S05E09 - Departure

"Departure" is the ninth episode of Season 5 of We Can Fix Pawbert and the second half of a crossover with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, following directly from "The Job". The harbor trap is set and the Frost Crown is less than two days out, which leaves the pack nothing to do but see their guests off and wait. What fills the day instead is an invitation Pawbert made three weeks earlier and forgot.

Synopsis

On the morning after the heist, Luther Pawthorne reports that Director Costa has forces positioning at Zootopia Harbor and that the pack can only wait for the Frost Crown, now less than two days out. The Precinct 99 squad leaves after breakfast. Rosa Diaz claims point on the next operation, Terry Jeffords packs his own provisions for a twenty-minute drive, Charles Boyle weeps over the framed napkin, and Jake Peralta says the case was real and that the pack trusted them with it, to which Nick Wilde answers that the Nine-Nine is family. Captain Raymond Holt tells Pawbert Lynxley that he has gone from needing protection to providing it, and charges Luther with guarding what he has made here. With the house quiet again, Nick starts to raise what happens after the crisis, but Luther and Judy Hopps talk past him about a vacation and he sets the question aside. That afternoon the doorbell rings: Pawbert has forgotten a casual gathering he arranged three weeks earlier. Roughly a dozen friends arrive, among them the Snarlbucks crew, ZRS colleagues Sorrel and Wendell, the GYU study group, artist Mika, who reminds him his paintings are still waiting at her studio, neighbors Cameron and Mitchell, former client Felix, and Gordon, an opossum who worked prison kitchen shifts beside him at ZCF. The guests leave by evening. The pack sits together and settles on the single word tomorrow while CTU teams watch an empty harbor.

Plot

The morning after the Otterdam job, Luther ends a call at the kitchen counter and reports that forces are positioning at the harbor, with CTU teams rotating through the access points and port authority coordination locked in. There is nothing more the pack can do until the ship arrives, which Pawbert puts at less than two days out. The Nine-Nine is audible through the house, awake and loud in the guest wing, and Charles wanders into the kitchen to look at the framed napkin again and announce that he will not cry over it a second time.

The squad loads two vehicles in the circular driveway. Jake makes a final case for turning on the dry fountain and is refused. Rosa crosses to Luther for a farewell that is over almost before it starts, claiming point position on the next operation, which Luther grants without argument. Terry loads a cooler of provisions for a twenty-minute drive. Holt shakes Pawbert's paw with his trunk and tells him he has gone from needing protection to providing it. He draws a distinction between having opportunity and choosing to use it well, and leaves the Nine-Nine's help on offer whenever Pawbert wants it.

Jake and Nick run through the elaborate pawshake they have maintained for years, and Nick invents a spin partway through, then insists it was always part of it. Amy and Judy watch from the side and agree their partners will do this every time. Charles reaches Pawbert and dissolves: the napkin, the frame around it, his grandmother's recipe hanging in Pawbert's kitchen. He breaks off to relitigate the veggieball tournament with Terry, who claims fourteen against Charles's twelve while Charles insists the spicy Indeerian ones count double.

Jake abandons the comedy long enough to say the job carried genuine risk and that the pack brought the Nine-Nine in when it mattered. Nick answers that family shows up, and Jake tells all four of them he loves them before Amy calls him to the car. They commit to making it an annual thing. Holt boards last and pauses to charge Luther with guarding what he has built. Jake's paw comes out the window as the vehicles pull away, and he and Nick trade the Nine-Nine's shout across the drive until the gates close.

The house goes quiet. The four of them settle into the living room with the heist trophy on the mantel and trade small observations about how loud their guests were. Nick starts to raise the subject of what happens after the crisis, glancing at Judy, but Luther proposes a trip, Pawbert suggests Deersneyland, and Judy counters with Outback Island and a proper vacation for the four of them. Nick agrees with resignation and lets the question go unasked. Judy leaves to make more tea.

The afternoon passes without urgency: sandwiches, a nap for Nick, case notes for Judy, phone calls from Luther's office, and an hour Pawbert spends failing to read in the library. The doorbell freezes all four of them and Luther's paw goes to his weapon before Pawbert works out what day it is. Three weeks earlier, before the crisis began, he had invited friends over for a casual gathering and then forgotten about it entirely. Judy is laughing before she reaches the door, and she opens it anyway.

Lane is on the threshold with a bottle of wine in each paw and Brim on his shoulder, a rosé still in the car and a merlot set aside for Luther, and a crowd behind him well past what Pawbert had in mind. Selma explains that Lane read "casual gathering" as an instruction to bring everyone he knows. Pawbert apologizes to Luther for forgetting; Luther tells him that his friends wanting to see him is not something to apologize for, and the guests flow inside.

The gathering spreads through the mansion. Mika finds Pawbert between conversations to tell him his paintings are still waiting at her studio and to ask him not to carry whatever this is alone, and he promises to come back when it is over. The kitchen fills up and stays full: Lane tells the story of the espresso machine while Brim and Selma puncture it, Tara laughs by the refrigerator, and Sorrel and Wendell hold down the counter for ZRS. The GYU group claims the library, where Maya defends the point of a personal library against Jun's cataloging while Hector marvels at the sheer number of books and Etta arrives mid-argument. In the foyer, Cameron finds the four named key hooks by the door and Mitchell worries about having come without a gift. Renny stops experimenting with the piano and starts actually playing it, and Felix, a former ZRS client now working and stable, sits nearby and says almost nothing.

Gordon arrives last, an opossum carrying a bakery box of the cherry pastries Pawbert used to like. The two of them worked the ZCF kitchen together during Pawbert's second year, and neither has to explain what it means to be meeting outside it. Gordon takes in the house and the guests in it and tells Pawbert he did good. From near the mantel, Nick and Judy watch Pawbert move between conversations and agree that he does not see how many mammals care about him; Judy says he has become who he was always going to be and only needed the time to find it. Luther watches from the library doorway with Holt's words still in his head.

The gathering winds down in twos and threes, Selma matching guests to cars. Sorrel tells Pawbert not to disappear on his friends, Mika holds him to his promise about the studio, and Gordon shakes his paw at the door and tells him the ZCF kitchen shifts were made bearable by him. When the house is empty the pack takes the same seats it held that afternoon. Luther tells Pawbert that the friendships that filled the house tonight are his own doing; Pawbert answers that the pack built it together, and Luther allows only that the pack gave him the foundation. Each of them names the next day in turn before Pawbert takes Luther up to bed, and Nick and Judy sit together downstairs a while longer. At the harbor, tactical teams wait in unmarked vehicles with cold coffee while a CTU wolf sweeps the water through a scope and a bobcat watches vessel tracking. The horizon stays empty.

Key Moments

• Luther relays that CTU teams are rotating through the harbor access points and the pack can only wait for the ship
• Rosa claims point position on the next operation, and Luther grants it without argument
• Holt tells Pawbert he has gone from needing protection to providing it
• Nick and Jake perform their pawshake, and Nick invents a spin for it on the spot
• Charles breaks down over the framed napkin a second time, then argues the veggieball count with Terry
• Jake drops the comedy to say the operation was real and that the pack brought the Nine-Nine in when it mattered
• Holt charges Luther with guarding what he has built at the mansion
• Nick tries to raise what happens after the crisis and is talked over about vacation plans
• The doorbell sends Luther's paw to his weapon before Pawbert remembers the invitation he made three weeks earlier
• Lane arrives with wine, Brim, and far more guests than Pawbert expected
• Mika reminds Pawbert that his paintings are still waiting at her studio
• Cameron and Mitchell find the four named key hooks in the foyer
• Gordon arrives last with cherry pastries and tells Pawbert he did good
• Nick and Judy agree that Pawbert cannot see how many mammals care about him
• Sorrel tells Pawbert not to disappear on his friends
• The pack settles on a single word for the day ahead before going to bed
• CTU teams hold an empty harbor with nothing on approach

Key Lines

Characters Introduced

Locations

• Pawthorne Mansion - Kitchen, living room, library, foyer, circular driveway, guest wing, master bedroom
• Zootopia Harbor - CTU perimeter overnight; empty approach waters

Items

• Framed napkin - Charles's pancake recipe and his "NINE-NINE!" scrawl; still on the kitchen wall
• Heist Trophy - On the living room mantel
• Cherry pastries - Gordon brings a bakery box of the ones Pawbert liked
• Wine - Lane arrives with a bottle in each paw, a rosé still in the car, and a merlot for Luther
• Personalized key hooks - Four engraved tags by the front door, one for each of the pack; Cameron finds them precious
• Piano - Renny plays through the second half of the gathering

Notes

• The gathering scene visually demonstrates the breadth of Pawbert's social network, contrasting sharply with the isolated mammal he was years earlier.
• Cameron and Mitchell, the Meadowlands neighbors, are named after Cameron Tucker and Mitchell Pritchett from Modern Family. All of the pack's Meadowlands neighbors across the season are named after Modern Family characters.