a pressure sensor. She's sitting out the competition to serve as impartial prop master, confident that her masterpiece cannot be easily beaten.

Amy Santiago briefs the team on the rules: steal the trophy, hold it at midnight. The execution is chaos. Alliances form immediately. Jake recruits Nick Wilde as a fellow chaos-oriented mammal, adding Charles Boyle for snack procurement and emotional support. Amy finds Judy Hopps, and the two bond over matching organizational philosophies—color-coded binders, probability matrices, and the certainty that organized competence defeats chaos. Rosa Diaz and Luther form an alliance near the coffee machine, exchanging twelve total words before adding Terry Jeffords to their muscle-plus-strategy team.

Captain Holt approaches Pawbert, who hasn't chosen an alliance. Holt notes that Pawbert was raised among criminals and understands how they think, how they hide things, how they misdirect. Those skills don't define him, but they could be useful—for once, in a context that's entirely harmless. Pawbert finds Luther in the hallway, uncertain whether he should be valued for skills his family taught him. Luther tells him that a knife can cut bread or cut throats; the knife doesn't change, only the purpose does. Having fun doesn't undo accountability—but using his skills for something his family would consider beneath them is its own kind of victory. Pawbert joins Holt's team.

The heist begins. Within ten minutes, two fake trophies appear, the real one vanishes from the case (or seems to), and Charles ends up in a ventilation shaft. Jake and Nick huddle in the evidence room, planning misdirection involving a fake mustache. Amy converts an interrogation room into a command center with maps, probability matrices, and a section labeled "PERALTA CHAOS FACTOR" modeling seventeen ways Jake might sabotage himself. In Holt's office, Pawbert studies Gina's design. He recognizes the principle: in a labyrinth, the obvious path is always wrong. Gina wants someone to appreciate her work, not just beat it—the same approach his family used with their "loyalty tests."

As the evening progresses, Pawbert watches and calculates. He spots that the trophy Rosa is carrying has wrong weight distribution—she's holding it slightly off-center, which wouldn't happen with solid gold-plate. He recognizes the tell from years of watching his family smuggle things, learning to identify real from fake by how carriers held them. Jake notices his observation skills and recruits him for a secondary scheme, calling him a heist movie protagonist but sad. Pawbert later uses a pitch-perfect Jake voice impression to misdirect Nick away from an Amy trap—a skill his family trained him for impersonation and phone calls. Nick is disturbed by the accuracy and tells Pawbert never to do that again.

By 11:15 PM, Holt has retrieved what appears to be the real trophy through an elaborate double-cross involving Luther, Terry, and a smoke machine he special-ordered three weeks earlier. But Pawbert is still watching. Something about the trophy in Holt's trunk is wrong too. He's spent twenty-eight years watching his family hide things in plain sight. Gina designed this case. She wouldn't make a masterpiece that could be beaten in the first hour. At 11:45 PM, Amy and Judy make their coordinated move on Holt—and fail. Rosa anticipated them. At 11:57 PM, Rosa has the trophy and seems assured of victory. But Pawbert walks toward the original display case.

Pawbert explains: Gina said it was her masterpiece. She wouldn't make something beatable so quickly. Every trophy that's been stolen tonight was a decoy. The real trophy never left the case—there's a false bottom, the same trick his family used. At 11:58 PM, he reaches the case and finds the seam, the kind his father would have used, the kind that looks like part of the design until you know what to look for. He presses. False bottom releases. Real trophy. At midnight, Pawbert holds the genuine trophy, stunned. He's won the heist on his first attempt.

Gina emerges with a slow clap—finally, someone actually looked at her work. Holt tells Pawbert his victory was remarkable: he turned trauma into tactical advantage. The skills acquired under duress don't belong to those who taught them; they belong to Pawbert. What matters is how he chooses to use them. As the teams say their goodbyes in the early morning, Jake exchanges numbers with Nick for future chaos, Amy presents Judy with a freshly printed binder personalized from their conversation, and Rosa and Luther nod at each other with maximum respect and zero words.

Before the pack leaves, Jake pulls them aside on the precinct steps. He's seen many teams come through—task forces, joint operations—and most are just mammals who happen to be in the same room. But this group is different. The way they move together—Nick deflecting, Judy anchoring, Luther protecting, and Pawbert at the center. He delivers the line that names what they've become: they've got a pack now. A real one. That's rare. In the vehicle heading home, Luther calls it "the knife cuts bread instead of throats—inside reference."

Back at Site Two, Pawbert and Luther talk in the hallway. Luther tells Pawbert he was good tonight—at enjoying himself. Pawbert reflects that he used skills his father taught him for reading people and spotting fakes, but tonight he used them to win a stupid trophy at a Halloween party. It felt clean—like taking something that was supposed to be poison and making it medicine. In the tag, Pawbert sets the heist trophy on his nightstand beside his mother's photo. A promise and a memory. Something lost and something gained. For the first time, the balance feels possible.

Key Moments

• Jake announces the annual Halloween Heist; Gina reveals "The Linetti Labyrinth" display case
• Alliances form: Jake/Nick/Charles, Amy/Judy, Rosa/Luther/Terry, Holt/Pawbert
• Luther tells Pawbert that a knife can cut bread or cut throats—the purpose changes, not the knife
• Luther tells Pawbert that having fun doesn't undo accountability—his skills used for play is a victory
• Pawbert spots Rosa's trophy is fake from the weight distribution, using skills learned from family smuggling
• Pawbert does a pitch-perfect Jake voice impression to misdirect Nick
• Holt retrieves what appears to be the real trophy using a three-week-planned double-cross
• Pawbert realizes every stolen trophy was a decoy—the real one never left Gina's case
• Pawbert finds the false bottom using the same technique his father used to hide assets
• Pawbert wins the Halloween Heist at midnight on his first attempt
• Gina acknowledges someone finally looked at her work
• Holt tells Pawbert the skills acquired under duress belong to him, not those who taught him
• Jake names them as a "pack"—the first use of this defining term for the found family
• Jake describes their dynamic: Nick deflects, Judy anchors, Luther protects
• The heist trophy is placed on Pawbert's nightstand beside his mother's photo

Key Lines

Locations

• Precinct 99 - Bullpen (heist arena), briefing room, evidence room, interrogation room (Amy's command center), Holt's office, exterior steps
• Site Two - Main floor, hallway, Pawbert's room (tag scene)

Items

• Heist Trophy - Engraved "ULTIMATE HEIST CHAMPION/GENIUS"; won by Pawbert; placed on nightstand beside mother's photo
• The Linetti Labyrinth - Gina's elaborate display case with mirrors, locks, pressure sensor, and five secret compartments
• Amy's probability matrix - Statistical approach to the heist including "PERALTA CHAOS FACTOR"
• Decoy trophies - Multiple fake trophies used to misdirect throughout the night
• Smoke machine - Used in Holt's double-cross; special-ordered three weeks in advance

Notes

• This is one of the lightest episodes in Season 1, providing relief between procedural takedowns and the emotional episodes that follow.
• Jake's "pack" line is the first use of the defining term for Pawbert's found family—a word that becomes central to the series.
• The episode's thematic core—repurposing trauma-taught skills for joy—directly parallels Pawbert's broader rehabilitation arc.
• Luther's "knife cuts bread" metaphor becomes a recurring reference when Pawbert uses his skills constructively.
• The heist trophy remains a visual touchstone throughout the series, appearing on Pawbert's nightstand and later surrendered at prison intake.
• Jake and Nick's exchanged phone numbers lead to ongoing friendship across the series.
• Pawbert's pitch-perfect Jake impression—and Nick's disturbed reaction—is a meta reference to both characters being voiced by Andy Samberg. Holt brings up the vocal similarity again in "The Audit".