Item: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Rating: 8.3
Author: Roth Cornet

Warning: full spoilers for the episode follow...

Poor Pineapples, he discovered that you can't meet your heroes on tonight's Brooklyn Nine-Nine. "Old School" actually feels like a new kind of episode. In large part, the previous installments have centered on establishing the characters and relationships. Now that we’ve gotten to know this team of misfit toys the writers are free to play with the established dynamics.

Peralta and Holt were still at odds this week, but the fanboy crush that the detective had on Jimmy Brogan (guest star Stacy Keach) allowed a new side of Peralta to emerge. He’s generally too busy being arrogant to permit himself to feel anything close to hero worship, or acknowledge anyone else’ value or personhood. So, there was something endearing about his misguided idolization of the 1970s and its flammable orange couture, hard-drinking detecting, corruption, brutality, sexism, and homophobia. To be perfectly candid, I have no idea what “Hairbags” means – useless? Bags of hair have many uses, not the least of which is a pillow. The episode also worked because we got to see a more modern flavor of police work. Although, that was some kind of magical algorithm that Peralta whipped-up to solve the case in17-seconds.

Peralta and Holt share a moment on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

In any event, “Old School” felt fresh because it wasn’t so much about Peralta reaching out to the team and learning a valuable lesson about not being an island unto himself – which has been an entertaining, but familiar storyline over the last several weeks – this was about Peralta learning a valuable lesson all on his own; one about how deceptive nostalgia can be, standing up for what’s right, and knocking out old men.

Holt was also granted an opportunity to express a slightly different color. The captain’s seemingly indiscernible and unchanging expression has been a favorite ongoing joke, but aren’t you kind of starting to relate to Santiago in that you sense that you can read him? I feel like we’re close. It’s a testament to Andre Braugher’s consistently hilarious performance that he’s been able to maintain that same inscrutable quality, and yet allow subtle shifts in emotion to shine through. His slight smile when Santiago spilled the beans about the cause of Peralta’s punch was Holt-face for “moved to tears”. He also yelled this week, at which point I think we were all pretty clear about what he was feeling: girlish delight. Speaking of Santiago, her Holt-worship worked as a nice parallel to Peralta’s Brogan-love.

Ultimately, Peralta coming face-to-face with his flawed childhood hero allowed him to appreciate the captain in a way that he may not have otherwise; while the detective’s chivalrous man-punch allowed Holt to feel stood up for, for the first time in likely a very long time. It added a new layer to their relationship. Also, Peralta’s appreciation for Santiago’s toasty buns was at once odd, inappropriate, and sweet. Their relationship is progressing at a good pace, it’s little steps forward with each new entry.

Diaz and Boyle reach a new understanding.

Meanwhile, Diaz’s transformation from an evil-villain-sexy-motorcycle into a beautiful...y appropriate for court, testimony-giving master who blinks neither too fast, too slow, too much, nor too little made for a solid B-storyline for the character. She’s also been depicted as primarily confident, so taking her out of her element and allowing her to be nervous – where Boyle lives – reversed their positions a bit and gave them each something new to do. He got to be the expert and pretty woman her and she got to act like a lunatic. I particularly enjoyed Boyle’s Pillsbury Dough Boy-like giggle when Diaz thanked him for teaching her his (in her case, blood-drenched) happy place visualization technique. It looks like a wrench is about to be thrown into their budding romance, though, as Diaz’s “what friend, now?” enters the scene.

Terry Crews still hasn't entirely found his place on the series, but as a devoted Crews fan, I feel confident that he will.

Verdict

Brooklyn Nine-Nine delivered one of its tightest episodes yet with “Old School”. The group dynamic is really gelling, which has created some room for the writers to introduce new aspects of the characters’ personalities and play with the relationships. The A and B storylines were equally entertaining and pretty much everyone – even Hitchcock and Scully – were given something to do. With the exception of Linetti of course, who wasn’t in this episode, sadly. Stacy Keach made for an ideal foil and was entirely believable as an “old-guard” beat reporter. The tone was mostly salty, with just the right amount of sweet – what with Peralta defending Holt’s honor and appreciating Santiago’s abnormally warm butt. He’s got a soft side after all. More importantly, like Santiago, I think we’re all really starting to be able to read Holt. His little half smile spoke volumes Let us know what you thought in the comments below.