Sometimes, when sitcoms do annual themed episodes, it can get stale quickly, especially when it comes to Halloween (we’re on the 34th “Treehouse of Horror,” after all). Yet, like with their incredible Doug Judy episodes, Brooklyn Nine-Nine found a winning formula for its spooky season releases with the Halloween heists. These yearly releases became such an integral part of the show that they even used heisting as a theme for the series finale. But which of these fun-filled watches wins the championship cummerbund for being the best? Read on to see every Brooklyn Nine-Nine Halloween heist episode ranked!
8. Valloweaster
While we were happy to see Rosa finally win a heist (three times, in fact!), there’s no doubt this penultimate installment of the heist episodes is the weakest. As always, the writers still give us lots of laughs, especially with the way they paired up mortal heist-emies Captain Holt and Jake, but even for the ridiculousness of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, this one is a little too out there to be as enjoyable as other episodes. With that said, we still didn’t skip it on our last rewatch and won’t in the future, so it’s still worth viewing.
7. Cinco de Mayo
By Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s sixth season, it was no surprise to see writers struggling a little to keep the heist fresh, which led to this somewhat convoluted effort. With that said plenty of great moments are still sprinkled throughout this episode, which sees Terry run out as the surprise winner (or not-so-surprise, if Jake is to be believed) after a meticulously planned effort. There’s also the hilarious backstabbing that Jake engages in, only to see it blow up in his face. All in all, not the best effort, but still enjoyable.
6. Halloween IV
Gina (Chelsea Peretti, who was also a writer on Parks and Recreation) wins it all in the fourth installment of the heist episodes, with a brilliantly executed plan that involves framing Terry, decoy targets, and a childhood ice rink accident. This episode also introduced us to one of the funniest and most tragic side characters in the entire series: Charles’ lookalike Bill, who we learn through an increasingly creepy series of anecdotes hasn’t exactly had the easiest life. Like the previous year’s episode, this one expanded the pool of potential winners to civilians like Gina and also led to the winner being declared the “amazing human/genius” instead of “detective/genius.”
5. Halloween II
Holt expertly gets his revenge in the second heist episode, utilizing the rest of the squad to beat Jake and make the sneaker-loving detective think that he’d been arrested and lost a priceless heirloom in the process. There’s a lot packed into the 22-minute runtime of this episode, but as it all comes together at the end, viewers can’t help but be impressed at the subtle details they missed, which would have made the final reveal kind of obvious.
4. The Last Day
With the squad finally broken up after eight years together, Jake organizes a heist to see who will be crowned “The Grand Champion of the Nine-Nine.” While this technically isn’t a Halloween heist, it does take on the format and has the usual slew of clues, plus several excellent appearances from guests who’ve been on the show previously (including everyone’s favorite cannibal, Caleb, played by Tim Meadows, and the return of Chelsea Peretti’s Gina), so we’re counting it. Plus, the series finale manages to do what many last episodes don’t and actually give us a satisfying ending (and the final scene is the beginning of the following year’s Halloween heist if you want to get technical).
3. Halloween Part III
If we didn’t already know how seriously Holt and Jake were taking the heist, having them both shout at Amy’s chest out of sheer paranoia in this episode truly drives it home. Without a doubt, season three’s effort is one of the funniest heist episodes; it was also crucial as Amy won, which opened the floodgates for people other than the original two competitors to be crowned champion.
2. Halloween
The OG heist episode was the perfect introduction to what became one of the show’s best-loved institutions. With many surprises and a great little twist ending, we saw Jake beat Captain Holt. If only he knew what he’d started…
1. HalloVeen
This is the second highest-rated episode of the show on IMDB, and we think that’s fair. The fifth installment of the heists sees writers hit the sweet spot between absurdity and genuinely smart plotting, and given that this ends with one of the most important moments in the entire show (Jake and Amy getting engaged), it has to be number one on the list.
