In this episode, Sergeant Jeffords (Terry Crews, pictured at top) is off duty and walking through his own neighborhood at night while searching for a toy one of his adorable twin daughters lost. (She calls the toy “Moo Moo.”) As he finds it, a white officer in uniform approaches him in an unnecessarily hostile manner. Within seconds he accuses Jeffers of not living in the neighborhood and then draws his weapon. Jeffers attempts to disclose the fact that he’s also a police officer, but the white cop just won’t let him speak.
The show cuts away, divulging that the situation was later resolved off screen without incident, but the officer’s blatant profiling still understandably outrages Jeffers. The problem with that is, even though his resulting urge to file a formal complaint is obviously justified, the act of snitching on a fellow cop is frowned upon and could adversely affect his career.
This is a pretty interesting direction for the show, and it may be a small sign of a greater overall shift in tone to come. The cliffhanger episode that was telecast before winter break abruptly ended after Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) was hit by a speeding bus and was the first notable tone shocker this season. Sure, given that the characters are cops there is usually a reasonable amount of danger around, but this was something else. The Gina bus-hit was jarring enough, mostly because of the open-endedness of its outcome in the weeks leading up to the show’s spring return, but racial profiling is a much more serious story. Acknowledging so serious an issue in so organic a way gives the impression that the showrunners are ready to stretch their legs a bit.