FOX's Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Episode 2.05 "The Mole"
There's a mole in the precinct and Holt and Jake need to find out who it is before Deputy Chief Wuntch gets wind of it. Meanwhile, Terry and Rosa visit a "silent" disco to uncover new leads for their new drug task force.
There have been a lot of recurring beats throughout season two of Brooklyn Nine-Nine so far - Jake's feelings for Amy fueling their every interaction, Holt's feud with Deputy Chief Wuntch, Gina and Charles' casual relationship, and now, Rosa and Terry's new drug task force. All of these various plots are a part of "The Mole." But none of them honestly feel like they have a bite to them. The show is prolonging Jake and Amy addressing their relationship to get as much out of it as possible. Gina and Charles' relationship has been a lot of fun and has shown a lot of growth in Charles but there was only so long it could be kept a secret in a room full of detectives. Wuntch is a great new oppositional figure for Holt to go up against but their dynamic hasn't had this grand cause-and-effect ripple yet. It's a lot of various pieces that aren't coming in as strongly as the show would probably like.And yet, I find enough of the individual pieces in each episode to work to make all of these ongoing stories seem worth it. In "The Mole," Jake puts his feelings for Amy aside to do some weird product integration. Holt gets the one-up on Wuntch yet again. After discovering the Wuntch-lunch connection, it's humorous seeing him use it for name-calling - "Wuntch Meat." And yet, I'm not quite sure what the character arc of this dynamic is suppose to be. It's a lot of fun. I just wish it had a bit more substance. It's wonderful seeing Jake and Holt team up for an all-nighter to crack the case - in pajamas of course. But it's ultimately just another tactic from Wuntch in order to undermine Holt's credibility in this precinct. They caught her. But now what?
The whole reason Wuntch is so focused on the 99th precinct right now is because of the drug task force run by Rosa and Terry. They haven't had any breakthroughs yet. That's not a major point of contention for the majority of this episode - even though it's wonderful when Holt throws the lollipop promise joke back on Terry. The silent disco is a great environment to send Rosa and Terry into. The best part of this plot is seeing how Terry is looking at this entire investigation through the scope of his twin girls' future. That's funny. However, the two of them haven't made that much progress with the case either. We barely know anything about what's happening on the streets with this new drug.
However, I do have to respect Brooklyn Nine-Nine for realizing that Gina and Charles' relationship was a sexual fling and nothing more than that. It's very commonplace in comedies today to couple characters together. Gina and Charles could not be a couple in the tradition sense without severely shaving off their most distinctive personality traits. That's somewhat happening in the show's handling of Jake and Amy relationship. Fortunately though, Jake asks for Amy's help this week and she gives it to him and nothing is awkward. And yet, I do find it a little irksome that the truth about Gina and Charles came about because Jake and Amy walked in on them. They work at a police precinct and none of these detectives were able to put it together? It even took a brief conversation with Jake for Holt to put all of those pieces together - and he did that very marvelously I might add.
Some more thoughts:
- "The Mole" was written by Laura McCreary and directed by Victor Nelli, Jr.
- Andre Braugher is great at lengthy monologues. It's a very notable trait. And seeing him add his deadpan humor to it only made that interaction with Hitchcock and Scully more awesome.
- Kevin finally returned but only briefly.
- Terry has a great love for the hustle.
- Silent discos are a real-life thing. The show didn't make them up for this episode.
