Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Charges and Specs Recap

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Charges and Specs (1×22)

Summary: Despite being told to back off by Holt and Commissioner Podolski, Peralta relentlessly pursues a community leader for potential money laundering. Diaz and Jeffords work together to help Boyle over his breakup.

Rating: ★★★★★

Oh man, I was a little worried there for the past few episodes, but I don’t think there could have been any better way to end one of the best first seasons in TV in recent memory.

The episode opens with a drunk Jake hanging out at a bar buying drinks for everyone. The person sitting next to him asks why and Jake tells him it’s because he had just been fired from the NYPD.

Cut to a week earlier, where Peralta is brought into Holt’s office to speak with him and Commissioner Podolski. You might remember him from the episode ‘The Tagger,’ where he gave Peralta Hell for trying to arrest his son. This time, he has a much bigger reason to be annoyed at the detective. Peralta has been pursuing a case against a community leader named Lucas Wint under the belief that he’s using his organization as a front to launder drug money. However, since Podolski hates Peralta and believes Wint’s innocence, he responds to Wint’s complaints about him and orders him to back off. Holt backs the orders and Peralta goes off the case…

…Except not really because he then take Santiago on a stakeout in front of Wint’s community center where he is then promptly caught by Wint. Oh dear, Jake. Really?

Holt immediately berates Peralta for disobeying a direct order and informs him that Podolski is calling him up on Charges and Specs, which could result in Peralta being suspended. However, Santiago believes in Peralta’s hunch about Wint and decides to follow along with the case. The day of the hearing, Santiago brings a drug dealer named Lucas (played by Joe Mande) to Holt to share what he knows. It’s definitely damaging to Wint, but really, this scene is the best for Mande. Why isn’t he in more things?

Holt decides to help Peralta on the case against Wint to bring up to the hearing, but tells him he’ll be with him every step of the way as the rest of the 99 stalls for them at the meeting. This involves going to a judge to get a warrant signed and entering a ballroom dance competition at the community center. This is where the episode REALLY hits quality, because Holt has game with ladies and the freaking thrift store dance competition outfits. The two times I have watched the episode already, I lost it at those parts every time.

With some dancing, clever undercover work, and a little bit of sad cuteness between him and Santiago, Peralta gets the evidence he needs against Wint to present at the hearing. However, Holt stops Peralta from presenting the evidence and asks him to get himself fired. This seems strange as hell, but Holt asks Peralta to trust him. It says a lot to how much they’ve grown that the two of them put their trust in each other so much.

Plus, Peralta getting himself fired is funny as hell.

After the hearing, Holt comes to Peralta with FBI agents who are looking into Wint as well. They have a feeling it goes all the way to the Ianucci crime family and if Peralta exposed the case, it would blow the case they were working. They ask Peralta to go undercover on the case for six months to gain the trust of the Ianucci family and he immediately says yes. “Closed eyes, head first, can’t lose!” Oof, don’t let Leslie Knope hear you say that, Jake.

Holt informs the rest of the detectives (minus Hitchcock and Scully) that Peralta is going undercover and that they will miss him. Peralta then acts out continuing to be fired and you can totally see Stephanie Beatriz break cover as Samberg goes overboard. It’s really cute.

As Peralta leaves the office to start the mission, he runs into Santiago on his way out. Not certain about his own future, he FINALLY tells Amy that he has feelings for her. Except it’s kind of sad and weirdly mature for Jake since he admits that he knows that nothing is likely to happen. I might have actually shed a tear.

Cut back to the beginning where Peralta is at the bar talking to the man who asked him why he’s celebrating. When Jake tells him he’s been fired, the man introduces himself as Leo Ianucci. Peralta is officially in as the season ends.

While this is going on, Boyle has hit a new low as he deals with the fact Vivian broke up with him. Since he’s being a sad sack dressing like a bad Keanu Reeves knock off and only eating eggs, Diaz and Jeffords decide to help him get over his break up in various ways, including listening to him talk about Vivian, burning everything of hers, and breaking plates like Jeffords did after his girlfriend Chiaki broke his heart. However, this all just manages to hurt Boyle even more physically. Gina keeps suggesting meaningless rebound sex, but everyone ignores her more than usual because she is now including Emoji in her speech.

After Peralta leaves, Diaz and Jeffords decide to stop coddling Boyle and make him drink his troubles away. With Boyle and Diaz left alone to drink as Jeffords gets beer, Diaz laments that everyone she’s dumped wasn’t a good guy like Boyle. While this was very sweet, I was worried that with all the mentions of meaningless sex, the writers were going to ruin the thing they had going here with the two of them.

Except they didn’t because Boyle wakes up next to Gina the next morning. THANK YOU, WRITERS.

So Brookyln Nine-Nine season one has come to an end with a high note and a cliffhanger that doesn’t make me want to strangle babies. Will Peralta’s undercover mission succeed? Will Santiago return his feelings? How are Boyle and Gina going to deal with the fact they had meaningless sex? Well, I guess we’ll find out in six months when the show returns for season 2. Meanwhile, I’m just going to watch it over and over again on Hulu. And maybe get some other people to watch it too.