Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Halloween III - Review

It’s almost Halloween, and in the Nine-Nine, that means it’s time for one thing -- a battle of wits. For the past two years Jake and Captain Holt have staged heists on Halloween, where Jake has had to get an item from Holt. They each won once, and decided that this year they would both have to work to retrieve an item (a crown) and possess it at midnight. The game has become so official that Holt and Jake even draft teams. Holt’s consists of Sarge and Gina, whereas Jake takes Boyle and Rosa. Hitchcock and Scully are ignored for obvious reasons, and Amy is shunned by both teams due to her questionable loyalty. Holt worries she can’t be trusted as she’s Jake’s “paramour,” and Jake thinks that Amy will do anything to get Holt’s approval. So that leaves Amy teamless as the rest of the precinct heads off to do their derring-dos. She even tries a couple times to get onto a team, but both Jake and Holt just talk to their enemies through the secret camera they think is hidden in her cleavage.

The crown is locked in a briefcase, which in turn is locked in the interrogation room, forcing the teams to get creative with retrieval. Boyle (Team Jake) and Gina (Team Holt) are sent to guard the crown, and each other. Jake’s team employs Operation Wrong Vent, wherein Jake pretends like Boyle marked the wrong vent for him to descend through, distracting Gina while Rosa dives rolls into interrogation, cuts the crown out of the case, and rolls back out. Oh, and there were live cockroaches from Boyle’s pantleg in the mix as well.

Although Team Jake has the initial advantage, Holt was counting on Jake to retrieve the crown and get extremely overconfident, so that he could more easily cut him down. After gathering intel from a bug on Jake’s desk, Team Holt commences its own crown retrieval from Jake’s drawer. Sarge calls in his twins, Cagney and Lacey, to come do a photoshoot with Jake, to distract him while Holt sneaks in through the window, unscrews the back of his set of drawers, snatches the crown, and photobombs Jake. Unfortunately Team Holt’s plan hits a snag when a cackling witch decoration gives away his location in the breakroom, forcing Holt to hastily ditch the crown in the trash, and drink a soda. Which honestly seems like the more horrifying thing to Holt.

Later the crown disappears from the trash, and both teams think the other team has possession, until they realize neither of them do. Team Jake checks the surveillance tapes and sees that one of the trash collectors, named Al, came and took the trash already. Both Jake and Holt try to suck up to Amy, as they realize that she’s the only one who would have the address of every employee of the Nine-Nine (in order to send them Christmas cards of course). She resents their brownnosing, but sends them both the address so neither has an advantage.

Both teams arrive at the apartment building to find the elevator out of order, and they run up to his apartment on the 16th floor. There they find out that Al’s actually on the roof smoking, another fifteen floors up. They all make it up (though Jake’s a little worse for the wear), only to find that Al is actually…AMY SANTIAGO? Jake tries to play it off like they schemed together, but she quickly pushes him back to the losing side and explains her grand plan. She could tell that Holt had a listening device because he jumped when Jake passed by the freaky witch earlier -- even though his door was completely closed. Amy read Holt’s lips to figure out his twin plan, and then moved the witch to draw attention to him, forcing him to throw away the crown so that she could come and collect it. She left the crown at the bar, and the Nine-Nine all head over to attend her coronation. Queen Amy, an amazing detective/genius, congratulations.

Another fantastic Halloween episode in the Nine-Nine! Holiday traditions are often a lot of fun on TV shows, but the uniqueness of a Halloween battle of wits makes it even better. Every Halloween episode has been hilarious, as well as cleverly designed, to show some of the pieces in motion, but keep a few for a final reveal. Everyone gets their part to play, whether they serve as a distraction, or a cat burglar, or the mastermind -- it’s lots of fun to see everybody play to their strengths.

The outcome of Amy winning the heist was fairly obvious from the moment she was rejected by both teams, but that didn’t make the journey to her eventual victory any less amusing to watch. If there’s anything we’ve all learned from superhero movies, it’s that when you reject or neglect someone, they rise up to make themselves into a powerful enemy who should not be underestimated. (Maybe I’m just thinking of “The Incredibles”…but either way, it’s a good lesson to learn.) After Amy’s victory, it was nice to see that both Holt and Jake were proud of her and happy for her. That’s the way every heist should end -- with a joyful coronation full of friends, and drinks on Holt and Jake. Scratch that -- just Holt.

Small aside regarding the time jumps in the last episode -- Jake mentions that him and Amy have been dating for a few weeks, so it looks like perhaps the season started up again in August/September? Who really knows? Moving right along…

Although the heist took almost all of the time today, there were a few moments to explore a side story -- that of Boyle setting up his stepsister Gina with his friend Nadia. His male friend named Nadia, to clarify -- turns out it’s a nickname from Banksy, and you don’t really argue with those. Gina is at first very against the idea of Boyle setting her up, and then rejects Nadia as a heist-related distraction when he shows up to meet her. But in the end she decides to meet him for a drink, and really seems into him -- that is, until she finds out that he is Genevieve’s twin brother. It was really fun to see the awkward pseudo-sibling relationship between Boyle and Gina for these few scenes. They were funny as mismatched lovers, but their dynamic is even more interesting as late-in-life siblings.

Today we close at the open -- the cold open that is! As per usual, B99 killed it with their cold open this week. Boyle has finally given up dressing up for Halloween, as the precinct mockery and jokes have proven too much to handle. So imagine his surprise when the elevator opens to show that all his co-workers are in full costume. After receiving ridicule for not dressing up this year, he runs out to the car to grab his emergency costume (Elvis, naturally). When he returns, everyone else is wearing normal clothes, and immediately start making fun of him. Oh Boyle, this would be sad if it were real life, but it’s absolutely hilarious as television. These cold opens are like delicious appetizers for the show. Sure, you could do without them, but why would you? They taste at least as good as the entrée.

What did you think of the episode? How did you think it measured up to the other two installments? Did you see the twist coming? Whose team were you routing for?  Is this really the final heist?  Let us know below!

About the Author - Kimberly

Kimberly is a big TV nerd - willing to talk any show, any time. Her tastes are various and sundry, but she’s got a soft spot for comedy. She currently writes the SpoilerTV reviews for Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

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