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Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Best Episodes To Binge Watch While Waiting For The Last Season

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Casper Libero chapter.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the first show that got popular for showing a funny perspective of the New York Police Department, escaping from the countless police dramas that have been out there for decades. Over the years, it has brought so many people together to laugh over this iconic and fresh sitcom. But after a series of conflicts like cancelation and change of distributor, it looks like the producers decided to finalize the show for good. 

Before the last season arrives on August 12th, you need to revisit some iconic episodes to refresh your memory and remember why Brooklyn Nine-Nine is so special and dear to millions of fans.

The Vulture (Season 1, Episode 5)

As normally, TV shows have an antagonist that is always against the main characters and it wouldn’t be different for Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Their declared enemy is the detective Keith Pembroke, who they nicknamed “The Vulture” since he keeps taking 99’s almost-concluded cases and finishing them to get all the investigation’s credit. In this episode, the gang finally decides to defy the Vulture and get revenge from their stolen cases after a long drunk talk at a bar. 

The Bet (Season 1, Episode 13)

Throughout season one, Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago have an ongoing bet on who arrests more criminals until a previously set date and hour. In this episode, Peralta wins the competition after arresting ten men in the last five seconds of the bet, and he gets to take Amy on the “worst date ever”. But the date gets interrupted when Holt gets notice of a stakeout, forcing Peralta and Santiago to stop their “date” to do their jobs. In the end, they bond over peanuts and arrest bad guys, officially making it the episode where their future relationship sparkles for the very first time, giving hints of what might happen eventually. 

The Pontiac Bandit Returns (Season 2, Episode 10)

While the gang has the Vulture as a nemesis, Jake Peralta has Doug Judy, known as “The Pontiac Bandit”. After his first appearance in season one, this iconic character returns once again in this episode. After days of regretting letting him escape, Jake finally gets Judy arrested. The criminal, on the other hand, tries to negotiate his freedom by helping the NYPD get the kingpin “The Giggle Pig”. Even though there are plenty of episodes with Doug Judy, this one is considered the funniest of them.

The Oolong Slayer (Season 3, Episode 4)

At the start of season 3, Raymond Holt is away from his post as captain due to  an agreement with the commissioner Madeline Wuntch. While he’s working in the PR team, The Vulture takes his place as captain at the 99th Precinct, making the gang’s life a living hell by assigning them small and simple cases. And so, an irritated Peralta decides to go visit Holt in secret to bring back an old serial killer case for them to solve, marking Holt’s great return as an active cop and a captain.

Yippie Kayak (Season 3, Episode 10)

Jake Peralta is probably the biggest “Die Hard” fan in the entire world, and even though he got to hide it pretty well, he always wanted to find himself in a situation similar to the movie franchise’s in his career. Little did he know that he would have to go through it on a last-minute Christmas shopping with Boyle and Gina. In this episode, they get trapped inside a criminal operation in a retail store, surrounded by bad guys keeping several people hostage. Jake needs to help the cops get through this situation from the inside, making sure no one gets hurt while doing it.

Hostage Situation (Season 3, Episode 11)

In this episode, Charles Boyle reveals that he is trying to have a baby with his girlfriend Genevieve and that he needs his frozen sperm from the bank since he’s sterile because of an accident with his crotch. But his ex-wife, who’s in possession of the sperm, refuses to give it to him. Jake and Boyle have to go after her before she ends up with Charles’ opportunity to ever have a biological child.

Moo Moo (Season 4, Episode 16)

In “Moo Moo”, Terry experiences racial profiling from a white cop who almost arrests him while he was searching for his kid’s blanket around his neighborhood. He only proves his innocence once he assures that he’s part of the police too. Throughout the episode,Terry tries to make an official complaint against the cop, only stopped by Captain Holt, who doesn’t want to prejudice Terry’s career as he’s on his way to becoming a captain as well. It’s an episode full of important racial critics against police brutality, a delicate subject for the black community.

Chasing Amy (Season 4, Episode 18)

Amy Santiago is probably the most ambitious person in the 99th precinct. Now she’s about to take the sergeant’s exam in order to continue her dream to become the youngest captain in the history of the NYPD. But she’s way too nervous to take it, which leads to a disappearance. Jake and Rosa have to drop everything they are doing to search for Amy and convince her to take the test before it’s too late.

Game Night (Season 5, Episode 10)

Rosa Diaz is one of the main characters that, since the 5th season, started to represent the LGBTQ+ community on the show. In this episode, Rosa comes out as bisexual for her colleagues for the very first time. As the episode continues, she asks Jake to help her with coming out to her parents by joining them at dinner and game night, even if it doesn’t go as it was first planned. It’s a very special episode centered on Rosa and it perfectly portraits the fear of disapproval lived daily by LGBTQ+ people.

Hitchcock And Scully (Season 6, Episode 2)

We’ve waited for long six seasons for a Hitchcock and Scully episode and it finally arrived after years of expectation. In this episode, we take a trip to when the detectives were still young as Jake and Boyle revisit one open case from the 80s at Holt’s command. Not only we finally get to see what happened with the hot detectives Hitchcock and Scully, but we also get to see them in action catching some bad guys for the very first time!

Four Movements (Season 6, Episode 4)

Gina Linetti is one of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s fan-favorite characters. So when Chelsea Peretti decided to leave the series as a regular, a lot of fans got heartbroken with the news. But such an iconic character wouldn’t leave the public empty-handed and for one last time, she gave us one more “Gina episode”. In this one, right after she announces that she’s leaving the precinct, Gina says that she’s gonna give all of them one last “Gina moment” before saying farewell. It is full of past references to the series and does a beautiful homage to such a beloved character.

All The Halloween Episodes

And last, but not least, here are the awaited Halloween episodes. Throughout the whole series, the gang always get together on October 31st to perform the “Halloween Heist”, which consists of possessing an object until midnight of the following day. It all started as a competition between Jake and Holt but evolved into something bigger that unites the whole gang in their fight to be “the best detective/genius”.

Oh, but don’t you dare think that it will always remain the same. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine creators showed all of their creative power by pulling awesome plot twists on every new episode. They will always be remembered as the show’s most awaited episodes of a season. Here is a list of them to binge-watch:

“Halloween” – Season 1, Episode 6

“Halloween II” – Season 2, Episode 4

“Halloween III” – Season 3, Episode 5

“Halloween IV” – Season 4, Episode 5

“HalloVeen” – Season 5, Episode 4

“Cinco de Mayo” – Season 6, Episode 16

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The article above was edited by Julia Queiroz.

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Rafaela Bertolini

Casper Libero '23

Journalism student with a dubious taste in series, books, movies and music. Oh, and please send me a picture of your cat!