‘Tis the season, folks. 

We’re getting two holiday-themed episodes in a row, as Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 1 Episode 10 left a bit to be desired for Thanksgiving. So, How did this week’s Christmas episode fare?

I absolutely loved it.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 1 Episode 11 didn’t really revolve around the holiday like it did last week, and that was a good thing.  Instead, we got some holiday precinct hijinks, a great case and hilarious interactions among all the characters.

Like last Tuesday, we were treated another excellent pairing of Captain Holt and Jake Peralta.  Holt’s received some death threats, so he requests Jake as his protective detail, downplaying the threat and hoping to avoid all the department protocol through Jake’s resistance to rules. He was mistaken.

Jake Peralta reminds me a bit of Sterling Archer (a much more stable, non-alcoholic version). His sardonic, nonchalant personality and can mistakenly lead you to think that he’s incompetent, but he’s good at his job. Also, if there’s an opportunity to have fun on the job, it will be taken. The look of glee on Jake’s face was priceless as he realized his job gave him power over Holt.

For your safety, if you could open up your internet browser and search the words “pigs” and “jet-skis”...and that’s an order.

Peralta wasn’t about to give up an opportunity to boss Holt around, but he was genuinely concerned about the Captain’s safety.  Holt tried in vain to evade Jake’s protective detail, and I have to give Jake credit for sticking with it in the face of Holt’s downright scary ire.  Andre Braugher does intimidating really, REALLY well.

Jake managed to get Holt to a safe-house and then handcuffed himself to Holt to keep him there.  The series of activities Jake planned to keep him occupied were pretty humorous. Of course Captain Holt has seen “Safe House”. I guess Holt is the Denzel Washington to Peralta’s Ryan Reynolds?

When the Captain called for reinforcements via Charles Boyle, he ended up in a worse (and even funnier) predicament. I was in hysterics when Charles handcuffed himself to Holt’s other hand!

It turned out that the threat was real, and it’s through this revelation that we see some great character work.  Captain Holt, concerned for the safety of his subordinates, refuses to accept help from the precinct to find the person responsible. Jake, however, employs wisdom that we’ve seen him learn on the show – the value of teamwork.

Watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 1 Episode 11 Online

If you had truly changed, you’d be saying a bunch of boring responsible stuff like, “Don’t be stupid, use the detective squad, you’re part of a team, I smell like sandalwood!

It wasn’t too long ago that Jake was the one refusing to use the team for a job, and Holt had to teach him the same lesson. Behold – the student became the teacher!  It’s great to see that Jake’s lessons haven’t been temporary; it would be annoying if he had to learn the same thing over and over.  Thank you, writers!

We also see why Holt is working on Peralta so much.  Jake is really a lot like young Captain Holt; good at his job, yet impulsive and brash. I think Holt sees that, and is mentoring Jake in hopes of keeping him from making the mistakes that he made, the kind of mistakes that led to his life being threatened.

Meanwhile, Amy Santiago continues her quest to make Captain Holt pay attention to her instead of Peralta.  This is the only thing I didn’t like about this episode – I like Amy when she’s doing ANYTHING else, but not when she’s brown-nosing.  Again, I find it awkwardly uncomfortable and inappropriate, but not amusing.

However, her quest with Gina to get Rosa to smile was pretty entertaining.  I have to hand it to Stephanie Beatriz – Rosa may not get the most character development, but Beatriz plays her so well. She’s convincingly intimidating, but just over the top enough to make it funny.  I wonder if Rosa will start seeing Charles differently now that he saved her life (by taking two bullets – one in each butt-cheek).

Charles may have saved Rosa’s life, but Terry saved the day by (literally) taking down the killer responsible for Holt’s death threats.  Terry’s back in the field!! It was great seeing Terry redeem himself after what had to be the saddest psych eval in history:

Psychiatrist: What do you think of when I say the word bottle?
Terry: Liquor store...hold-up...gun...death.

Other notes:

• I have to mention Scully and Hitchcock: the gifts that keep on giving.  I have no idea how they’re cops, but I’m so very glad they are. Señor Tickle?!  Really, Hitchcock?!
• I think getting shot in the butt will redeem Charles from kicking Santa in the testicles.
• Dear writers – can we please, please get a Holt flashback in every episode?!

So that’s it for Brooklyn Nine-Nine for the year!  It’ll be back in January. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!