Brooklyn Nine-Nine - The Cruise - Review

This week Jake and Amy head off on a romantic cruise that Jake won. Except he didn’t win it, because he didn’t apply to any sweepstakes or the like. In reality, Doug Judy, aka, The Pontiac Bandit, sent him the tickets so that he could save Judy’s life. Jake is naturally enraged and impassioned and tries to get the Captain to arrest Judy (as NYPD have no jurisdiction in international waters). Turns out that a great deal of the crew are criminals, including the captain himself (played by the hilarious Paul F. Tompkins), and they need Judy to distract the passengers with his music so they don’t notice things like running out of ranch dressing on the first day. So Judy explains to his “best friend” Jake that he’s heard someone he used to work for put a hit out on him. They use Amy’s carefully planned itinerary to explore their way around the ship and scope out suspects. Judy thinks that someone named Henry Coles might be the hit man (due to the street names by his old chop shop), but he turns out to be a feeble nonagenarian. After escorting Judy back to his room, they nearly catch someone trying to strangle him, and they realize the threat is real.

Jake and Amy plan to use Judy’s next show in the All-Ages Piano Lounge to draw out the hit man and catch him. They nearly get him using Judy’s clues in his song, “Rosa,” but he makes it up on stage and drags Judy off into the wings. Jake distracts the hit man while Amy takes him out, but while the detectives tie him up, Judy escapes. They follow him only to find that he’s made his way off the boat and into a dinghy, from where he megaphones his message up to Jake. He thanks him for the help, tells Jake that he left him the Boom Boom Stateroom (aka his big room), and mistakenly reciprocates his love for Jake after deafly interpreting Jake’s screams that he’ll catch Judy. Then Jake and Amy go enjoy their free vacation by attending a fun salsa class and saying they love each other. Presumably not for the first time, but for the first time on screen. They then realize that the salsa class is geared toward widows, and they quickly sneak away.

A really fun story (as I think all Doug Judy stories are), with a mix of personal and professional pieces. This episode didn’t get as intricate as some other Doug Judy stories have, as the deception wasn’t really planted throughout the episode, but it was definitely a fun one. Watching Jake having to deal with Judy and knowing that he had no power to do anything to him was quite amusing, especially considering how close Judy considers the two of them. And of course Judy was rooting for Jake and Amy’s relationship, and even tried to give Jake advice on the matter (advice he eventually took, too, as he listened to Amy’s interests and went to go do cruise activities with her). I have no doubt that we’ll see Doug Judy again, and I can’t wait until then -- Craig Robinson plays the part with such calm and cheerfulness, it’s also fun to wait.

A brief moment for Jake and Amy’s “I love you”s -- we all know that Jake has trouble being serious sometimes and/or all of the times, but even he can recognize when it’s important to be real, and to see him shake off his goofy responses (“noice” and “smort”) and earnestly tell Amy he loves her was very sweet.

Back at the precinct, the other Nine-Niners deal with some drama of their own -- namely, Holt’s sister, Debbie (Niecy Nash). Holt’s apprehensive about her visit because she’s quite dramatic (at least by robot-Holt standards). Terry and Gina try to help him manage “Hurricane Debbie” by distracting her, and then by telling him to fight drama with drama. He goes to Debbie to tell her all about his Kevin drama, while Gina and Terry pop into his office to exclaim fake emergencies. She explains that the reason for her visit was that her boyfriend/husband/significant other was cheating on her and left her, but she doesn’t want to burden Holt with that when he’s got so much going on. Debbie cuts her visit short, but before she leaves Holt invites her to come and talk in a little fort he made in his office -- just like when they were kids.

Since Holt’s been quite lonely since Kevin left for Paris, enough so that everyone in the precinct has noticed and tried to help, I figured that having his sister staying with him for a while would actually be a good thing -- that way someone would be there to keep him company and keep his mind off of missing Kevin. However, it appears that Holt can’t stand Debbie for long periods of time, seeming due to the exhausting nature of dealing with her drama (which doesn’t sound unbearably dramatic). They seemed to get along, however incompatible their emotional wavelengths are, and it was nice to at least see Holt reach out and try to help his sister, even if he didn’t want her to stick around for too long.

With the rest of the precinct either occupied in Holt family drama, or off on vacation, Rosa and Boyle partner up to investigate an elderly lady’s death. They assume, due to her advanced age, that the death is most likely the result of natural causes, though they both quickly shift their focus from the death to the deceased’s apartment. Boyle immediately decides he’s going to put in an application, and Rosa follows suite. The two call in the landlord for questioning and try to butter him up -- Boyle makes a special Andalusian eel dish, and Rosa actually SMILES at him. They’re disappointed to find out that both of their applications are rejected, though it all makes sense when the forensics report confirms that the former tenant was actually poisoned. The detectives go arrest the landlord in the apartment, as he killed the old lady to try and turn over her formerly rent-controlled apartment. This story wasn’t that interesting or funny, but it did provide us with a rare (and extremely pained) smile from Rosa, and for that, I am truly grateful.

There was a plethora of great individual lines in this episode (and some amazing deliveries), so I’m going to pick just one of many worthy options for the line of the week. This one goes to Doug Judy for, “Don’t ‘ppppft’ my peril!”

What did you think of the episode? Did you know Doug Judy was going to escape? When and how do you think we’ll see him again? Do you think “Hurricane Debbie” is really overdramatic, or do you think Holt might have an exaggerated view of her behavior? Will Rosa or Boyle get that big apartment with the natural light and the closet space? Will we ever know? And what did you think of Jake and Amy’s first on-screen “I love you”s? 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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