After taking their first big vacation together in last week’s episode, Jake and Amy embark on another first in this week’s -- meeting Jake’s mom. It’s Jake’s birthday and that means the two of them are going to go over and celebrate with Karen Peralta (Katey Sagal). Although Amy’s nervous, she has done extensive (aka stalker-level) research, and feels confident in her knowledge of Karen’s favorite topics of conversation. And she knows to avoid mentioning Jake’s no-good dad at all costs. Although the visit seems to start off quite well, all illusions of a happy night with family disappear when Karen opens the door to reveal…Jake’s dad, Roger! (That’s right, Jake’s parents are Bradley Whitford and Katey Sagal -- someone won the TV parent jackpot right there.)
Jake’s mom questions him about Roger’s disappearance, and admits she knew about the affairs -- and there were a lot more than Jake thought. She tells him that she’s dated a lot of men over the years (a surprise to Jake), but that she’s really happy with Roger. He even fly into town to bring her mostly-cheese Canadian soup when she was sick. So Jake goes to find his dad, give him a hug combined with a threat to hurt him if he hurts Karen again, and they head back home. Jake and his mom say good night at the door, and she lets him know that she thinks Amy’s really great, while Amy reads her lips from the car.
Rosa and Boyle paired up again this week, this time with Terry too. Terry goes undercover on the street to catch a suspect, while Rosa and Boyle wait in the van, equipped with their new body cams. Of course, Boyle spills pho all over his, and pops into the bathroom of the nearby restaurant to dry off his clothes and camera. While he’s gone, Terry sees the suspect and realizes that he’s been made. Rosa jumps out of the van and chases the suspect through the restaurant, and straight into the bathroom, where she takes him down and cuffs him. And then looks up to find Boyle standing in front of her, completely naked. Why he felt the need to remove every single item of clothing in order to clean up, we’ll never really know. But now Rosa knows Boyle a little more intimately than she ever hoped to. Not only that, but they need to review the body cam footage in order to prove that the perp tossed the drugs, so Boyle has to sit in a full briefing room while everyone watches him naked on camera. At least they could prove the perp was guilty?
Oh poor Boyle. He does not have the best luck, though honestly he dealt with the body cam screening pretty well considering a fair number of people were audibly reacting to his naked body in 4K on a huge screen. I wonder if anyone who reviewed that footage thought to question him as to why he was completely naked in the bathroom while they were waiting for a suspect to show up… At least Terry thinks he’s a hero, though Rosa may have a difficult time making eye contact with him for a little bit. (Remember when Boyle had an absolutely major crush on Rosa? That feels like ages ago now.)
With Jake and Amy off at Karen’s house, and Rosa, Boyle, and Terry on a stakeout, Holt’s mandatory work bonding event ending up consisting of just himself, Gina, Hitchcock, and Scully. They go to Escape The Room, and have to find four keys hidden around the room before three hours is up. With Gina’s complete lack of interest, and Scully and Hitckcock’s incompetence, it looks like it’ll be up to Holt to stop the nuclear apocalypse. He finds the first key, though it takes up half the time, and it doesn’t look like they’ll solve the puzzle. Scully’s just eating his way through a box of cornflakes rations, and Hitchcock can’t get the old television to work properly. Holt realizes that is a hint, and they find another key when the turn the dial to the coordinates for the Bay of Pigs. They find another key in a can of peaches (that Scully helpfully eats). They find the last in the telephone when Scully reveals that he knows Morse code (since it was the only way he could communicate when his father was a Korean POW). They manage to engage all the keys in time and unlock the “bunker.” Hitchcock asks if they should to do it again next week, to which Holt replies that he would hate that.
There’s nothing like a little mandatory bonding time, especially when you group together factions of a workplace (or show) that don’t often interact with one another. Hitchcock and Scully usually tend to be helpful unintentionally, like when Hitchcock was fussing with the TV, or Scully was eating his way through a can of peaches. But it was interesting to get even just the teeniest glimpse of a life beyond their food consumption, such as Scully’s Morse code knowledge. I know they seem to survive on sheer luck and junk food, but I’d love to see if they have any other interesting hidden talents. I will say that this Escape the Room thing seems exactly like the sort of activity Holt would plan for a Nine-Nine work outing, and I think if the other detectives had gotten to go, they would have loved it. Amy would go nuts solving clues, Rosa would just kick everything apart until she found the keys, and Jake would probably escape through a vent that the designers had no intention of people actually climbing through.
This episode had another great cold open, as Jake demonstrated about 500 different reasons why those hoverboards are crazy. How does anyone actually ride them?
Line(s) of the week go to Jake and Amy for this enlightening exchange about what turns Amy on:
“Alright, what I’m about to say will make you very horny, but you have to try and remember that we’re still at work. Do you want me to quiz you?”
“Oh god yes.”
What did you think of the episode? Do you think Karen and Roger Peralta will stay together this time, or do you think Jake’s dad will never stop his philandering ways? How did Amy learn to read lips so well? Will Rosa ever be able to look at Boyle the same way? Was it necessary to show the footage of the drug toss/naked Boyle to a room packed with people? (And does anyone want to go do Escape the Room with me? That looks super fun.) Let us know below!
