Television

Brooklyn Nine Nine: “The Mole”

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Who else is hooking up that we don’t know about? Rosa and Terry? Holt and Scully? You and Hitchcock?”

An episode like “The Mole” highlights Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s biggest strengths, the cast of characters and the joke/heart ratio. Tonight’s subplot involving Terry and Santiago going to a Silent Disco for a drug sting is one that hits on all cylinders. The writers along with the actors do a brilliant job of first introducing what seems to be an ideal teenage influence for Terry (a father of two little girls, it’s not a sex thing). She went to the same preschool that his daughters do, claims she doesn’t drink or do drugs and seems well adjusted. Terry offers a free bottle of water and remarks to Santiago how great it is that she isn’t on drugs, before remarking that they should in fact find some drugs.
A first for the show is the fact that the A and B plots delivers tension through the two. It is also hard to remember seeing Captain Holt this frazzled, seeing as how both his Drug Task Force and his precinct are sliding out of control. The task force has yet to find any drugs in their district and now it appears there is a mole in the department forcing Captain Holt and Peralta to team up and figure it out.  This leads to a stalemate where they both accuse each other of being the informant and Holt demanding Peralta give back his guest pajamas and the all important guest toothbrush.
By the end the episode everything comes full circle with Jake realizing he does know everyone as well as he thinks when he discovers that there was no mole this whole time and was merely a scheme by Holt’s rival, Chief Wuntch, to ruffle some feathers. Terry also discovers that the perfect angel he was introduced to in the top half of episode is in fact not a user but instead the supplier which leads him towards a big score for the task force. This also leads to a sentimental moment between Santiago and the Sergeant where she expresses how good of father he is and that he doesn’t have to worry about his daughters going down the same path.
In the final storyline, after having Diaz and Peralta walk in mid-coitus, we have Gina revealing her non-relationship with Boyle in a surprisingly touching way. Well for Gina anyways. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is one of those sneaky comedies that has you laughing nearly every second of the show but will also find ways to make you care about a loon like Gina and an eccentric like Boyle.
And someone, for the love of all things holy, please give Andre Braugher an award for his monologue revolving around “Am I ok?”. His delivery is pure brilliance and the answer by Skully (“I hear ya, I have this toenail-fungus thing”) had me in tears.
Grade: A-
John Loren
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