NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” are present in this review
The second episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine for this week started to have the show moving towards the climactic arc of Season Four, as Peralta and Diaz both compete for a coveted spot under a super cool lieutenant, while two other subplots have Jeffords and Boyle struggling with a conflicting Scully and Hitchcock, as Captain Holt tries to urge Santiago to tell him off on account of losing her favourite pen. Fortunately, “The Slaughterhouse” was another highly enjoyable Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode, where the storylines continued to fire on all cylinders.
The main storyline with Peralta and Diaz was pretty superb all around, as the two accidentally botch an in-depth investigation overseen by one Lieutenant Melanie Hawkins, played in a great guest role by Gina Gershon. Both Peralta and Diaz idolize Lieutenant Hawkins, so when she promises a spot on her squad to the detective who finds the criminal that they accidentally set free, both Peralta and Diaz decide to try and outdo the other, to look like the better detective.
This immaturity between Peralta and Diaz led to another strong comedic pair-up between the two friends, as their plans to sabotage each other become increasingly more ludicrous throughout the episode. Eventually, they do manage to find their resolve to do the job and catch the bad guy again though, with Peralta finally finding the criminal after following his own hunch. To Diaz’s surprise though, Peralta tries to claim that Diaz found the bad guy, to get her a spot on Hawkins’ squad. As a result, Hawkins offers to let both of them join!
The ensuing moment of the two freaking out and hugging made for one of the funniest jokes of the episode, especially when Peralta realizes what’s going on, and Diaz threatens to slit his throat if he ever tells anyone. This was a great victory for both detectives, though as you can imagine, it won’t last. After sneaking back into The Slaughterhouse, the name for Hawkins’ undercover base that the episode’s title references, Peralta discovers that Hawkins is corrupt, and appears to be part of the criminal operation that she claims to be stopping. Well, damn. This will likely serve as the key story device for Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s two-episode season finale next week, and I really can’t wait to see how this latest corrupt cop development unfolds!
As for the two subplots, they also provided lots of standout laughs, with the Jeffords/Boyle subplot likely standing the tallest between them. Scully’s new love interest driving a wedge between the Nine-Nine’s two laziest detectives was a great way to start a huge, overblown conflict, with a Hitchcock/Scully argument reaching all of the hilarious highs and crazy turns that you can imagine. Jeffords and Boyle comically failing to stop them from arguing only made everything funnier as well. Things only get resolved when Gina has to step in and say that Jeffords’ and Boyle’s mistake was thinking of them as children, when really, they’re animals. Once again, Gina comes in and saves the day, and it is just fantastic when Brooklyn Nine-Nine finds such amusing and unexpected ways for this to happen! In fact, it’s too bad that we didn’t see that much of Gina in this episode, which is pretty much the only small knock against it.
The remaining subplot with Santiago and Holt was not only very funny, but also provided a great new bit of character development for both Santiago and her captain. Holt humourously losing Santiago’s pen, and Santiago pretending to be okay with it, firmly felt like the C-plot of the episode, though the humour here was nonetheless outstanding in every respect. Santiago learning to tell off her captain and stand up for herself was a big moment that felt merited by the impending climax of Season Four, and I have to wonder if this will come back into play later in the series, especially for the next major Peralta/Holt conflict. We’ll no doubt be waiting until next season to see that possibility unfold though.
“The Slaughterhouse” is an especially fantastic episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, one that nicely lays out the plan for Season Four’s climactic story arc next week. Peralta and Diaz now being caught under the wing of their secretly corrupt police idol should make for another worthy threat for the Nine-Nine’s combined resources, while the Santiago/Holt relationship taking a huge step forward also proved very satisfying. Even seeing a rare (and destructive!) Scully/Hitchcock argument proved to be continually funny and clever, especially when Gina makes one of her surprisingly small contributions of the episode by sorting the two of them out. Despite these great developments with the other detectives though, it looks like it’s Peralta who has the first move when it comes to eliminating the threat in the Nine-Nine’s midst. I’m really looking forward to seeing how he responds in next week’s two-episode season finale, that’s for sure!