Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “The Boyle-Linetti Wedding,” (2.17) - TV Review

March 1st, 2015, 8:30 PM, FOX

Gina’s mom and Charles’ dad are finally getting married, and the gang all have special jobs they need to attend to in order to make sure the wedding comes off without a hitch. But the day is quickly put in jeopardy when Jake and Amy run into Amy’s counterfeiting perp Minsk while trying to pick up the wedding bands at the jewelers, Terry is pressed into service to perform the ceremony, and Rosa accidentally panics Charles’ dad into a case of cold feet.

It seems that everyone has an ulterior motive: Jake wants to slow dance with Jenny Gildenhorn, who dumped him at his junior high school dance and happens to have a mom who’s friends with Gina’s mother, even though he’s busy needling Amy about her feelings (or lack thereof) for him. Meanwhile, Rosa’s concerned words to Charles’ dad are motivated by her ambivalence toward her boyfriend Marcus, Terry can’t craft a speech without crying, Holt is put in charge of the ceremony and Jake manages to lose the ring while helping Amy tackle her perp. Just as the ceremony seems to be coming together, one final disaster seems to turn everything into a mess. But once the Nine-Nine teams up, there isn’t a thing in the world that can stand in its way.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s secret strength still lies in its ability to combine sentimentality with sharp humor. The centerpiece of the episode isn’t really Jake’s immature inability to let go of Jenny (In fact, his almost stalker-like attraction to her provides the episode’s worst moment); it’s the lengths that Gina – dethatched, sardonic Gina – goes to please her mother and make her big day special. It’s rare we get to see that human side of her, and this episode has a hundred instances of it – even when she’s threatening Charles’ life and rushing around trying to keep Lynn from going off the deep end. Naturally, Charles provides the comic relief in a situation like this, but even he gets a break from the endless cruelties fate tends to pile upon his head and he and his dad end up in a moment that’s truly worth celebrating.

Another great moment stems from Holt’s eventual speech. Inspired by the struggle that he fought to marry Kevin, he eventually delivers a moving oration while staring into his husband’s eyes; a beautiful moment, acted beautifully by Andre Braugher.

On the downside, even though Stephanie Beatriz is acting the hell out of Rosa’s feelings for Marcus and Nick Cannon is trying whenever they give him air time, I’m absolutely not invested in the characters’ romance. The show’s giving us nothing to work with when it comes to the two of them; we hear a lot about Rosa’s feelings but we haven’t had a lot of time to watch the two of them together. The chemistry between the actors is interesting but it’s not being used to its fullest potential.

Jake and Amy’s subplot, meanwhile, seems to mostly exist to remind us of their chemistry and the forgotten-while-Jake-dated-Sophia-connection between the two of them. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, the chemistry isn’t great, and we don’t get a good action sequence out of it. It’s interesting, though, that the show’s chosen to return to their relationship after so many weeks away from it. I sense we might get a little motion on the romance front between the two of them (finally) by May.

In the end, it’s absolutely worth watching the gang fumble through their missteps for the glorious reward of watching the end result: a happy wedding, happy people relishing their victories…and Jake getting a well-deserving smack on the can.

The Roundup

• “Two rs in Pluribus?!”
• Low points in Charles’ life: Was cheated on by his wife with a guy named Sleepy Stu; he also wore a Kaol hat for three years after seeing a Samuel L. Jackson movie.
• Other Boyle-Linetti Wedding Tasks: Rosa is in charge of the flowers and Terry is in charge of the suits.
• Rosa’s only said ‘I love you’ to three people in her life: her mom, her dad, and her dying grandpa. One she regrets: her grandfather, who promptly beat cancer and turned her into a chump.
• Terry is an ordained minister.
• Charles’ dad, Lynn, has been catfished three times consecutively. Of course he has.


• Further Boyle/Linetti wedding disasters: the band never arrives, one of the cooks accidentally roasted a dove, Lynn’s name on the cake is spelled “Lun”, the smoke machine stopped working, there isn’t an extra place setting for Darlene’s psychic, and Jake loses the ring.


• Amy plays the French horn in her high school jazz band. And she still does.


• Gina’s never seen the Lord of the Rings series.


• Jake wore the (nonexistent) Jason Priestly cologne “Brandon” in junior high school.


• The wedding becomes the third greatest day of Darlene’s life (the greatest is Gina’s birth – second greatest, the day she slept with a roadie from the Steve Miller Band).


• Holt and Kevin’s ceremony was super-rushed because they were afraid that gay marriage would be stricken down by the New York supreme court at any time.


• Next Week: Jake’s long-lost father stops by, and while Jake’s thrilled Charles thinks the man has ulterior motives. Meanwhile, Amy, Terry, Gina and Rosa try to compete for Beyonce tickets offered by Holt in “Captain Peralta”!