Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Stakeout Recap

Summary of 2×11: Peralta and Boyle are assigned on an eight day stakeout, which puts a strain on their friendship. Diaz finds herself attracted to Holt’s nephew Marcus (Nick Cannon). Santiago and Gina evaluate their personalities after finding characters based on their appearances in a book Jeffords has made for his girls.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

I never thought I’d say this, but the main plot line kind of dragged down the rest of the episode.

After celebrating their success with the Giggle Pig task force that ends with Holt very publicly gloating in Madeline Wunch’s face, a case involving activities of the Ukranian mob comes across the desk of the 99. Involving an eight day stakeout, Peralta and Boyle volunteer to do the entire thing, despite warnings from their superiors not to. They believe they can do it though because they never fight.

The stakeout starts well enough, with the two getting along swimmingly, but it’s only just a few days in when the two realize the little ways the other gets on their nerves. Afraid of proving the rest of the precinct right on needing alone time, the two make lists of things the other person can’t do during the time. Which exponentially expands during the course of the stakeout that by day 7, the two can’t stand each other and it leads to Boyle throwing a basketball out a window in frustration, blowing the cover. And to think, pride is why they didn’t get a relief team, even in the middle of their arguments.

Declaring themselves not to be friends anymore, the two go their separate ways upon arrival back at the precinct. However, Holt orders them to do one last search for the lead of the mob. Not as friends, but as partners. The two manage to catch the guy by sheer dumb luck, and they make up by episode’s end. Awww.

In the b-plot, Holt introduces his nephew Marcus to the precinct. Despite her denial, he catches Diaz’s attention and Gina declares that Rosa wants to bang Holt’s nephew. Well, apparently Marcus feels the same because he asks Holt to get Diaz’s number. He says that he’s not a third grade girl, but this leads to Diaz saying that he can ask her himself. So… awkward?

Though, not in comparison to coming downstairs with Marcus while Holt and Kevin are having breakfast. THAT’S awkward, though also hilarious once everyone starts repeating each other’s names, start looking for the dog and offering french toast with bacon smiles.

The next day, Holt comes to Diaz as a friend doing two things. One, returning her bra like it’s a bomb that’s about to go off. Two, telling her that he thinks Marcus is a good kid and that she should continue to see him if that’s what she wants, but not to talk to him about it at all. Which is fine by Diaz and the two agree to never talk about anything. Ever.

In the same meanwhile, Amy and Gina come across Terry working on a children’s book for his daughters with two main female characters that look like the two of them. He claims that the characters are only based on them in looks since all of his characters look like people in the precinct. However, the two end up sneaking a read of the book and find that Terry has written the characters to be a pushover and a heinous bitch. They take it rather personally and set out to change their personalities to get back at Terry to prove him wrong. This ends up blowing up in their faces when they get caught on an elevator with Terry after Amy tries to refuse holding it for him. They fess up to their feelings, which causes Terry to counter that again, the characters aren’t actually based on them and that the books deal with nonsense. If they’re reading into it, that’s their problem. I feel like this whole plotline is a great metaphor for author intent vs. audience interpretation, but again, that’s probably me reading too much into it. Amy eventually apologizes, saying that it struck a chord with her since she sometimes feels like a pushover and that it felt nice to stand up for herself. Gina, of course, learned nothing.

While the main plotline was kind of forgettable, the b-plots driven by the women of the show were nothing short of fantastic. It just goes to show that there are supremely awesome ladies working on the show and bringing the laughs just as hard as the guys. It’s really part of the reason I keep coming back to the 99 week after week.