A Case Leads Jake to Face His Past on ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 6, Episode 10 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “The Therapist.”]
Whether or not we remember it all, Jake Peralta has been through a lot on Brooklyn Nine-Nine; he went undercover as a mobster, went to prison, had to enter witness protection, and that’s not bringing up his complicated family history.
With all that in his head, one might think he’d need to talk it out with a professional — and in fact, that’s exactly what the precinct thinks. But Jake’s convinced he doesn’t need therapy and resents therapists. That makes his case this episode, in which a woman goes missing and her therapist seems to have clues as to what happened, all the trickier. Meanwhile, Amy’s erroneously gotten a semi-embarrassing delivery that seems to be Terry’s, and Holt takes offense to Rosa’s refusal to attend a dinner party at his home.
A Creepy Therapist?
The episode opens with Boyle talking to Jake about a case; a woman was reported missing, and her therapist, Dr. Tate, thinks her husband might have had something to do with it. This spawns into a larger discussion about how Jake’s never been to therapy, but he probably should.
Jake and Boyle meet Dr. Tate in a park, and he tells them her husband recently gave him a distressed call in which he said he thought he might have done something horrible. Their joking manner leads the therapist to probe a bit into an uncomfortable Jake’s psyche, and the cop ends up being relieved when Boyle finds a body in the bushes and ends the doc’s inquiries.
Boyle says the husband is a solid suspect based on evidence Dr. Tate had given them: the man had been having violent fantasies for several months. Jake refuses to use the therapist’s notebook on grounds that he’s a “creepy therapist.” They go to investigate the apartment and bring James in, but Jake’s thrown when the doctor comes too — Boyle says if James is unstable, the doctor could talk him down. However, Tate’s knowledge of the apartment’s layout convinces Jake that he, not the husband, is the killer.
Suspicions Confirmed
Jake says Dr. Tate’s knowledge of where the bathroom was proves he’d been there before, and he could’ve been having an affair with Susan. Boyle, on the other hand, says the evidence is still conclusive for James. They split up and Jake promises he isn’t going to investigate Dr. Tate, but that’s exactly what he ends up doing. He finds a second notebook labeled “James and Susan Buckley,” which seems to prove that Tate gave them false evidence. He gets caught on the way out by one of Tate’s colleagues, and he has to fake having multiple personality disorder to escape being detected.
He manages to make it out with the notebook, but when he sits down in his car, Dr. Tate sits up in the backseat and points a gun at Jake, and tells him he knew he was in his office. “I knew it,” Jake says. “You’re a Hannibal!”
Talking About Issues
Dr. Tate tells Jake he killed James and Susan because they were going to talk about Susan’s affair with him, and that would’ve ruined his career. He also reveals he killed another couple who saw him for therapy. “You are a terrible therapist,” Jake says. “Strong words from someone who’s clearly afraid to talk about their own issues,” Tate responds. This leads to Jake blurting out a bunch of those issues, at gunpoint, to Tate.
During that time, Jake managed to text Boyle (by texting Amy, who let Boyle know) his location and Tate ends up being brought to justice. But Jake’s come to a pretty important conclusion: He does need therapy. Boyle says he knows a great guy, and it seems Jake will take some steps to talk through his issues.
Vivian Zink/NBC
An Awkward Delivery
Meanwhile, Amy finds a book of sex tips in a box with protein powder that was mistakenly sent to her, and although the shipment was clearly Terry’s, he denies it. This leads to a pretty awkward moment where Terry calls his wife and asks her to tell Amy how good he is in bed, but his wife had put him on speakerphone and their daughters were there. Oops!
Terry ends up putting up flyers to find the original owner of the book, and against all odds, the book seems to end up being Hitchcock’s. “And you thought that was my book?” Terry laughs. But later, Terry goes into the bathroom and gets the book from him colleague; Terry put him up to claiming the book in order to protect his reputation in the precinct.
Dinner Party Drama
Holt invites Rosa and Jocelyn to dinner at his house, but Rosa declines on the grounds that Holt can be a “bit judgmental.” Jocelyn, unlike them, has feelings — and Rosa doesn’t want her to get offended. Holt manages to talk Rosa into attending his dinner party, but they end up going to Shaw’s for drinks so Holt can meet her first. Things go sideways when Holt realizes Rosa brought an actress instead of Jocelyn, and, hurt, he says he obviously misread their relationship.
In the end, Rosa brings Jocelyn to the precinct, and she meets Holt. It goes well, and Rosa later tells him that she didn’t want to keep Jocelyn from him because she was worried her girlfriend would be offended; she was worried Holt wouldn’t like her. With that fear removed and their friendship repaired, Rosa accepts Holt’s dinner invitation.
Other Observations:
- What a great cold open! A pretty funny callback to “the full bullpen,” at least in my opinion. Is “bottles, bullpen, Boyle, bowling” the next “bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica”?
- We finally met Jocelyn! I almost wish this episode had shown the dinner party, though, instead of taking the route of Rosa keeping Jocelyn from Holt. Some of my favorite episodes have been the ones where Holt and Kevin host a gathering (the dinner party with Rosa and Marcus, the larger party with the whole precinct, etc.)
- I’m happy the episode ended with Jake realizing he could benefit from some therapy — that’s a genuinely great message to send, and Jake, probably more than any other character at the Nine-Nine, could use some time to talk through his issues with someone who could help.
- Not sure how I felt about the Terry storyline this week. While it was funny, I also felt like it didn’t really need to exist. I would’ve rather spent that time expanding on the Rosa and Holt stuff, which was more interesting.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC
