'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Recap: "Boyle-Linetti Wedding"

Jake and Amy

Though this is one of those episodes where everyone is gathered together for an event, a good amount of it does focus on the Jake/Amy relationship that has been the driving force of a lot of this season, although put on hold for the past few episodes. Though it's the day of the wedding, Amy is close to finally arresting a major counterfeiter who she's been chasing for two years, so Jake and Amy pair up to get him before making it to the wedding.

Seeing the two paired up to take down the guy, and have a chase sequence while in their wedding attire, is pretty fun. But we still get too much of the repetitive "will they/won't they" stuff which I've gotten completely tired of. We're reminded that Jake once told Amy he had feelings for her, she didn't reciprocate, then later she told him she had feelings for him but he didn't reciprocate. Then Jake spends a lot of the episode in pursuit of a girl he knew from his childhood, bringing back the typical storyline of one of them pining for the other who is involved in some sort of romantic pursuit or pairing. We've seen this type of thing so many times before, and it's not what Brooklyn Nine-Nine is best at.

Unlike a couple like Jim and Pam or Leslie and Ben, I haven't really been convinced that this is a relationship so destined to work that it's painful to not see them together. They have a chemistry as friends, but it really seems more like they're being paired just because they're the male and female leads of the show and that's what you do on a sitcom. I wish just once we could have a show like this that doesn't feel the need to pair whatever leads are of the opposite sex and mess around with "will they/won't they" storylines for episode upon episode when literally everyone knows where it's going and when we aren't really that emotionally invested in the relationship anyway.

The Wedding

The Boyle/Linetti wedding is the kind of big event Brooklyn Nine-Nine has spent a lot of this season building to, even if it really isn't that significant of a story development. But for a season that has been largely episodic, this is the only real example of an episode that has been set up for a while.

In some ways, it's the typical wedding storyline we've seen in every sitcom to ever do a wedding episode, where just about everything goes hilariously wrong, the characters scramble to talk someone in with going through with the wedding, and it all ends very sweetly. But the show is still able to put a Brooklyn Nine-Nine spin on this, and it ends up being a pretty enjoyable episode.

As Gina and Boyle prepare for the wedding, everyone is asked to help out. Jake is bringing the ring, though I can't imagine why Gina and Boyle thought that was a good idea. He loses it in pursuit of the counterfitter, and even when they find it it gets stuck on his finger. Terry is asked to officiate, but Holt has to take over when Terry can't even read the speech without breaking down in tears. Meanwhile Boyle's father starts getting cold feet, leaving Gina to desperately try to talk him down.

Unlike most wedding episodes in other sitcoms, here we aren't at all invested in the couple getting married. The wedding is almost a gag and not something that we really care about the result of. But it's more about how our characters handle this situation that's funny. Holt officiating the wedding is honestly a stroke of genius, and something I'm honestly surprised the show took this long to do. Holt working through his speech with Terry has got to be the highlight of the episode.

It's also a lot of fun to see Gina taking more of a leadership role here, where as usually she's the character throwing spitballs from the back of the class. Here she's taking charge, and that's something I hope we see more of as this series progresses. It's hilarious to see both a combination of her stepping up and bossing everyone around while simultaneously almost seeming like she actively hates this whole thing.

The Gina and Boyle dynamic has also become surprisingly great. What started as a storyline played for laughs about the awkwardness of them sleeping together has lead to a pretty great comic relationship between the two. They couldn't be more different, but seeing them work off each other for the same goal in totally different ways is pretty fun.

We also have a storyline with Rosa, who is worried about taking the next step with Marcus but who eventually tells him she loves her, inspired by all the love in the air. It's nice to see Rosa open up by this, although again the show has not done a great job of making us care about the Marcus storyline. He's barely even ever on screen, and if we care about their relationship it's only because we want the best for Rosa and not because we've been shown that the two are good together.

In the end, "Boyle-Linetti Wedding" spends more time than I'd like it to on the Jake/Amy relationship, which has become boring and repetitive as the show stalls and relies on generic sitcom tropes when we all know where this is going. But the wedding itself makes for a pretty fun episode, putting a weird, Brooklyn Nine-Nine spin on something we've seen on TV again and again.

Other highlights:
-Gina takes charge about the wedding during Amy's briefing, bossing everyone around and saying the wedding is so important she doesn't care how many criminals go free. "Dismissed.” “I’m not done with my briefing yet…” “I said dismissed!”
-Boyle calls Michael Buble "the boobs," which Jake points out literally nobody else ever does.
-"He’s a major loser. Assistant U.S attorney? Get a real job!”
-Rosa has only said I love you to three people: her mom, dad and dying grandpa. And the grandpa ended up getting better so now she feels like an idiot.
-“Charles’ dad probably lives under a bridge and uses a puddle as a mirror.”
-For some reason Boyle is under the impression it's bad luck for a boy to see his dad on his wedding day.
-In the heat of the moment Jake nicknames Amy "Maxipads" because he didn't want to make the name too sexual.
-“You are a stone cold atrocity.”
-“You’re a family of soup haters. What have I done?”
-Holt tells us about a hilarious zinger he had at his wedding when he said "I wish the officiant had been more efficient." Oh Holt.
-“Then I never would have heard your officiant/efficient quip?” “You’re right. I regret nothing.”