Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Episode 1.06 - Halloween - Review

Halloween came early to the Nine-Nine this year, and with it came a whole bunch of tricks. After laughing at the incompetence of a bank-robbing banana, Jake claims he could pull off a crime better than those idiotic criminals, and not get caught. And so a bet is made between Jake and his favorite robot, Captain Holt: if Jake can steal his Medal of Valor (what a hero) from Holt’s office before midnight, the Captain will do all his paperwork for Halloween. If he fails, Jake has to work the next 5 weekends, no overtime, and won’t tell anyone that he saw the Captain in short-shorts outside of work (whoops, too late).

For the rest of the night, Jake tries idea after idea, climbing through Holt’s ceiling (and falling out of it), pretending to be a janitor cleaning his office, sending pigeons into his A/C vent, choreographing an ELABORATE dance with a lot of Giant Royal Babies in order to try and copy keys, and even getting caught scaling the precinct with a blowtorch. Except wait - was any of it real? As Jake explains when the Captain meets him in the interrogation room (following the reported blowtorch incident), it was all just a part of his plan. Well, except for the falling through the ceiling - that was just a bad idea. In actuality he inspired the precinct with a Braveheart-type speech, or more accurately a bribe, to help him with the crime. Every apparent “failure” was just one step of his plan. Including the extra-long explanation to keep the Captain occupied for 4 minutes while Charles opened the safe.

While Jake seeming to fail while ultimately outwitting the Captain was fairly predictable, it didn’t make it any less fun to watch; both the apparent chaos, and the well-orchestrated puzzle pieces. And not only that, but he supposedly concocted the plan after getting a concussion from falling out of a ceiling. I wish I could plan that well without a bruised brain.  In the end, not only does Jake win the bet (and get the public recognition that he so constantly craves), but all his team members win as well, leaving Holt to do everyone’s paperwork.

This episode doesn’t totally fit into the What did Jake learn this week? column, but he definitely put all of those past lessons about teamwork to good use in his master plan. It was nice to take a break from the lesson-learning and show that underneath the youthful behavior and impish grin, Jake is actually a pretty smart (and very weird) guy. The Captain was the one who learned the important lesson this week: Jake’s an “amazing detective/genius.” (Jake’s words). I’ve got to give it to the Captain - he was quite a good loser. I was expecting him to perhaps reveal his own long-term plan and deception, but he was honestly defeated, and accepted his defeat with grace. As any honorable robot would.

Charles* and Amy’s story in this episode was a little weak, although it didn’t matter too much, as the “Perfect Crime” escapades took up most of the focus. Basically Charles (dressed as Mario Batali), loves Halloween and Amy hates it - eventually she pays Hitchcock to take her place undercover, and Charles gets upset. The story played a little too much to traditional beats; where Charles is enthusiastic, Amy’s not, but she comes to realize it’s important to him and makes an effort. Though her Halloween ‘stume of a Crime Scene Tape Mummy is pretty good.
(*Yep, I’m back to calling him “Charles” again - I keep changing my mind about this one.)

Sergeant Terry has a fun time trying to uncover pieces of Rosa’s past, as the two of them dealt with “Sister Steve,” a man in a nun costume who got mugged by a Giant Royal Baby. In between Rosa mocking the faux-nun for his misfortunes, she dares Terry to guess the dark secrets of her past - specifically relating to her time in Catholic school. In the end Terry calls up one of her old nun teachers and learns that Rosa was an excellent student, and left to transfer to the American Ballet Academy. But she might not totally be the softy Terry is convinced she is inside; she was kicked out of ballet school for beating up ballerinas. This little storyline provided some further, fun, character development for Rosa (I’d love to know if she still dances) but also had some of the episode’s great little jokes, like a line-up of adult men with Union Jack diapers and crowns. Now I’m just curious to see how many people actually dress up at the Royal Baby for Halloween this year.

Gina always makes a pretty strong impression, even in her limited appearances. Some of her memorable moments from this episode include police report paper airplanes, her useless gift of being able to read Jake’s writing, and her solid advice to Jake - simply “dance, dance, dance.”

Although there were a few weak points, this episode did a good job of balancing the characters throughout, and managed to reflect the Halloween chaos in the Nine-Nine, without making the stories too chaotic. I always love a good mystery reveal, like a good old-fashion Clue reveal, where someone jumps up and explains how all the pieces really worked - so of course the interrogation room download was a real winner in this episode.  It’s clear that the creative team of B99 has really found what’s working for them pretty early in their run, and with a full-season pick-up, there are sure to be lots of great episodes ahead.

Bits from the Police Scanner:
- “I passed a slutty tree on the way here - who wants to have sex with a tree?” “Was it a maple?” - Amy/Hitchcock
- “You and your big fat brain are losing.” “Maybe, if we’re talking about winning our bet, but if we’re talking about who’s holding more birds, I’m winning” - Holt/Jake
- Charles’ Mario Batali ‘stume…or is it a homeless troll doll?
- “Friendships are formed in the crudible of Halloween adversity.” - Charles
- Holt’s traditional view of chess vs. Jake’s…less traditional view (aka, shooting chess pieces)
- “Why so down little clown?” - Gina to Jake
-“Captain, welcome to the end game. Would you like to shake the hand of the man that defeated you?” - Jake

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