With the football playoffs upon us, new episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine have been sporadic, but that hasn’t stopped the comedy from producing solid episodes. Last night was no exception, as the show further explored Jake’s relationship with Sophia while also providing more insight into who Gina is and what she really cares about.
After having been absent from the show for four episodes, making me question if she was even still dating Jake, Sophia returned to Brooklyn Nine-Nine, allowing us to again see a more mature side of his character. In the past, Eva Longoria has been a delight to watch on this show, as her character seemed to be highly compatible with Andy Samberg’s character. But last night’s episode proved that they aren’t as compatible as one might have thought, which ultimately made their breakup at the end of the episode a relief.
The tension in their relationship built throughout the episode after Sophia wanted to take a break because she was being treated differently at work for dating a cop. But Jake wanted to prove that he could get along with her boss (guest star Chris Parnell) and showed up at a work function, where he arrested her boss for doing cocaine. What I find difficult to understand is why Sophia got upset with Jake for making the arrest. For someone who practices law for a living, you’d think she wouldn’t be so okay with her boss doing drugs but instead she uses it as a reason to break up with Jake. While it was nice to see that Jake is capable of being in a relationship, he deserves to be with someone who accepts him for who he is, and that isn’t Sophia.
Last night’s episode also featured a nice B-plot with Charles, Gina, and Amy. The ongoing relationship between Charles’ dad and Gina’s mom has provided the show with many fun opportunities story-wise, and they capitalized on that in this episode. Charles’ dad came to Gina, asking her permission to marry her mother but Gina was reluctant to say yes. Amy had to step in to resolve the conflict, which is the perfect role for her and gave her something new and interesting to do. Eventually it came out that the reason Gina was reluctant was because she didn’t want to see her mom hurt again. This is a completely different side of Gina that we haven’t seen before. Despite her hard exterior, she really does care about those that she loves and wants to protect them, a completely human instinct that Gina shares with everyone.
The weakest part of the episode, though still solid, came from the repetitiveness of the storyline between Holt and Wuntch. We’ve seen them butt heads on multiple occasions with similar results, and it’s becoming a bit too predictable. Even though we knew how this was all going to play out, there were still some positives to the storyline, as Rosa was able to step up and offer advice to Holt instead of vice versa. For once, she was the one who suggested taking the high road while Holt wanted revenge. Obviously, taking the high road backfired, but hopefully Wuntch’s new position will allow for more varied plotlines between her and the Captain.
The episode came together in the end when the whole squad met at the local bar, where Holt and Jake shared an interesting conversation. Because of Wuntch’s promotion, we see Holt act very Jake-like, as re reveals that he has messed with her phone so that ‘what’ is always autocorrected to ‘butt.’ Alternatively, we see Jake act very Holt-like, maturely reflecting on his relationship with Sophia. These characters work so well together and it’s been a delight to see how they’ve influenced each other over the course of the show.
Favorite Moments:
– Jake gambling with Sophia’s boss: How many egg rolls tall is Terry?
– “Have fun watching some chubby Chenoweth knock off warble her way through ‘Popular.’”
– ”So you choose your dad over me, a coworker who hates you?”
[Photo via FOX]
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