BWW Recap: Celebrate Halloween Early with BROOKLYN NINE-NINE

Tonight's episode of BROOKLYN NINE-NINE is spookier than usual because it's Halloween! In following last year's Halloween episode of B 9-9, this year, Jake bets Holt that he can steal his watch before midnight. I wonder what crazy antics Jake will use to win the bet this time.

Also, Gina is upset that her dance troupe, Floorg*sm, kicked her out of the group. In their defense, she did miss eight practices in a row. Terry also confronts Gina about her "badditude."

I love a good Halloween-themed episode, they always end up being one of my favorite episodes of the season. So much leeway to do crazy things. Last year's episode where Jake steals Holt's Medal of Valor was in my top 3 favorite episodes from last season. The choreographed dance scene from it still makes me laugh to this day. So, I was not let down by tonight's episode appropriately titled "Halloween II." But, warning, below are major SPOILERS!

The 9-9 is celebrating Halloween! Boyle is trying to decide this year's costume, so that the precinct knows what he is. So he's letting them pick his costume. He shows them an array of choices, like He-Man which Gina of course calls "Gay Robin Hood." Jake tells Holt that this year he is going to make things more difficult by trying to steal the watch off of his wrist. He says he will "5-druple" overtime, so if Jake wins, Holt will do his paperwork for a week and if Jake loses he has to do five weeks of overtime for free.

Amy and Rosa are annoyed with Terry for always giving Gina the benefit of the doubt by letting her use excuses to get out of things. Jake briefs the 9-9 about his plan to steal Holt's watch. Jake gives them code names, and then tells them the actual theft will be pulled off by Dan McCreery, aptly named "Fingers."

Holt locks himself in his office and Jake commences his plan to steal the watch. Jake uses Scully to sing opera, while Terry breaks open Holt's door and Rosa sets off a smoke bomb in his office, causing Holt to leave his office, but Amy blocks his path, while Boyle drops bouncy balls from the ceiling. Then Jake uses a remote control plane to hit Fingers, who Holt thinks is an innocent bystander. Holt apologizes to Fingers, and while Holt says he's sorry, Fingers gets the watch and replaces it with a fake. Jake thinks he won, but when he goes to retrieve the watch from the bar where Fingers was supposed to leave it, he finds a note that says, "Thanks for the watch." Uh oh.

Jake has two hours to find Fingers and gets Holt's watch back. Holt asks Jake to pause the bet for 10 minutes, becuase Kevin is coming and the watch was a gift from him. Jake gets a text from Fingers, so agrees to the pause and runs off. Gina tells Amy and Rosa that her "urgent matter" was practicing for a dance show, which angers Terry because he vouched for her. Jake and Boyle meet Fingers in an alley, and Fingers tells them he wants $300 for the watch. They end up making a deal where they give him $122 and Jake's shoes, since that's all they have. Fingers tells Jake the watch is in the glove compartment of his car, but as Jake goes back to his car, he sees it getting towed.

Jake and Boyle lose sight of the tow truck and on their way to get a cab, Jake gets attacked by a bunch of drunk people in bear costumes. Jake and Boyle get separated, but before they do, Boyle yells and tells Jake to take the Party Bus. Jake uses his badge to get aboard a party bus full of people celebrating Halloween. Back at the precinct, Terry goes to talk to Gina, and she tells him that Floorg*sm danced her out of the group because she missed eight rehearsals in a row. Terry tells her she's being irresponsible and has a "badditude." Gina tells Terry she missed rehearsals because she's going to college at night, and it's hard to balance that and dance. Terry tells her he's going to dance with her tonight, since "school is cool," and Floorg*sm shouldn't have punished her for going.

The party bus drops Jake off at the impound lot, but the people on the bus took his badge and wallet, so the guy at the lot won't release his car to him. In typical Jake fashion, he jumps the impound lot's fence to get to his car, and as he is about to get to his car, cops come and tell him to freeze.

Jake is back at the 9-9 in the interrogation room, and an angry Holt comes in. Jake tells him that he lost the watch, but Holt shows him he's had the watch the whole time, and that he played Jake. Holt tells Jake he's been planning this for a year. On Halloween last year he started plotting his revenge, starting with "a word cloud." Holt spent the year drawing Jake's attention to his watch, to get him to make it his target. Holt used McCreery the minute he was arrested months ago and got him to put the watch back after Jake was celebrating thinking he won. Holt had Santiago tow Jake's car, and then got Boyle out of his way by having Terry kidnap him. Scully and Hitchcock were the bears who took Jake's watch and Holt recorded Boyle earlier in the year to have him tell Jake to get on the party bus. The partier who stole his badge on the party bus was actually Holt, with Rosa there to distract him. So Holt wins, and Jake has to say, "Captain Raymond Holt, you are an amazing police captain slash genius." The episode ends with Terry and Gina dancing to Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" at the bar.

Ah, I love a good revenge story! Holt spent his entire year planning his revenge on Jake for winning the Halloween bet, and he did it flawlessly. And of course the entire squad pitched in, since they couldn't miss the opportunity to embarrass Jake. It's nice to see Jake so cleverly outwitted by Holt, especially when Jake was so sure he won. Next Halloween, the stakes will be even higher since they are now tied. I can only imagine what crazy ideas they come up with next time around.

Continuing this season's theme of having subplots with characters who didn't usually interact much last season, Terry and Gina had a nice story tonight. Terry gets Gina to open up to him about her trying to get her degree at night and the trouble it's causing her with her dance team. Terry makes Gina feel better by telling her he'll be her dance partner, which makes for a great end scene. I really love seeing the one-on-one interactions with the characters who didn't get much screen time together last year, it really allows the show to grow more and allows for the opportunity for even more jokes. This season has yet to disappoint!

Let me know what you thought about the episode in the comments, or tweet me at @k8linmilligan! And don't forget to join me next week at 8:30/7:30c as I live-recap another episode of BROOKLYN NINE-NINE on FOX!

Photo Credit: Eddy Chen/FOX

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