Captain Holt isn’t exactly a character who is known for his sunny disposition, making it hard to tell whether he’s in a good mood or a bad mood most of the time. But it was clear to everyone in this week’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that something was wrong with Holt, and he was taking his bad mood out on everyone around him. The episode focused on how the characters reacted to Holt’s bad mood, as they attempted to both find out what’s wrong with him and make sure they didn’t make the problem even worse.
We’ve seen throughout the show’s run that Jake does not like it when people are mad at him. He makes mistakes that often end up upsetting those around him, but he always tries to fix those mistakes and regain his friend’s respect. When everyone in the precinct blames Jake for Holt’s bad mood, he makes it his mission to prove them wrong, setting out to discover the real reason Holt is angry. His reasons are mostly selfish, wanting to redeem himself in the eye’s of the squad, but he also wants to discover the root of the problem so that Holt returns to normal and no one has to deal with his bad mood anymore.
Jake enlists Gina’s help to discover what’s wrong, as she has grown close to both Holt and his husband, Kevin. Reluctantly, as she does not want to ruin that relationship that she has worked so hard on, she agrees to help Jake in return for a previous favor he had done for her. It’s been hinted at many times on the show that the two knew each other growing up and are good friends. We don’t get to see that friendship nearly enough on the show, which is a shame because of how well Chelsea Peretti and Andy Samberg work together. When it does happen though, it results in great comedy, and this week’s episode was no exception. The two were able to work together to discover Holt was really angry with himself for being mugged, and Jake was able to fix it by tracking down the men who had done the mugging.
While Jake and Gina were out trying to discover the cause of Holt’s anger, Terry was in charge of making sure everyone else at the precinct didn’t do anything to exasperate the bad mood. As Holt’s second in command, we’ve seen Terry assume leaderships positions in the past, and it’s always a lot of fun to watch. Terry is obviously a large and intimidating man on the outside, but he also genuinely cares about those around him. This is why he wants to ensure that no one does anything to further upset Holt. And when Hitchcock and Scully unsurprisingly end up causing a problem anyway, Terry is willing to take the heat for their actions as he tries to cover up what they’re doing. He takes his position in the squad seriously and in the end is recognized by Holt for the good work he did to keep everyone in line.
As the others focused on the Holt situation, Charles was more concerned with proving that an old man, played by the great Garry Marshall, was responsible for multiple bank robberies. While the man confessed multiple times to Boyle in private, he played the ‘nice old man’ card in front of Amy and Rosa, convincing them that he could never have robbed a bank. Boyle became obsessed with making Amy and Rosa believe him despite all their doubts.
The one thing Boyle takes the most pride in is that he is a good cop, and he isn’t willing to let anyone believe otherwise. It was great to see this more confident side of Boyle, not backing down or letting anyone else dictate what he did. His confidence paid off as Amy found evidence to prove the old man guilty, trusting Boyle’s judgement. I was also pleased to see that the show did not take the obvious route with Amy’s storyline this week by having her be overly concerned about Holt. All these characters really are growing as the show progresses and that’s why the show remains so compelling to watch.
[Photo via FOX]
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