Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 3 Episode 11 Review: Hostage Situation
Robin Harry
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Well, Charles' "Boyle Oil" was in danger on Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 3 Episode 11, as his ex-wife's death-grip over his life continued to hold. Unfortunately for Jake, it meant he had to hear the phrase "Boyle Oil."
On another good installment of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake was the voice of reason as Charles ran out of options. Meanwhile, Amy was a menace to Terry, and Rosa found something in common with a perpetrator.
CHARLES AND JAKE
Jake and Charles' friendships is one of the best ones on TV. I love it because it's not perfect, but it's rock solid when it matters. Jake hasn't always been the model friend to Charles, and Charles is more than a little too subservient to Jake. That said, they are there for each other when it counts.
This story was by far the strongest out of the three told in this episode. Charles was considering having a baby with the new lady in his life. However, no longer able to biologically have children, he had to depend on sperm banking he had done before his vasectomy and "the accident."
His ex-wife Eleanor, however, was in possession of the sperm (a.k.a. Boyle Oil), and demanded that Charles use his police privilege to harangue an old priest out of pressing charges for almost running him over in her car.
Seeing what an awful person Eleanor was made me wonder how Charles ended up with her in the first place. How does a sweet, optimistic, sincere person like Charles end up with a heartless crazy woman that wanted to get out of almost running over a 90-year-old man sitting on the sidewalk?
In all this, Jake was Charles' voice of reason, turning the tables on their usual relationship. Jake can find the work angle in pretty much any situation, and his declaration of Boyle's predicament as a "hostage situation" was quite genius.
Not only was Jake able to keep Charles from breaking the law, he helped break Eleanor's hold on him. Jake was mature enough to use his own experience with his father to inspire Charles to consider the broader picture of fatherhood.
This story was also the funniest out of the three. The flashback to Charles' "accident" had me in stitches, the "Boyle Oil" catchphrase was hilarious, and the end line almost finished me.
Jake: That looks like my dad. That is my dad! You cannot use his sperm! You cannot use his sperm!
Charles: My son would be your brother!
AMY AND TERRY
The idea of tiny Amy being terrifying to giant Terry Jeffords made for some good comedy. Amy's succession of injurious encounters with Terry was hilarious, and I will always love watching Terry Crews do physical comedy. His pained sneeze was fantastic.
However, I think Amy got off a bit too easy in this story. For one, it would have been cool to see Amy learn a little about herself in the face of rejection. She automatically assumed that the reason she didn't get in was sabotage, not an inferior application. Instead, the outcome was something better than she even applied for.
Secondly, accusing Terry – her supervising officer – of writing her a bad recommendation letter was completely out of line, and the repercussions of that were played down immensely. While it was completely within Terry's character to help figure that out afterwards, Amy's confrontation with him left a sour taste in my mouth.
ROSA, HOLT AND GINA
In this story, a perpetrator connected with credit card fraud decided that instead of Holt or Rosa, he would only confess to Gina. While this had the potential of being an interesting story, what we got was a little off kilter.
If there's anything we've learned about Gina over the series, it's that within her little bubble of narcissism, there floats a self-aware and street-smart savvy woman hat makes sense in most situations. So this story seemed very out of character for her.
Not only was Gina completely useless in the interrogation, she was completely unaware of how badly she was doing. The first time she botched the interrogation was fine; she hadn't read the file and knew she was wrong. But the second time? That wasn't the Gina we've come to know.
That said, the way that Rosa salvaged the interrogation was pretty funny. Bonding over how terrible Gina is made total sense.
OTHER NOTES:
- Don't lie to Scully about strudel. Karma will come back to get you.
- Are you actually, technically a pedestrian if you're sitting?
So all-in-all, while this was a good episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it certainly wasn't their strongest. What did you all think?
Don't forget, you can catch up when you watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine online.
