It’s amazing, isn’t it, how Brooklyn Nine-Nine can so seamlessly shift narrative gears from one episode to the next? After the gang took a break from busting crooks, following up on leads, or doing anything remotely resembling police work last week in “Fancy Brugdom,” they’re back—well, most of them, at least—to acting like they’re cops with “Unsolvable,” which means that all of the heartfelt, character-oriented goodness that’s come to define the series’ overarching quality gets pushed aside in favor of hilarity in law enforcement for most of the episode.
And that’s okay: even when Brooklyn Nine-Nine doesn’t let its cast members bond outside of the office, it’s still totally devoted to them and the ideal of character through action. Of course Gina would give up her wolf blanket just to win back the sanctity of Babylon, the secret bathroom she and Rosa decide to share with an increasingly stressed-out Boyle, from the interloping Hitchcock and Scully; of course Terry realizes that Jake’s growing obsession with the job is a veil for his growing obsession with Amy. There’s nothing wrong with deploying these plot points outside the precinct, but it’s important to remember that we’re dealing with dedicated professionals whose work and personal lives often (and conveniently) intertwine.
“Unsolvable” derives its title from the A-plot, in which Jake decides that the best way to utilize his current hot streak is to try and crack a cold case from nearly a decade past. He cajoles Terry into helping him out, using his standby tactic of issuing goofy appeals to the sergeant’s just side—it turns out Terry wants to put the incident in question to rest, too. And so their misadventures in investigative procedures begin, with Jake acting like his usual clowny self (until the episode’s final minutes demand he act like a cop, as usual) and Terry trying to suss out what’s really eating at Jake. It’s an arc that pays off nicely as “Unsolvable” comes to an end (if, that is, you’re like me and you’ve wanted to watch Crews and Samberg drunkenly dance to “Whatta Man”).