'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Recap: "Beach House"

Welcome back to Brooklyn Nine-Nine!

Normally, Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes break up the cast into several groups, but “Beach House” wisely puts everyone together into one big storyline. Everyone takes a vacation to Boyle’s beach house, a plan which goes downhill when Jake invites Holt along.

It’s a great premise for one of those episodes that isn’t too important to the overall story but just allows us to hang out with the characters and have them play off each other. The main conflict is the idea that Jake felt bad excluding Holt, but now the captain's presence is making everyone uncomfortable and he’s bringing the party down.

This eventually leads to everyone breaking the party up into two parties: one boring one upstairs and one fun one in the basement which Holt isn’t invited to. What’s great about this premise is that it provides a lot of fun moments of Holt being so terrible at making this party fun while being completely oblivious, like telling a story about a friend with cancer or taking them on an 80 minute walk on the beach in the middle of winter.

Honestly, though, this storyline is kind of mean-spirited for a show that is generally pretty positive and doesn't rely on our characters being terrible to each other. I couldn't help but feel really bad when everyone, especially Jake, decided to lie to Holt like this, and they don’t even really face any consequences for it. Holt ends up apologizing for making everyone uncomfortable, so Jake doesn't really have to own up to how awful he was being too much. This all just felt a little too mean for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and for these characters.

But where “Beach House” really thrives is when it’s able to place everyone together to just bounce jokes off each other, and there are several scenes of everyone sitting around, especially when they’re interacting with Holt, where it’s clear how great the ensemble of this show is.

There are also some smaller, mini storylines within the overall one. Boyle helps Rosa text with Marcus (Nick Cannon), because he’s just lame enough to send cute texts when she’s obviously not cut out for that. We also have Gina and Santiago paired up with Gina encouraging Santiago to get super drunk so she can see “six drink Santiago.” When Santiago gets way too drunk there, Gina takes care of her in a pretty sweet moment. Both of these storylines don’t get a whole lot of attention, but they’re nice little pairings which feel more in line with Brooklyn Nine-Nine by having two characters pair off and ending in a pretty sweet place. The Gina/Santiago storyline really works in particular because it shows how good of a friend Gina can really be. On the surface she’s just an uncaring, sarcastic goofball who wants to see her friend get super drunk, but when Santiago really needs someone, Gina drops the act and she’s there for her.

In the end, Holt is able to realize how his behavior is hurting the party, and so he decides to stoop down to everyone’s level. It’s kind of weird that Holt can just suddenly decide to integrate himself into the party, and that a guy usually so perceptive had absolutely no idea everyone was uncomfortable and clearly slipping away to the basement. But it’s still nice to, after an episode with some mean-spirited behavior on everyone’s part, see the whole crew come together to play some games and joke around. Seeing everyone outside of work is both fun to find out more about how these characters behave outside of the realm of police work, but also it reinforces the idea that all of them aren't just colleagues; they’re legitimate friends.

Other funny moments:

-In a pretty funny cold open, Jake uses some genuinely impressive detective work to figure out that Holt spilled soup in his pants and currently has no pants on, which ends with Jake somehow ALSO spilling soup on his pants. “Look at us, just three people with pants on having a normal conversation.” “Yep, no story here.”
-I’m starting to love Rosa’s awkward interactions with Marcus. “All you gotta say is thank you.” “I SAID THANK YOU THAT WAS THE FIRST THING I SAID.”
-I love the way Jake and Boyle figure out the bed situation. Holt will take Jake’s bed, Jake will take Boyle’s bed, and Boyle will sleep on the floor. And Boyle is totally okay with that.
-”Vacation Terry” is so relaxed, just sort of chilling in the corner doing his own thing with headphones in. Gotta love the slippers.
-As soon as the party starts I was wondering why Hitchcock and Scully are even there, a question Jake also asks before realizing it’s too late to kick them out because they all drove there together. They spend the entire time trying to pitch Holt and investment opportunity. Ugh.
-”Texting: the most intimate thing you can do to a lover with your fingers. Other than washing their hair.”
-Everyone’s having fun gossiping about a guy in the office named David, and Holt chimes in with “I like David. He’s a good cop.” Awkward silence immediately follows. Holt really knows how to make a conversation fun.
-Jake describes the plan of the two parties as “separate but equal” and then immediately regrets that phrasing.
-Drunk Santiago lifts Scully’s hand to high five herself and slaps Gina’s butt. Gotta see more of drunk Santiago.
-“It seems to me all wheel drive...IS four wheel drive."
-After a terrible encounter with Holt: “This is gonna sound controversial but I think that went pretty good!”
-Love the last scene of the episode where everyone has to guess whether a quote is a real thing Holt said or not. “I said it...AND I MEANT IT!” I’m starting to worry if the show is getting into territory of overusing the sudden Holt outbursts, because they’re only funny if they’re a rare occurrence, but for now, they’re still hilarious.