Brooklyn Nine-Nine - House Mouses - Review

In his desperation to nab a “celebrity case” this week, Jake tricks Scully and Hitchcock into taking over his supposedly simple drug bust. Unfortunately the case is much bigger than he thought at first, and Jake and Terry have to step in to prevent the “house mouses” (aka Reno Vegas and Tex Dallas, aka Hitchcock and Scully) from getting killed. Hitchcock gets nabbed by the dealers when he goes to meet with them (possibly because his name’s Reno Vegas and he’s part of the Cowboy Mafia called the Dallas Buyers Club), and Terry chews Jake out as they realize they’ve got to step in and help. Terry, Jake, and Scully all infiltrate the dealers’ den, and pretend to be fellow Dallas Buyers Club members in order to save Hitchcock from the beating he’s getting. It seems for a moment like they might buy it (to Jake at least), but they’re quickly surrounded and taken out. They end up duct taped to office chairs in a back room somewhere, and Terry gets mad at Jake for taking the house mouses out of their houses. Jake ends up using the mouses’ bizarre skills (like Scully being able to navigate anything while sitting on a chair, and Hitchcock sweating buckets) to all of their advantage, and they get free and take down the drug ring. And for their efforts, Scully and Hitchcock get brand new cushy office chairs, which Terry hopes will encourage them never to leave the office again.

This story was a nice surprise, as Scully and Hitchcock don’t make it into to many main stories, and they’re usually better off in small doses and little cutaways. But this episode changed my opinion on that, because it was fun to watch these two detectives actually get out and do some detecting. They were both so earnestly invested in the case, and even though their methods were clearly going to get them killed without some intervention on the part of Terry and Jake, Scully and Hitchcock took on the case without fear and with quite a lot of gusto. They also managed to make Jake look pretty wise in comparison, which is not a bad thing to show once in a while.

I always give Scully and Hitchcock a little bit of grief here for being completely obsolete and yet still employed, but Terry solved the riddle of why they’re still around the Nine-Nine -- apparently they’re very good at paperwork. Now I just imagine them as double Jerry Gergiches from Parks and Recreation, stuffing and licking a million envelopes, or sorting through a million different color-coded folders. I guess it’s always useful having some paperwork-er bees around the office, even if they complete screw everything up once in a while. I wonder if they were ever field detectives in their younger days, or if they’ve mostly been desk jockeys from the get-go. Clearly they have some experience thinking up operation names and undercover identities… (Also, did anyone else crack up when Scully mentioned that Hitchcock’s character “Reno Vegas” was from Reno, Las Vegas? Of course they’d think it was a state.)

Boyle gets the celebrity case that Jake was hoping for, and then he finds out that the victim is no celebrity -- he’s John William Weichselbraun, a famous oboist with whom Holt and his husband are rather obsessed. Holt assigns himself to work the case with Boyle, but he cannot keep it together around Weichselbraun. When Boyle starts asking him questions about how he could afford a $40,000 oboe, Holt thinks he’s insulting Weichselbraun and makes himself primary detective on the case. He even sends Boyle to go wait out in the car (though not before he snaps a picture of Holt and Weichselbraun laughing together). Boyle looks into the facts of the case by himself while Holt fawns over “John,” in his office, with his new autographed book, Reed it and Weep. Though the fawning doesn’t continue for long, as Boyle comes in to break the news that Weichselbraun’s under arrest -- he staged the theft to get insurance money, because it turns out that classical musicians are totally broke. Holt later apologizes for behaving crassly, and hires a trio of classical musicians to play him an apology song, but they find the trio raiding the kitchen supplies and decide to just go have a drink instead.

A funny case that turned distinguished classical musicians into desperate scroungers and criminals, and Holt into a fawning fool. Watching Holt freak out like, well, probably anyone who gets to meet their hero, was hilarious, especially since he was trying to play it so cool. Boyle got to play the straight man for once to Holt’s star struck goof, though I imagine the roles would be quite reversed were the celebrity in question Diane Wiest. (Apparently Boyle loooooves Diane Wiest.) The Weichselbraun insurance fraud was neatly telegraphed from the start with Boyle’s suspicious questions, but the trio of starving musicians at the end was a nice touch. It is really so rough out there for the classical musicians? Also, do they really make $40,000 oboes?

After Amy confronts Rosa about failing to donate blood for the last few years, she realizes that Rosa’s scared of giving blood. (I feel you, Rosa.) Naturally this prompts Amy to band together with Rosa and Gina in some sort of Sisterhood quest to overcome their fears. Amy goes first and tries to overcome her fear of confined spaces. (Again, I feel you, Amy). She faces her claustrophobia by getting semi-willingly left in a trunk for the better part of an hour. You may think this is a bit extreme, and in that case you would obviously be right. But it’s Amy, so of course it is. Gina’s up next, and she faces her fear of businessmen by waltzing up to a group at a café and pretending she knows them. She plays the part of a office drone for an entire lunch, and even eats a Caesar salad wrap. Fear-facing over Gina returns to Amy and Rosa and whips off her messy ponytail-styled wig -- what, you didn’t think she’d put her real hair in a ponytail, did you? (Also, in a wonderful touch, her depressing office clothes are provided by Amy, master of the pantsuit.) Finally it’s Rosa’s turn, and she heads to the blood drive to face her fear. She tries to psych herself up by yelling at herself and the “drain man,” so in the end she probably either made it past the fear and donated blood, or Hulk-ed out and tore the room to pieces. Anyone’s guess really.

There were a lot of really great lines in this week’s episode, but two of the best go to Jake and Hitchcock:

“I’m giving my drug bust to Hitchcock and Scully. It’s time to get these mice, out of their hice. Gah that was lame life is meaningless we’re all gonna die-- Mouses out of their houses! Yes! I am the greatest, every breath is a gift. Sorry about the rollercoaster.”

//

“Wait, if you get killed, what happens to all your debt? Loophole!”
(The accompanying gleeful chair spin may have won moment of the week)

Overall this was a great episode that was packed with a bunch of different stories, and yet didn’t feel rushed. It’s impressive to include nine main characters regularly when there’s only 22 minutes to play with, but that’s what makes fuller episodes like this even more impressive. Not necessarily my favorite episode of the season, but it had great pacing, and it was nice to mix up the character pairings a little bit, and give Hitchcock and Scully a fun story to remind us (and the Nine-Nine) why they’re around.

What did you think of the episode? Did you think Scully and Hitchcock were going to make it out alive? Do you think they should be in charge of all undercover names from now on? What did you think of Holt getting star struck? And what are you most frightened of -- confined spaces, giving blood, or businessmen? 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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