Charles asks Jake to be the best man at his wedding, a role that requires Jake to be supportive in important wedding decisions, ranging from cake tasting to floral arrangements; Terry, Amy and Gina support each other as they start a new extreme diet; and Holt helps Rosa make a sincere apology.
The Jake-Charles friendship has been one of the strongest and most reliable stories throughout this first season. Charles is always overly enthusiastic and supportive of Jake. And Jake loves that praise but he's not completely narcissistic. He cares for Charles too and looks out for him. He surprisingly is the voice of reason when it comes to Charles' personal relationship. He's great at helping him with love even though he struggles with it. It's a dichotomy for television. But it also makes an episode like "Fancy Brugdom" really fun.Charles asks Jake to be his best man and Jake just wants to be supportive. It's Charles wedding and Jake wants it to be whatever Charles wants it to be. Unfortunately, that brings up the issue of the future. Charles and Vivian moved so fast in their relationship. They were dating for an episode before getting engaged. Charles even claims early in the episode that they have never had a fight which makes it the perfect relationship. It's also a fantasy. Relationships are complicated and fights happen. It's better to disagree over something now before getting married then after. Of course, Charles wants to avoid confrontation and Jake pushes him to do. It's that kind of push that makes Jake a great friend. Charles and Vivian do talk. We don't know what solution they came to. But getting to that step was a necessary thing if they were to continue as a couple.
Elsewhere, the rest of the precinct was off having a lot of fun - but not doing any police work. Terry, Amy and Gina tried doing a diet together while Holt tried getting Rosa to apologize. Both had a lot of merits and were pretty funny as well. A food deprived and angry Amy is the funniest that character has been yet. Terry lifting a car up got a belly laugh from me even though it was also paired with a broader fart joke. Holt and Rosa saying "I'm sorry" was also great. Both stories had their moments of sentimentality. Terry's doing the diet as a thing to share with his wife and Holt sees leadership potential in Rosa. Both were reveals saved towards the end. But since both were pretty funny stories it just worked.
Some more thoughts:
- "Fancy Brugdom" was written by Laura McCreary and directed by Victor Nelli, Jr.
- It was also nice to see a glimpse of flashback Hitchcock and Scully too.
- Charles' wedding details are so weird and yet I'm so glad the focus wasn't on Jake trying to talk him out of doing them.
- That thong, why?
