A review of tonight’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine season finale coming up just as soon as I ruin jazz forever for you…
Boy, that was a satisfying end to both season 3 and, at least for now, the Pimento/Figgis mini-arc. The latter’s obviously going to continue into season 4, now that Jake and Holt are in witness protection down in Florida, but in terms of the squad’s immediate objective about taking down Figgis and the dirty FBI agents, “Greg and Larry” brought things to a satisfying conclusion that managed to continually find silly moments even as most of our heroes’ lives were in danger from Bob and various Figgis soldiers.
It’s apparently going to be a series-long thing where each season ends with somebody seemingly leaving the precinct: Jake going undercover in the mob at the end of season 1, Holt being reassigned by Wunch at the end of season 2, and now the both of them as the pseudonymous title characters of “Greg and Larry.” That both will soon end up back at the Nine-Nine should make the repetition annoying, but I’m really looking forward to at least a episode or two of them having to pretend to be suburban neighbors – and of Jake the lover of role-playing enjoying a front row seat to Captain Holt having to do it right along with him. For that matter, the sting they ran on Bob was a nice summation of three years of the two of them leaning to appreciate the other’s temperament and skill set – it was like a Halloween episode where they were teaming up for once – and the unrehearsed spoken word performance of “Funky Cold Medina” was a thing of wonder and beauty.
Funky Cold Medina. #Brooklyn99 pic.twitter.com/7kRFreI9Iq
– Brooklyn Nine-Nine (@Brooklyn99FOX) April 20, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
There were enough choice moments for both Samberg (doing a goofy riff on Will Graham channeling the mind of a serial killer, only as an excuse to do impressions of Holt and Bob) and Braugher (listing the rices, being spectacularly un-Pembleton-like in his attempt to interrogate Bob) that everything with the rest of the ensemble was gravy. But it was such delicious, abundant gravy, with everyone getting at least one moment to shine, from Gina playing crazy to Hitchcock driving like a man with nothing to lose to both Terry and Amy’s reactions to learning about Rosa’s apartment and her Emily Goldfinch alter ego.
Well-executed work by all around, in the finale and across this season. And Pimento still can’t return, which is probably for the best.
What did everybody else think?