‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season 6 Brings Back a Fan-Favorite Tradition (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6 Episode 16, “Cinco de Mayo.”]
If there’s a single iconic staple for each season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine — a half-hour more highly anticipated than all the rest — it’s likely the show’s Halloween episodes.
Many fans were disappointed to find Nine-Nine wouldn’t be featuring its yearly “Halloween heist” episode in October, given that the past five installments had offered fan-favorite moments like Cheddar’s dog duplicate (“You’re not Cheddar, you’re just some common b**ch!”), Amy’s duplicity and victory and even Jake’s proposal. Never fear, Nine-Niners: The season may almost be over, but the heist is here.
This year, the competition is meant to help a nervous Terry take his mind off the lieutenant’s exam. However, it might cause him more stress than comfort: the whole group keeps betraying each other to get ahead. Is Terry really a victim of Jake’s competitive nature, or does he have a trick up his sleeve?
Testy Terry
The episode opens with a testy Terry — he’s taking the lieutenant’s exam that night, and he’s so nervous that he ate ten egg yolks. To get his mind off the test, Jake proposes rescheduling the Halloween heist to that day (there was an emergency gas line explosion last October, and Holt said they had to help out). Terry agrees that would help his nerves and even says, “Maybe I’ll win this year!”
The group meets in the briefing room and decides the item they’ll be stealing is Scully’s medical alert bracelet. When Jake snaps at Terry, Holt threatens to cancel the heist and Jake teams up with Terry to take the bite out of his insult. Amy then pairs up with Holt, who texts Kevin to bring the real cummerbund (last year’s was a fake used for Jake’s proposal, and Holt is convinced he was the true winner). When Boyle tries to pair up with Rosa, she says she’s not going to do the heist this year.
My Twin is Earl
They begin the heist with Hitchcock and Scully locked in a room, and Jake and Terry meet. Jake says he has the greatest reveal in heist history, and he might not be wrong: he opens a safe, and Scully — or rather Scully’s identical twin, Earl — appears. Jake distracts Amy and Holt with Earl while Terry goes for the real Scully, which ends up being a success; Amy and Holt end up with Earl, who they think is Scully, while Jake and Terry get the bracelet. There’s another twist in store, though. Once he has the bracelet, Jake ditches Terry in order to perform better in the heist. He makes the grave mistake of mentioning Earl in front of Scully, who becomes enraged and breaks the window. “I told that son of a b**ch never to show his face in New York again!” Scully says.
The truth between them eventually comes out: Earl slept with Scully’s wife, and the two haven’t gotten along since. After the two confront each other, Terry reveals that Jake has the bracelet in his pocket. There’s just one problem… it’s not there. A costumed Boyle brings the real bracelet to Rosa, but Rosa knocks him out with chloroform and sends him away in a truck, because she’s secretly working with Holt, who has had Kevin (and Cheddar) come to the precinct to bring him last year’s cummerbund. It seems the whole group is betraying each other!
You All Suck!
Jake goes to Terry for his help, and at first, Terry doesn’t want to assist him. With a little pressure, Jake gets him to help — but when they’re successful and get Cheddar’s chew toy, where the bracelet is hidden, Jake handcuffs Terry in the evidence lockup and betrays him for a second time. Karma gets Jake back when Terry breaks out of the lockup and reveals his friend’s traitorous nature. Jake doesn’t have the real bracelet, either: Kevin did, and because he doesn’t like these competitions and doesn’t want any more heist memorabilia in his and Holt’s house, he gave it to Amy. Arguments escalate, and the group continues turning on each other.
“You know what? You all suck!” Terry yells, breaking through the bickering… and on Jake’s voice command, a panel drops from the ceiling along with a banner celebrating Jake’s victory. This collides with Terry’s head, and knocks him out. When he comes to, it’s a half-hour before the exam and he’s awake, but it seems like he has a concussion. They get him to the exam, but it’s clear he’s in no condition to test. Jake goes to tell the proctor that Terry will have to cancel, but when he steps inside, the room is empty. “What’s going on?” Jake asks. Suddenly, Terry comes to and tells them they’re all losers, producing the bracelet from his pocket.
Lieutenant Jeffords
As the stunned squad looks on, Terry reveals how he did it. He faked the explosion to get the heist off of Halloween, since it needed to happen on a day when he had control. He spent the past six months “sowing the seeds of conflict,” getting everyone upset at each other about the past heist victories. Terry reveals he sold Jake the banner that caused the wall panel to drop and give him the chance to act like he had a concussion, which was how he knew Jake’s catchphrase and where to stand. He trained and put a magnetic collar on Cheddar, so he picked up the bracelet from him. Moreover, Terry took the actual exam weeks ago, and he passed!
The group goes to Shaw’s to celebrate both Terry’s victory and him passing the exam. Jake apologizes for how he treated him, but Terry’s okay with it. They go back and forth about what they’ll do to each other in the next heist (which will be happening on Halloween, Holt decrees), but the final word goes to Kevin. “You’re right, Raymond,” he says. “These heists are fun.”
Other Observations
- Can we expect Kevin to be part of next year’s heist, especially if Gina isn’t coming back? That would be tons of fun, and it would be nice to see Holt and Kevin working together — or even Kevin as the next heist victor.
- The continuation of Jake and Amy’s having-children plotline during this episode makes me think there’ll be a Peraltiago baby, or at least a pregnancy, next season.
- While this has been a fun season so far and it’s great that Nine-Nine was saved, I do miss the overarching storylines this show used to have. The longer conflicts the show featured during its first five seasons have been largely eschewed in Season 6 for self-contained episodes with different conflicts.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Thursdays, 9/8c, NBC
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