This week’s shenanigans start when Jake (and by default, Amy) volunteers to housesit and dogsit for Holt, while he’s away in Paris. Holt is on the verge of cancelling his trip to see his husband because Cheddar’s regular dogsitter is sick, and the heat’s out in his house. Jake steps up to take on the responsibility (or have Amy take on the responsibility) so that Holt can see his husband after months apart. To complicate matters Jake’s already agreed to take care of Boyle after his laser eye surgery, but he says he’ll just watch him at Holt’s house. Amy is
not on board at first because she’s worried she can’t handle a “Level One” responsibility, but changes her mind when Jake shows her the rules binder. It’s got to work out if there’s a rules binder, right?
Wrong. The whole thing falls apart from the get-go, as Jake brings temporarily-blind Boyle back from surgery to find that Cheddar’s gone and torn up Kevin’s cashmere sweaters while Amy’s incapacitated by allergies. Then Boyle accidentally sets his pants on fire via space heater, then lands on a coffee table and breaks it. The brief fire prompts a call from Holt as the alarm company notified him. He decides to cancel his flight and stay home. But things get worse -- Cheddar escaped out through the door that was open to let out the smoke (from the pants fire). Jake calls in reinforcements, and soon the whole Nine-Nine is sitting in Holt’s living room. He gives them all assignments and everybody gets to work.
Amy and Jake go out searching for Cheddar, checking in parks, but they’re unsuccessful. Boyle finds his way out of the car (where he was instructed to stay) and is sure that he located Cheddar in the bushes. They find Boyle at the park Jake used to do
hacky-sack…uh, cool stuff at, and find out that “Cheddar” is not, in fact, Cheddar, but is a large possum. Naturally this isn’t the most comforting thing for Boyle to hear, since he’s cuddling the creature. They head back to the house and after a pretty pitiful brainstorming session, Jake decides that Boyle’s idea to wear Holt’s clothes around the neighbor until Cheddar picks up the scent is the best option.
Gina’s assignment when it comes to Operation: Find Cheddar is to pick up Holt from the airport, and do whatever she can to delay his return. Naturally this prompts her to take Jake’s car and run it over the spikes at the entrance to the airport parking garage. This pops all four of the tires, leaving Gina feeling quite triumphant, and Holt quite annoyed. (My personal favorite moment in this story is Gina talking like a computer/robot when she tells her phone to call Jake). After a trip to the garage to get the tires fixed, Gina tries to mess with the car again by pulling out a bunch of wires. Turns out that those wires are not essential to the car function and Holt drives back to his house to find his employees wearing his clothing.
Holt immediately figures out that they’ve lost Cheddar and sends them home. But Jake realizes that Cheddar chewed up Kevin’s sweaters because he misses Kevin, so he’s probably off somewhere that they would go to together. After a consult with the binder, Jake, Amy, and Boyle find Holt and make their way to a park where Kevin would take Cheddar for walks -- and Cheddar’s there! Holt confesses that he didn’t cancel his trip because he was afraid Jake would burn his house down, he cancelled it because he and Kevin keep fighting when they talk on the phone, and he was worried what would happen if he goes to Paris and they fight. Jake reassures Holt that they can work it out, because they’re the best couple he knows, and Holt’s the strongest person he knows.
Following up on last week’s attraction, Rosa can’t seem to stay away from Pimento. And vice versa. The two turn everything into an intense flirting match. Everything from signing forms to hole-punching papers becomes a sexy back-and-forth. Terry can’t stand it. Jake assigns the three of them to work together to hang posters for Cheddar around the neighborhood, and Pimento and Rosa continue to drive Terry crazy with their flirting. Then Rosa proposes taking it a step further, and Pimento freaks out and runs down the road. He ambushes Terry in the bathroom to have a private conversation about his “weird headspace.” Pimento admits to Terry that flirting’s one thing, but he’s not sure he’s ready for a relationship or that he deserves to be happy after the things he’s done. Terry reassures him with a simply “Sure you do,” and Pimento excitedly thanks him for the life-changing perspective. In an attempt to smooth things over with Rosa, Pimento proposes to her. She obviously rejects, but asks him out for a drink instead. He accepts. …And then Rosa grabs him and they start making out hard against Terry’s car. Clearly Pimento’s still adjusting back to normal life after a long period undercover, and it might take a while for him to figure out how to react in normal situations, but maybe Rosa can help him through the transition. And maybe his involvement with her will be too much too soon and throw him even further out of whack -- who knows?
Line of the week goes to Amy for freaking out to Jake about the task he volunteered them for:
“This is horrible! We’re not ready for this! This is a Level One responsibility. I’m a Level Two at best, and you’re not even a level!”
What did you think of the episode? Would you trust Jake to housesit and dogsit? Were you surprised that Boyle didn’t cause more harm to himself and others during his temporary blindness? Were you surprised to hear Jake’s honest compliments for Holt? And was Pimento’s proposal perhaps the least warranted/expected in TV history? 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.
