Hi guys, happy Tuesday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m going to be talking all about, season eight, the final season of Brooklyn Nine Nine.

Is this season supposed to cringy? Because it is.

I hope the season looks up.

The season opens with everyone wearing masks and then Rosa saying she’s quitting the force. I have to say her exit was pretty epic and very Rosa.

Then we jump from June 2020 to Spring 2021.

Okay, it does start to look up.

Amy is back from her maternity leave and Rosa shows up. She’s started her own company as a PI helping people who have felt discrimination from cops. Jake wants to help, but he goes way over the top with trying to help.

Rosa does make a lot of great points though. She quit the force because she couldn’t stand the way cops were treating people who looked like her and Jake was taking it personally. She really had to spell it out for him that none of it has anything to do with him, her leave or the case they’re working on.

This actually was a really good depiction and the way that Jake actually started to learn or unlearn I should say, some of his behaviours and ways of thinking was a step in the right direction. I’m glad that he came through with Rosa though and helped her out in the end, even though they couldn’t get justice for their client, which was shitty but unfortunately true to real life. 

The whole Charles trying to be performative in his activism got old really quickly. I’m glad they only let it go so far because wow. But, again this was true to reality because there was so much of that happening. 

When Holt admits to Amy that he and Kevin broke up after the really tough year he had, woof that hit emotionally. He knew that Amy would realize something was up with him and it was just really beautiful.

We get an episode where Jake tricks Holt and Kevin to be at their summer lake house together. It’s a complete parent trap situation and actually turns out pretty well. It was a truly wholesome episode. There’s something about the fact that these characters have such specific and unconventional interests that really make them special and unique.

So this season is looking up and I’m liking where it’s going. The overall arc of trying to make the police force a better place is something frustrating at times, but also worthwhile to watch. I really like the balance they’ve given the importance of making it a better place with adding in jokes along the way and poking fun of the real police system; it’s really well done.

The small wins that we see are impactful.

Also, Rosa is turning into Gina and I kinda like that for her.

At first, I wasn’t feeling Doug Judy’s last episode, but it did get better as the episode went on.

First we find out that he’s going to jail, which sucks because he’s come so far from where he started. So Jake being one of Doug’s best friend he plans this whole elaborate plan to take him to jail filled with a cool car, matching sweat suits (those were cool), a singalong and all his favourite foods… then bam everything goes south real fast. Boyle shows up to take Doug because he thinks Doug is going to try and escape, Jake doesn’t believe him… until Doug says it.

It then becomes a bit of a mind game of is he truly trying to escape or not.

In the end though, Doug goes to jail… until he breaks out and moves to Amsterdam and he thanks Jake. The whole mysterious pen was good it really brought their friendship to a wonderful full circle. Uh it was so bittersweet to see that last scene with the two of them. It’s sad to think that this show is over and we’ll never see those two do crazy things again.

I like the point they make about cops who get away with the things they do and how they never learn or can do their jobs better.

When Jake gets taken off a case because the FBI are taking over he gets bummed out and thinks they’re making a mistake by not having the NYPD work together on it. So, Jake decides to let it go… but it gets to the point where he can’t let it go so he goes looking for clues and suspects. When he runs into someone who runs from him, he arrests the guy and thinks he’s the hero.

Turns out that guy was innocent… but Jake is having a hard time believing it… so he follows the guy to see what he’s really up to… but it really turns out that, that guy was up to nothing. This leaves Jake suspended.

Here enters Sullivan, who I can’t stand… I get what he’s representing, but GOD is he infuriating! He’s responsible for having charges against police officers dropped and he’s willing to do that for Jake. But Holt is having NONE of that. He tells Sullivan off by getting huffy (I loved that) and saying cops shouldn’t be above the law and that the fact that they’re seen that way in society makes it hard for them to do their jobs better because civilians are afraid of them and they need civilians in order to help keep the community safe. It was an amazing speech. It does suck that Jake had to lose his job for 5 months to learn that lesson, but it’s something he won’t be doing again.

So Holt has been living with Rosa since he and Kevin are going to therapy. I honestly don’t remember Holt being so whiny and annoying… he can’t stop talking about Kevin and it’s crazy, and totally driving Rosa crazy. Holt thinks he needs to “win” therapy in order to be better than Kevin and I’m sitting here going… okay, what?

So Rosa gives Holt the idea to start dating. Amy is appalled that Rosa would even suggest that; she thinks that Rosa doesn’t want to see Holt and Kevin together again. Instead, Rosa says she wants Holt to see what’s out there so that he’ll go running back to Kevin, clever, clever!

Only Holt is a few steps ahead of their plan. He agrees to go on a date with a guy he clearly doesn’t like, but does so, to show Amy and Rosa how it feels to be played… and how bad it feels, especially when it comes to personal relationships.

After the crappy date, Rosa and Amy tell Holt to go to Kevin and tell him how he feels. It’s raining and romantic and Holt says that people only declare their love in the rain in movies, THEN OUT COMES KEVIN and they meet in the rain and declare their love and they kiss and it’s just VERY sweet.

I have to say, at first I didn’t think it was real, like it played out like a dream, but it wasn’t… which I’m happy about!

I don’t know what the point of whole Boyle isn’t a Boyle plot. One of Charles’ relatives dies and Jake and Terry go to the funeral with him. After spending time at home Jake has been craving for a case to solve so he thinks that the guy who died was murdered and turns the whole thing into a murder mystery… in which it just brings out that fact that Charles isn’t really a Boyle.

Like, I guess they wanted one last major plot for him, but not being a Boyle when he’s made that his whole personality throughout the run of the show, felt out of place. I did like that they followed it up with having him being claimed as the One True Boyle, that was redeeming.

Holt and Kevin decide to renew their vows and it’s beautiful. Then Holt declares he’s retiring because his work is getting in the way of his marriage.

This of course shocks everyone and now Jake feels like he has to have one last great case with him. Unfortunately, the case the take on happens the same day as the vow renewal and Kevin can’t know he’s working.

The scheming was hilarious; but what was great was seeing Kevin come to their rescue in in the end (he makes a great cop). He also learns of Holt’s retirement plans and tells him he doesn’t need to do that. He can be married and still have a career, he just has to cut back.

So when their police reform proposal is approved he becomes the deputy commissioner and makes Amy chief, which I thought was really sweet and much deserving as she has worked so hard on this.

I mean, the last “cool case” wasn’t the best case ever but I love seeing Holt and Jake work together and I think Holt learned something from Jake in the way he and Amy talk about everything.  

Alright so the season and series ends on a heist, which to me, makes sense. This show has started to revolve around these heists so I like that, that’s how it ends… but man. So let’s unpack this, it was a two-part heist finale and the first part… I didn’t really like. Everything felt so cheesy and just over done, like they were trying to make everything meaningful and over the top funny… and it didn’t need to be this way.

What I did like was the fact that Jake was using this as a way to tell the squad that he’s… leaving the 99. I was shocked when he told Amy… but I like how he wants to stay home and be a dad for his son and he wants Amy to go for her dream job, such growth from him.

So they’re all chasing after these golden tubes that has the supposed prize in it. Turns out there are multiple tubes because Jake got a gift for everyone.

Also, Gina of course makes an appearance and it was really nice to see her again… but again, her little pops in felt like a throwaway… they really, either weren’t needed or could have been better.

The first episode ends with Charles finding out that Jake is resigning. Then we get to the second episode, which I have to say felt even more chaotic because everyone started planning the ‘perfect goodbye’ and it just got really messy.

Amy wants to plan the perfect goodbye party for Jake, Holt is doing it for either himself or he and Amy? Rosa for both Holt and Amy… it just got messy.

So in the end they find out that Jake is leaving in the most anticlimactic way ever and it just felt so deflating. I did like the little talk that Jake and Holt had. When Holt told him he was proud of the man he’s become, woof the emotions were very real. I love those two.

Of course they ended on a ‘a year later’ where it’s Halloween and everyone comes back to bring the heist back… it was supposed to be enduring it… but it was just okay. I feel like the ending could have been better; this season as a whole has been pretty tipsy turvy, some episodes were better than others. I will miss this show because it’s been so much fun.