DISCLAIMER: This recap of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine season premiere episode “The Good Ones” is riddled with spoilers. You’ve been warned. Proceed at your own peril.
Welcome back, Nine-Niners! Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back for its final season! While this is certainly a bittersweet moment, I’m glad the Powers That Be had a chance to wrap up this special series properly. “The Good Ones” pulls no punches.
After a year and a half marred by COVID-19 and pervasive white supremacy, it’s no surprise that Brooklyn Nine-Nine addressed police brutality. Especially given the murder of George Floyd. I do recall the writers scrapped previous Season Eight scripts and rewrote them from scratch.
It’s quite jarring, but it’s necessary. I’m glad the show went this route. Of course, it’s heartbreaking to see how deeply impacted our characters are by the current events. Painful, even. However, I appreciate the realism here. This episode is fairly heavy, with a few moments of levity sprinkled in between.
Ready to delve into “The Good Ones”? Let’s get to it.
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We open in June 2020. Jake (Andy Samberg) and Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) are trying to master the perfect COVID handshake, one that allows folks to stay six feet apart. Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) enters the fray. She reveals that she’s tendered her resignation. She’s quitting the force.
Next, we fast forward to spring 2021. Amy (Melissa Fumero) is returning from an extended maternity leave due to the pandemic. Holt (Andre Braugher) gives a moving (well, his version of moving) speech. Terry (Terry Crews) informs Amy about Hitchcock’s (Dirk Blocker) retirement, but he’s still present on an iPad that Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) carries around. Boyle is now aware of his privilege as a white man, and he listens to podcasts now.
Additionally, Rosa works as a private investigator, specifically assisting those who’ve been the victims of police brutality. Jake assumes she won’t show up for Amy’s welcome back party. But she does! Rosa reveals she’s meeting with a client that two officers assaulted from the 74th precinct. Jake knows the captain who works there. He offers a helping hand, which Rosa accepts.
Later, Terry finds Amy in a nervous fit at work. Apparently, Holt made “small talk” with her. Good friends don’t resort to small talk! She asks if she can borrow Terry’s relationship book for pointers. How does one become besties with Holt again? Well, it’s actually Scully’s, and it’s about sex.
Meanwhile, Jake and Rosa speak with the latter’s client. Naturally, the said client doesn’t trust Jake. She discloses a harrowing account regarding those officers who assaulted her because she wouldn’t show them the loofah in her bag. Rosa reveals that since the assault occurred around 5:45 pm, chances are the officers were attempting to work overtime for more money, so they made an unnecessary “arrest.”
Then, Jake and Rosa meet with the 74th precinct’s captain. The officers’ reports were only two sentences, and they noted that Rosa’s client “looked scary.” Racial profiling at its finest.
The captain informs them that a newly minted officer was also present during the assault. Rosa believes the officers tampered with their body cam footage. Perhaps the rookie could provide insight regarding what happened.
Unfortunately, when Jake and Rosa attempt to visit Officer Lee, Frank O’Sullivan (John C. McGinley) appears. He impedes their path, citing that the two male officers are good eggs. Frank proceeds to rant about the Black Lives Matter movement and how protesting and looting are synonymous. They aren’t, bro.
Meanwhile, Amy approaches Holt with Scully’s (Terry’s) sex book. Time to address the root of their disconnection! Raymy must live on!
Next, Rosa and Jake go door-to-door to collect evidence for the former’s client. Everyone in NYC is understandably wary around cops, so many doors are slammed in their faces. Well, because of Jake.
Later, Boyle has been hard at work trying to educate himself about the Black experience. He even went to the same barbershop as Terry because he wants to support Black businesses. This time, Boyle sends $10,000 to Terry in the name of reparations. Terry gladly accepts it. However, Boyle only meant to send $100, not 10 grand.
Then, a tense scene unfurls between Rosa and Jake. Jake insists he’s “one of the good ones.” That police can still contribute positively to the community they serve. He takes Rosa’s decision to quit the force personally, citing that they started their careers together. Jake assumes Rosa thinks he’s a bad person for staying.
Of course, Rosa’s departure has nothing to do with Jake. Cops are targeting and brutalizing people that look like her. He’s too steeped in his white perspective to see that. She storms off. This scene killed me. Beatriz is a force to be reckoned with.
Thus, Rosa approaches Scully for aid. She wants to break into the police union to steal the original body cam footage. Frank O’Sullivan mentioned something peculiar — something that only the officers present would know since the footage was tampered with. She believes he watched it first. Scully gives her the lay of the land with Hitchcock on video … shirtless.
Next, Rosa disguises herself as a janitor and sneaks into Frank’s office. Unfortunately, Frank waltzes in at that moment while on the phone. Rosa ducks underneath his desk.
Back at the precinct, Amy and Holt try the relationship book exercises on for size. Nothing pans out. Jake throws on a disguise and barges into the corridor outside Frank’s office. He distracts Frank with a lengthy tale of “discrimination.” This gives Rosa enough time to download the original body cam footage.
Meanwhile, Boyle confesses that he didn’t mean to send Terry that much money. Terry already knew, though. He’s glad that Boyle is a vocal and dedicated ally, but his allyship comes off as performative and weird. He doesn’t need to announce everything he’s doing to help out. Boyle discloses that he sent a grand to a charity for Black trans women. Sweet Boyle. At least he’s trying to be better.
Then, Rosa thanks Jake for assisting her. The pair return to the 74th precinct. Unfortunately, the captain deletes the video. It’s too incriminating. Too … real? She proceeds to monologue about all the red tape they’d have to go through to get justice. She won’t even fire the officers for assaulting that poor woman. In short, nothing is resolved.
Next, Amy and Holt have a heart-to-heart conversation. Amy noticed something was amiss when Holt asked her about her lunch. She assumed she was the problem. However, Holt reveals he and Kevin have separated. With the unrelenting pressure of being a Black man, COVID and working as a police captain, Holt admits his marriage fell by the wayside. God, this scene breaks my heart. Braugher should win an Emmy for this alone.
We learn that he’s only told Amy at the Nine-Nine, but the separation transpired months ago.
Later, Rosa and Jake break the bad news to her client. The officers will go off scot-free. Not even a slap on the wrist. No justice was served today. This is all too real to life. After she leaves, Jake apologizes for “trying to prove a point.” He tried to make it about him, which is a thing we do. Center the narrative on ourselves.
Thankfully, the pair make up. As Rosa points out, they’re “family.”
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So much unfurls from a narrative standpoint in “The Good Ones.” Not just that — so much happens from a real-life standpoint. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has always been a progressive show. However, this is easily their most serious outing yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if those “All Lives Matter” folks condemn this episode for getting “too political.” For “pandering.”
I don’t want to applaud the show for doing the right thing, but more so for ditching the work they’d done thus far in favor of a story that really examines the police and its role in society. That shines a light on police brutality and strives to enact change. It even showcases how Jake and Boyle handle their privilege. It’s a thought-provoking, poignant episode with a bit of standard B99 levity.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs Thursdays at 8 pm on your NBC affiliate.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
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