NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” are present in this review
Brooklyn Nine-Nine continued the story of Peralta and Holt being stuck in their undercover identities within Coral Palms, Florida this week, but fortunately, “Coral Palms Pt. 2” finally allowed us to check in with the rest of the precinct. While Peralta and Holt continue to find a way to take the fight to Figgis, another new captain comes to the Nine-Nine, leading to a very funny subplot for the rest of the detectives.
The season premiere of Brooklyn Nine-Nine from last week was already quite entertaining, but, “Coral Palms Pt. 2” was actually especially superb in most respects, especially with how effectively it wove the rest of the lead cast into Peralta’s and Holt’s growing troubles. The episode even builds off of another surprising twist from the Season Three finale last Spring, which adds a surprising new dimension to Peralta’s and Holt’s characters by the end of the episode, setting the stage for an exciting, and hopefully hilarious conclusion to this whole mess in next week’s episode.
After another hysterical and all-too-brief meeting with Maya Rudolph’s U.S. Marshal in a movie theatre (man, I really wish Maya Rudolph got more screentime in these episodes), which serves as the episode’s cold open, Peralta and Holt formulate their plan to get the better of Figgis, which involves simply walking into the local gun store and outfitting themselves with an outrageous arsenal. The way that they do this is both amusing and ingenious, as Holt pretends to have gotten a woman pregnant to borrow $3,000 from one of his elderly walking group companions, and Peralta simply mentions the wad of money to waive all federal background checks, before walking out with numerous handguns, shotguns, and a literal bucket of bullets. One of the funniest jokes in the episode came from Peralta being astonished at how easy this stuff was to get, and remarking under his breath that his country is broken, right in front of the gun shop owner. U.S. political commentary in Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Maybe, but it was funny nonetheless.
Unfortunately, after saying goodbye to the various things they hate about Coral Palms, Holt accidentally runs a stop sign, leading to the two getting arrested by a sheriff’s deputy, played by Parks & Recreation’s Jim O’Heir, and thrown in prison. This led to another fantastically funny series of events, as the deputy nails the two detectives with a Newlywed Game-style interrogation, where Peralta’s and Holt’s massive differences predictably come back to haunt them, before the two manage to break out by starting a fight, then pretending to literally kiss and make up, which is what causes the bigoted deputy to intervene. Holt even had a great one-liner after subduing the deputy and walking out of confinement, saying, “It’s 2016, man. This one’s on you.” That was no doubt a pretty triumphant moment for Holt, who is a genuine homosexual, and has had to pretend to be straight for several months in his undercover identity.
After Peralta and Holt finally bust out of the slammer fully, now with Figgis confirmed to have seen their video, taking their marshal hostage, and coming to Coral Palms to kill the detectives, which is revealed by a threatening phone call shortly beforehand, Peralta begs Holt to involve the Nine-Nine, yet Holt refuses to. It didn’t become evident until around the end of this episode, but Peralta finally points out that Holt is intentionally refusing the help of the Nine-Nine, even though it clearly no longer makes sense to do so. Holt’s subsequent confession, that the reason he didn’t want to involve the precinct was actually because he was embarrassed at the idea of the other detectives bailing out their captain a second time, after they already had to save him from Bob during the Season Three finale several months ago, was actually surprisingly logical and heartfelt. Holt has always been represented as an almost inhumanly efficient authority figure throughout this show, and having Holt confront needing to submit to help in such a big way again was actually a great subtle conflict for his character.
That said though, the Nine-Nine definitely have their own problems this week… Sort of. It’s very satisfying to finally get to check in with the rest of the precinct and see what they’re up to, which is to say, the usual shenanigans. Santiago even points this out pretty directly when she asks what the other detectives should tell Peralta in a letter that she is allowed to write, now that the six-month mark has passed, and their answers make Santiago simply resolve to admit that nothing’s changed for the Nine-Nine. They are in for a big change this week though, as a new captain finally takes over the precinct (who exactly was in charge of the precinct for the past six months then?), that being Ken Marino’s Captain Stenley, or ‘Captain C.J.’ as he prefers to be called, a lazy, inept and hilariously under-qualified captain that Gina takes an immediate liking to, and everyone else quickly despises… Until Gina makes them realize that Captain C.J. will give them whatever they want, since he has no idea what he’s doing.
It’s actually been a little while since we’ve had a hugely standout Santiago-driven conflict, but we finally got another strong one in this episode, as the detectives all cave to the chance to get literally anything, no matter how ridiculous, from Captain C.J., even Jeffords, who finally seizes the opportunity to get his own yogurt fridge at his desk. Santiago is the only one who still takes issue with this anarchy however, and after a while, she does convince the rest of the precinct to give up their amenities, in what’s probably the only story stretch of the episode. She and Jeffords then convince Captain C.J. to be more assertive and say ‘no’ sometimes, just in time for Holt to finally acquiesce to calling the Nine-Nine and asking for help. When the Nine-Nine goes to Captain C.J. to demand a trip to Coral Palms, guess what happens? Oh, Santiago. You should have kept your fool mouth shut.
Season Three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine was one of the best sitcom seasons of the previous television season, and, “Coral Palms Pt. 2” is once again reaching that hilarious, highly enjoyable standard. Now that the rest of the precinct is brought back into the story, we get another clever, highly inspired twist in the ongoing Jimmy Figgis/Coral Palms conflict, with all of the necessary groundwork laid for a very enjoyable climax to this whole mess in next week’s episode. It’s highly doubtful that the Nine-Nine will listen to Captain C.J.’s orders, so here’s hoping that Coral Palms gets a send-off that’s just as funny and memorable as the events of this week!