The Nine-Nine folks have been on their best behavior, and as a result get invited to hang out with the cool kids (aka the feds) to do a counterterrorist exercise. But Jake’s waiting on a text from Sophia, and it all spirals from there…
The whole exercise might go smoothly, as Sarge so desperately hopes, if not for Jake’s need to “cathart” following his break-up with Sophia. Jake, anxiously awaiting a text from Sophia, decides to throw out the exercise, and turns from a hostage into…a terrorist? Well first the rest of the Nine-Nine band together to take down the “terrorists,” and then Boyle encourages everyone to continue on as the bad guys in order to keep distracting Jake. In the end it comes down to Jake and Agent Kendrick, and in a move inspired by Die Hard, Agent Kendrick takes Jake out by surprise with a gun taped to his back. And on top of that there’s still no text from Sophia! Jake drops off the box of Sophia’s stuff at her office, and the two show how they’re both super compatible and completely opposite, as they reference the movie of the hour -- Die Hard.
I must say, Homeland Security Agent Kendrick was the realest character I’ve ever seen Nick Kroll play. He was the straight man to Jake’s (and the Nine-Nine’s) shenanigans. And a real asshole, but hey -- the feds are like the football team, Homeland is like the QB, and the police are like track team, in the high school of law enforcement. …That’s a very muddled metaphor, but hopefully you catch my drift -- the federal agents get invited to Christmas parties at the Pentagon and think they’re cooler than everyone else. But when it comes down to it, you’re all brothers and sisters in windbreakers, keeping the peace and shooting the paintballs, and I think it’s important to remember that.
This half hour is reminiscent of “Tactical Village” from last season, although where Jake bucked up and took that exercise seriously in order to distract from potential romantic feelings (for Amy), this year he pretty much decided to do the exact opposite. The story serves as a nice reminder that Jake was actually very invested in his relationship with Sophia, and that he’d still be dating her if it was up to him. This is not something he’s going to get over right away. He’s not going to jump right from Sophia to Amy. I’m assuming something will happen with Jake and Amy at some point this season -- I don’t know how serious, or when, but hopefully there will be a little turnaround time where Jake gets to move on from what seems to have been the first serious relationship he’s had in a while.
During all the chaos of the hostage-to-terrorist journey of the Nine-Nine during the drill, Rosa and Amy fight it out for a day off. Amy wants the day so she can go to a seminar about Power Poses (I’m assuming from the way she keeps saying it that the phrase should be capitalized), and Rosa wants to have dinner with her parents. Obviously Rosa’s thing seems a little more important, but since Amy doesn’t actually believe that’s what Rosa is going to do, she decides to fight for it. Turns out though, Rosa is actually going to have dinner with her parents -- to introduce her boyfriend Marcus! Turns out she’s just embarrassed that she’s a human person with feelings, and doesn’t want to admit to Amy that she’s actually interested enough in a guy to introduce him to her parents. The general set-up for the story seemed pretty routine, but I did quite enjoy Amy getting so intense about winning that she abandons any moral code and “kills” Rosa for a day off. On the plus side, turns out Amy doesn’t need to go to the Power Pose seminar -- she totally nails it! (Though Rosa is way better.)
Back at the office Gina and Holt get to spend some quality time together, as Gina gives Holt a personality test for one of her college classes. Because she’s taking college classes! (Totally forgot about that one.) Turns out that both the Captain and Gina share the same personality type -- I9C3G6. And then Holt’s true feelings for Gina come out, as he freaks out that they are the same type and desperately tries to prove that she took the test wrong. And while the two are definitely very different, I’d love to see whether Gina does possess the leadership qualities of an I9C3G6. Maybe that’ll come up in a new episode, since Gina’s just been given a whole heap of new I9C3G6-related responsibilities. Gina taking charge and acting like an adult? Now that would certainly be interesting to see…
The episode was fun and light -- pretty much the Nine-Nine getting to act like total badasses in the least badass way possible. I mean, they totally dominate, but they did ruin the training exercise. It’s always a nice to see the squad when they’re doing some real police business. Sure, this was all paintballs and simulation, but the Nine-Nine is a pretty effective team. After all, they took out several teams of federal agents all by themselves…wait a minute, is the Nine-Nine now the best tactical team in the US? …We’re in trouble.
What did you think of the episode? Did you like to see the crew out of the precinct? How is Jake going to move on from Sophia? Are blondies and cookies really the same thing? Let us know below!
