Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Adrian Pimento - Review

This week the Nine-Nine welcomes home an old friend, Detective Adrian Pimento (Jason Mantzoukas). Well, not an old friend to us viewers, as he’s been uncovered for the past twelve years. His return to the precinct is a bit jarring, both for him, and the Nine-Niners. Jake notices him at Jake’s own desk, and when he goes over to him Adrian pulls a knife on Jake. Luckily Jake thinks that Adrian’s undercover work is really cool and doesn’t seem to mind too much. Since Jake is obsessed with all things epic in regards to police work, he really wants to work with Pimento and be the one to bring him back into the fold. Their relationship only gets more complicated after their odd introduction, however, as Jake comes home to find Pimento sitting in his darkened apartment. He even stays the night, doing tai chi in his underwear while Jake tries to sleep. Pimento has a problem keeping his identities straight, continually referring to himself as Paul Sneed, his undercover name.

When Jake sees him buy a burner phone, he follows Pimento around and monitors his behavior, worried that he’s still working for The Butcher. He tracks him with Rosa’s help (she’s irresistibly attracted to guys that are up to no good), and when Jake thinks Pimento’s doing tai chi in his apartment, he breaks into the trunk of his car to have a look around. Pimento catches him (the apartment guy was just a decoy) and explains that he got a burner because after twelve years undercover he has horrible credit, the mysterious package he picked up was just old mementos from his old life that he had to hide away, and he broke into Jake’s apartment before because he didn’t feel like he was safe in his. The next day Jake show up to work to find that Pimento quit and left a note saying he’d be better off as a “bag man.” Jake goes down to the grocery store to find him and confides that he has no clue what Pimento’s going through -- he was only undercover for sixty days, and he mostly just helped them switch over from AOL. He tells Pimento that he doesn’t know if it’ll all go back to normal for him, but offers for Pimento to come bust the suspect in the B&E with him. Pimento initially turns him down, but when it’s time to make the bust, he decides to join Jake. They smash into the apartment and inform the robber that he’s under arrest. And then Pimento informs him rather manically that he’s going to die, and charges at him.

This story is definitely a little different than usual Brooklyn Nine-Nine fare. In some ways Adrian Pimento is just like any another character on B99; alternately crazy and normal. But he also shows the other side of the badass police stuff that Jake thinks is so cool. While the rest of the Nine-Nine usually have funny flashback stories to tell, Pimento’s are dark and depressing. After twelve years undercover he doesn’t know who he really is anymore, and fluctuates between identities, trying to hold on to Pimento, but flipping over to Sneed without a thought. He’s also paranoid about everything and everyone, and has returned to an empty life that he doesn’t know if he can trust. There are a lot of funny bits in this story, but there are some more serious undertones to it as well. Pimento clearly came back from his time undercover as a changed man, and he has a lot more baggage than most of the detectives at the Nine-Nine. I’m very curious to see how Pimento fits in with the rest of the precinct, and the show, over the next few episodes.

Boyle tries to welcome Adrian Pimento back to the Nine-Nine in the only way he knows how…with a traditional Turkmenistani goat stew! He even got the pressure cooker from Turkmenistan in an effort to make it as authentic as possible, but all that authenticity only leads to a massive stew explosion in the break room. Since it’s Boyle’s fault, Terry send him to go talk to the custodians about it. Boyle meekly tries to explain the situation to the head janitor “Mean Marge” (played by Kate Flannery), but Marge is not having it. Her team will not clean up his mess, and he’s not allowed to clean it up either due to union rules. So the stew-covered break room just sits, coated in the stuff. Not only that but the custodial staff refuses to take out the Nine-Nine’s trash and it just starts pilling up all over the precinct. Marge knows all the detectives pretty well, (“know the garbage, know the man”), and stops them from making it a crime scene in order to get crime scene cleaners in the room. Marge feels that they don’t respect her, as she knows their nickname for her, and she’s pretty sure they don’t even know her last name. (Scully pips up with a very helpful guess of “Mopbucket”). In order to make Marge and her team feel more appreciated, Amy, Terry, and Boyle decide to rename the break room after her -- Marge Bronigan. They ask for permission to clean it before the dedication ceremony and she grants it. Everything seems like it’ll be fine until Boyle pops the champagne at the ceremony and shatters another one of the break room windows. And then proceeds to knock all the champagne bottles over where they crash and spill on the floor. The moral of the story is clear: Boyle should not be allowed to touch pretty much anything in the precinct.

A funny story overall with a fairly standard plot (I think at this point we know that everyone wants a little respect for their job -- especially when it’s something not very glamorous and often taken for granted). But Mean Marge was fun and frightening, and I liked that the other custodians were pretty much just like her bodyguards. I do think that Boyle had it coming when Marge refused to clean up his mess, as I can only imagine the amount of times that Boyle must have done a similar thing in pursuit of his odd gastronomical pleasures.

When Holt needs someone to record a video submission to get upgraded equipment for the precinct, he turns to the one person with prior directing experience -- Gina Linetti. Of course, her experience mostly comes from Vine, but she enthusiastically dons her director’s costume and gets to work. Although Holt wants just a basic information video, Gina can’t help but add her own pizzazz. That’s just who she is. Unfortunately, it’s not who Holt and Rosa are, and neither of them can get into her fog-filled, fake-horse-riding video. When they refuse to go along with her plan, she just recasts them with two actors that will listen to her demands. Holt gives an impassioned (for him) speech about how that’s not what he wanted, and storms into his office. In the end Gina uses the audio from his “diva meltdown,” along with some sad black and white shots of the refuse-filled precinct, all set to “I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan. This is depressing and pizzazzless enough to get the Nine-Nine some new supplies. Good job, Sargent Linetti.

Although Gina’s job is anything but glamorous, and most of her co-workers don’t seem to be on the same page as her most of the time (except perhaps Jake), she lives like her life is glamorous and pizzazz-filled. She takes little things like equipment applications and make them into her chance to fulfill a directing dream. Sure she’s crazy, but isn’t everyone in the Nine-Nine? Gina may not be the easiest person to direct in an office, but she’s definitely never going to be boring -- she’s a one-woman drama factory.

Line of the week goes to Terry for his dramatic reveal about how he plans to go out…or not:
“What the hell, Boyle?! You almost killed me! I’m not going out in a stew-making accident! Terry’s gonna die saving the president, or Terry’s never gonna die!”

What did you think of the episode? Do you think that Pimento will settle in with his Nine-Nine colleagues, or that the transition back to normal detective work will prove to be too much? Is there any length that Boyle will not go to for his food? And who else is curious about what Gina’s Vines would look like? 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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