Why This Was The WORST Episode Of Brooklyn Nine-Nine 

The worst to me was when Jake brought up genuine trauma in reasoning for not wanting kids, and Amy then berates him and threatens to leave him over it.

I hated this episode. Gina was sarcastic, comedically rude, and always right in other episodes, but she was always nice to jake. Their relationship helped me love her. The friendship brought out good things in both of them. Her being awful to Jake made me so mad.

The worst episode is obviously the one that they all suspected the new female captain to be a bad captain, and they just straight up bully her away, while she is being completely nice and friendly, they never showed her again, and they didn’t apologize or make it up.

For me, the worst episode was when everyone manipulated Jake into accepting being a father even though he doesn't want to be. If you're not okay with kids in the first year then don't force them. Just be patient until both partners are ready. Never force someone to have kids when they're not ready.

Something I thought was quite strange is that Gina’s baby or baby daddy aren’t mentioned at all in Return of the King even when she was literally stabbed

Sorry, for me, nothing will be worse than Casecation. Because Jake is treated as being wrong and is bullied by his coworkers, when he has a right to not want kids, especially if he doesn't feel mature enough for it. It just feels like the squad coerced Jake into wanting kids, which isn't a good thing.

I thought most people considered Casecation to be the worst (the one where Jake & Amy are in a hospital for a case and have a formal debate over having kids). Almost any time I see that episode brought up people always call it out for feeling uncomfortable and out of character. Though I will say this particular episode also wasn’t one my favs, sort of feels like it just brought out the worst in Gina.

Gina's entire personality in the show is centered around her narcissism. She is constantly shown as self centered, and just because she cares about her friends doesn't make her suddenly a well adjusted human. I like the episode in how it showed what success and power can do to a person. I was recently watching a video about Chevy Chase, and someone quoted Bill Murray as saying "you have about two years of success where you have to learn to stop being an asshole. If someone can't manage success without being an asshole by then, then it isn't going to happen"

This episode is a weaker one. But the only one I truly hate is the one where Debbie holds Jake and Rosa hostage (S7 E5). It just feels so cartoony and childish, like it was written for a completely different show.

Why was the end of the episode not mentioned? Gina and Jake reconciled and agreed to see each other more. Personally, I found the episode really funny and although Gina was a bit of a jerk, her behavior did fit with her character. My only complaint is that the episode should have been in season 7 or 8.

I agree to a certain extent about her return, but I don’t think it’s the worst episode. It’s an episode that might have been better in a much later season, but it kinda highlights what happens when a character like herself is removed from the people who help keep her in check, for the most part. It’s a reminder that she needs to remember where she came from and what’s she’s learned from her friends. Overall, she can be rather obnoxious before her send off, well, her first one, but grows on you.

Comedy in B99 seems derrived from juxtaposition. They place opposites in front of each other and see how they clash. The most front and center dynamic of Peralta and Holt is a perfect example. Things like Jake coming into Holt's office, requesting a selfie and just taking one as Holt denies the request in a deadpan voice is funny because these opposites interract. But this happens in characters themselves too. Boyle's completely unearned confidence (like with the boxing match for the movie tickets) compared to his usual doormat demeanor is funny; Rosa being this hardened badass who likes Nancy Meyers movies is funny; Holt, straight-faced saying "Cowabunga, mother!" is funny. Gina being this larger than life snarker is funny BECAUSE she's a civilian administrator (only default non-badass of the main cast) and assistant (by definition in service to the rest at work). Her sass against cops(claiming she needs a gun licence because her precinct's cops suck, while living in 99 territory), casually suggesting crime (rounding down drug weighing, selling what they skim off the top), and her general alpha behaviour is funny because the idea of an assistant is more in line with how Santiago is written. Put her in the position of minor celebrety...influencer...cult leader...thing? and this doesn't work anymore, even if she's written the way she was. Every character's comedy works in part because of the position they're in. Take them out, and you have to bring out some A-game writing to not make it weird or bad.

Whoever was her stylist in the later seasons did her dirty because Gina's looks in earlier seasons were fire

Seeing Troy on the boat being pulled away from Abed triggers me every time... most heartbreaking send off in any sitcom i've seen

This video reminded me of how disappointed I was with how Rosa was handled in the final season. I had no problems with her leaving the 99, that felt in character, but it felt like the writers just kinda went “make the serious character do a not serious thing = comedy” for every episode of the final season.

My least favourite episode is a tie between this one and Casecation. Everyone acts so out of character, especially Amy in a way that isn't funny in the slightest.

I like the idea of Gina being an influencer, but it wasn’t done well.

Agree with Casecation being the worst, especially with Amy my second most favorite character (after Holt), no way she would not discussed children before marrying Jake. Close second is when Jake deported the biological father of Boyle's son, looks really bad on Jake, imagine if the Dad wasn't white

I'll be honest, this episode is still way better than the Debbie one ugh

you cannot convince me that casecation is not the worst episode

I mean lets be honest as a woman who sexually harassed someone in a work place for years without learning or changing it isn’t totally out of the ordinary for her to be shown as the dick she actually is. I found the progression quite realistic and well done. There are much worse episodes like the “debate” ones that everyone in the comments mentioned. It completely ruined the character Amy for me.

This one and the one about Debby were the worst episodes for me. It's a shame that the quality of the writing went down after how amazing season 5 was :(

I'm seeing a lot of people bringing up Casecation as their worst episode, which I agree with, it actually made me stop watching for a while when I saw it. But I have a different reason to dislike it as well. To me it felt like it should have been flipped, a lot of Jake's development has been about understanding parenting, with Terry and Boyle's kids being examples, as well as getting over his daddy issues. I feel like he should have been the one who wanted kids while Amy should have been focusing on career stuff. To me it felt like a step back in Jake's development alongside all the uncomfortable moments in the episode

Glad I‘m not the only one thinking „the box“ was the best episode. Super fun. Edit: look guys I‘m not in any Brooklyn 99 subs or groups or anything like that. I genuinely didn’t know that it‘s unanimously agreed upon that it‘s the best episode. I was just surprised.

The worst episode for me is one of the Halloween one's, I can't remember which one, but is the one where, for some reason, they thought it was ok to put everyone spying on Peralta's therapy sessions. I really couldn't just let this information flow away.

Worst episode(s) is the first one from Season 8. Not because of the issue itself, but because of how it is Shoehorned into the show, just for the sake of it, instead of carefully crafting it into the story.....like they used to

S8E1 was an absolute disgrace to the rest of the show too, it did such a good job talking about real world issues and then they just flopped.

I honestly never liked Gina’s character. I am always surprised and confused when I hear she’s great and a fan favorite?

I think the captain Kim episode was also pretty sour. there was no need for Jake and Holt to be so mean to a genuinely good person, who even looked up to Holt as an inspiration.

Not to mention the celebrity status of Gina is unearned, like, okay, one million subscribers. Dude you have any idea how many self made people have one mil and aren't that much of a celebrity?

Season 8 Episode 1 is the worst episode according to me. They tried to handle the topic but it just seemed forced.

Returning her for things like the Halloween episodes was a perfect mini return for her it makes sense in terms of the show and just her character in general. I don’t think she needed a whole episode I think they should’ve just left it at that- it would’ve been cool to see her during the seres finale since the whole episode was fan service lol (but in a good way! I loved that episode I think it was a perfect send off)

the show steadily declined from season 4 onwards in my opinion. in retrospect, jake & amy’s wedding probably should’ve been the last episode

casecation is the worst episode i think. i totally hated this one also but casecation made me so uncomfortable

My least favourite episode was episode 1 of the new season. They obviously had to address the pandemic and all the systemic issues that became focused on, but they are litersely shoving it down your throat the whole time. Ive never heard more unnatural dialogue in media, ever. It felt like it was an obligated episode. It is a little better throughout the Rest of the season, where they have subtle tones that things have changed in world with views on police, but it’s not every sentence. Overall though, I thought the last season had a lot of pretty weak moments, and a good amount of unsatisfying payoff. For example, I’m not a fan of Jake quitting the force to be a father, I understand with his issues with his dad he wanted to be a good dad, but I would’ve liked to see each character excel in their career, since it’s based in a workplace

the one i didn’t love was casecation (where amy sort of pushes a baby onto jake)

I think this episode amplified some things that were already apparent when Gina left for the first time. Every ensemble character on Brooklyn Nine-Nine had an emotional depth (even Hitchcock had loyalty to Scully), but Gina was largely a one-note narcissist. The rest of the characters developed and matured and basically left her behind, which is why it was so jarring to see the character come back and still be basically the same caricature she was in the first episode. I agree that the episode you’ve highlighted was one of the show’s worst, but I think it was that way due to Gina’s mere presence, not because of an unusually bad treatment of the character.

Casecation was so bad and - imo - the worst episodes. Jake and Amy not talking about whether to have kids so late in their relationship was incredibly heartbreaking to me, and how cold Amy was makes me feel like she doesn't care about him. blergh

It's not constructive to say this but I really don't like Gina as a character, she just messed with people but it was okay because in that universe she was always right and a valuable life lesson was always learned, but realistically she was just being mean or awkward, that's my opinion anyway, obviously some people love her and I won't begrudge them that but she irritates me

NINE NINE! You read that in Terry Crews voice didn’t you

The NBC seasons felt off from the get-go. While I was happy the cast and crew had jobs to go back to, sometimes it is good for a show to end prematurely but also naturally (hot take: it sucked that Firefly was short-lived but its only season was close to perfect). I felt the same way when Scrubs was saved by ABC. Same for Community being saved by Yahoo. But I don't know if it felt different to me because I knew they were on new networks which always leads to tinkering with the creative process.

This to me is the 2nd worst B99 episode, behind the episode when Amy tries to manipulate Jake into having children with her at the hospital.

One of the most heinous things they did was have Jake do that arrest and get suspended. He went to prison wrongfully, and was traumatized by that and was much more understanding and careful when arresting because he realized they could be innocent too. Then the writers threw that in the trash.

I kind of liked Gina in the the earlier seasons. There was a hint of heart behind her crazy persona. I always felt like there was a bit of lonliness to her character, considering that she was the only employee who wasnt a cop. This was especially apparent in the arc where Jake and Holt had to go into witness protection in Florida and she helped save the two of them. At that point, I thought Gina's arc was going to involve her getting bored of assitant life and deciding she can do better, entering the police academy and having the rest of the precinct help her become a cop

My least favourite episode was "Gintars" and to this date it's the only one I haven't even finished. The reason? I'm Latvian, and all the "Nikolaj" jokes are extremely annoying to me because that is not even a Latvian name, not even close. And in "Gintars" those jokes are pushed over the top, plus Gintars himself was pretty much a "backwards country no one's ever heard of" stereotype. Yeah, that didn't sit well with me at all.

B99 doesn’t have a ton of bad episodes, but this is definitely low on the totem pole.

I was so so thankful when Gina was off the show. In the first seasons she’s narcissistic but actually caring, and by the middle of the series she was about 95% narcissistic and only 5% caring. They made her character always right, even in facets that were not her strength (the riddle episode with the Beyoncé tickets comes to mind) and it was nauseating. I didn’t even watch the farewell episode, because it was too much of her. Only respect for Christina, her actress, but boy was I so thankful she left

I liked some aspects of this over the top version of Gina, I saw it kinda as a power hungry persona that just got off on the idea of people idplizing her (as she always has). My favourite joke in the episode was the girl going "Gina look at me" and she does and the girl just starts screaming lol like that was the perfect amount of kookiness I needed in this episode

Honestly the worst for me was the episode where Jake and Amy had a huge disagreement over whether or not they wanted to have kids, and at the end of it, Jake just decides he wants to have kids. It felt like a cop-out ending, and really out of character for him based on what they had already established in the episode. It didn't feel like something he wanted, but all of a sudden he just did. Same vibe as how the Wandavision finale fixed every problem a little too neatly.

appreciate the analysis but s7 and s8 each have at least three or four worse episodes than this

Not sure if I'd call it the WORST episode, but I'd definitely put it in the bottom 5 or 10 lol The Box on the other hand is one of the best episodes of ANY sitcom I've ever seen! And considering it only had 2 of the main actors (with a brief appearance of Gina at the beginning), that makes it all the more impressive imo 👍 Definitely going to miss getting new seasons of that show💔😓

I remembered not laughing as much watching this episode. Most of the time I kept asking “what are you doing, Gina?”

It was a bad episode to be sure, but honestly I can throw a rock at the final season and hit multiple episodes that I felt were worse. It was the worst Gina episode to be sure, but not the worst episode in the shows history (in my opinion).

I'm cool with calling Return of the King the worst episode, but it's not quite right to say The Box is the best episode. It's a great episode where Jake and Holt shine out, but the show isn't only centered on Jake and Holt. Personally, I think Lights Out or HalloVeen are better. But that's from the perspective of a fan who doesn't really think the show ever got too bad (the Debbie arc was weird and season 8 could've used more polish, but it was consistently funny and had pretty good commentary on a number of issues)

This is a great analysis of the episode! SEMANTICALLY speaking though, the fact that this is the worst episode in the series does Not mean it is a bad episode per se. It simply means that all the other episodes were better than this one. What I mean with this is that "Return of The King," albeit considerably lowering the bar, still fit somehow in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine universe; it wasn't THAT out of place. Drops in quality happen almost always and it could have been far worse. All in all, the show managed to stay pretty consistent for its whole run.

Any episodes that focused on Gina was terrible, I genuinely hated her..

Brooklyn 99>My overdue homework XD

No way is the worst, the season 8 opener was by far worse. No humor, just name-dropping current events and focusing the whole plot on apologising for being a cop show. S8 as a whole was alright, but the opener was a disaster.

casecation sucks so bad. when everyone agreed with amy i was actually so shocked, i thought they would understand jake’s perspective, especially when rosa just completely agreed with amy, not knowing the entire story. it’s so unlike her. it wasn’t even that jake just didn’t want kids for no reason, he made amy completely aware of his reasonings and the WORST part is when amy threatens to leave jake if he doesn’t want kids. she said it like it was no big deal and went so far as to do a whole debate with their boss about it. i usually kind of like amy, but in that episode she really needed to understand jakes point of view. also, amy just fully expected jake to be totally on board with having kids when she didn’t even make the effort of talking about it before their marriage and brought it up completely out of the blue. but the rest of the episode where jake convinces pam not to let off the bomb was really good, i actually enjoyed the suspense in thrill in that part of the episode. but overall the episode was super stressful and i js didn’t like it at all.

Only Gina moment I liked was when she got hit by that bus

for me the worst one is when Debbie gets crazy and into drugs and helps Rosa and Jake captive

I, don't even need to watch the entire video to know that it's about Gina. Seriously, there are people that like the character... But she leaving and giving more screen time to Scully and Hitchcock was the best that could happen to the show.

This episode was bad, but it wasn't as bad as "the good ones", "casecation" and "he said she said" are much worse.

if im being honest i hated the entire 8th season. Just didn't have the comedic genuis feeling that the other seasons had. I know they had to rush it due to covid but I would've waited for us to acc get good episodes

I actually liked this episode. Was Gina an absolute bitch? Yes, but that's who she always was. Add fame and money to her narcissism and this was a completly belivable and predictable result. And at the end of the ep, she agreed to see Jake more. Imo it perfectly fit with her character (which, unpopular opinion, I actually like. She's a terrible person, but she's not real, she's just a character on a TV show, so I find her funny). Anyway, Ig another reason why I didn't hate it as much as you is that I didn't see this as a farewell episode at all. It was just the return of a character that had already left. I do think maybe it being in s7 would've fit better though.

i’m not even kidding, every send off clip you showed other than the office, are all of my favorite shows. community, shameless, that 70s show, superstore, sometimes two and a half men, parks and rec, and this video of b-99. that’s crazy. you nailed it. and almost all of those shows were great without them. obviously and sadly not the same but still good none the less.

I only watched this episode once, because I really didn't like It. But I remember that what made me the most uncorfortable was how It reminded me of how Jake's dynamyc with his father was at the beggining of the show. Always making up excuses for him, even blaming himself for his father letting him down. Jake hás a lot of issues as consequence of his father's bad parenting, and Gina, who knew him since ever, whom certainly must know that, was acting the same way, while Jake, that went trough the process of accepting his father was wrong and stopping excusing him, was falling into the same pattern again.

This comes to a close second.. The worst one is the one where jake is bullied into agreeing to have kids..

For me, keep in mind this is the only episode of season 8 I've seen so far, the worst is the first episode of season 8. Nearly everything it tried to do, it failed at miserably or shouldn't have tried, being the show it is, and the show and characters barely seemed like themselves. In general it made me kinda sick to my stomach.

The people who are saying “She’s a bit of a bitch but that’s ok bc she was always like that” didn’t get Gina’s characterization, like, at all. She’s a woman who has grandiose dreams and uses self-obsession and cynicism as a shield (which she admits to, so this is not an overintellectualization). Her self-obsession doesn’t necessarily mean she’s heartless or a “bitch”. She helps people by challenging them to up their game, she can be incredibly kind and sweet, she’s loyal (at least she was before NBC writers fucked her character arc) and she’s funny as hell. I’ve been saying the show has been mediocre at best since NBC took over and that’s mainly because there’s no nuance to the characters anymore. Ruining Gina’s characterization was the biggest mistake ever because she’s a great example of a character having textbook negative qualities but being so loved by the fans, and instead of expanding on this contrast they wrote her off only to bring her back so they can make her into a 2000s high school movie villain. (Also agree with the comments about Casecation - worst ep ever)

Bishop's send off is what made me realize NCIS had phased into going on for too long. I loved her up until then.. They essentially ruined her character with just one episode, while neglecting the relationships she'd made with the other agents. Truly disappointing

It was absolutely the episode where Amy strong arms Jake into having a baby. Gina was the worst character, but she wasn't the centre of the worst episode.

6:43 bruh apathy is such a common starting point for characters that then develop into caring about something a la April Ludgate

I like how the episode shows that when someone leaves a show they don’t die, and a lot of the time people don’t change some people sour in a very poor way especially when gaining fame, it’s not great for a story standpoint but it’s realistic

Season 8 completely destroyed my enjoyment with the entire show. I cant look at this the same again.

I think because Gina was a very funny character most people ignore how narcissistic and downright cruel she was at times. I liked the episode because it made you reflect on all the little "quirks" she displayed and how she treats people. I don't think she was that far removed from the original Gina but it was a somewhat reasonable portrayal of how quick and excessive fame can alter a personality and enhance these negative traits, specially without the 99, there weren't any characters left to ground her in reality.

I'd still much rather watch this episode over S8 ep1 "The Good Ones". Even though it's not the best episode, nothing can be worse than that.

I think I understand where you're coming from in this video. I think that, whenever you think the worst episode of the show is, this is a decent contender either way. But, I do disagree with the characterization of Gina, and your characterization of the writers characterization of Gina, if that makes any sense. Gina was always a really terrible person. From her constant disrespect of her superiors, and so-called friends, repeated assaults and weird behavior and harassment, and particularly sexual harassment towards Terry, in many episodes, though as time went on it got a little less prominent, it was still very troubling. You suggest that the writers extremely exaggerated Gina's character flaws in this episode, but honestly, it seems pretty on brand. I think the fact is, we finally got a close and extended look at Gina in this episode, and it just shows much better in that light, that she really is and always has been a pretty awful person. I was under the impression that we were supposed to dislike her, that she was supposed to be an unlikable character, and in that context, I enjoyed the character work and writing. But I hear from a lot of fans of the show that they like her, and were disappointed when she behaved an unlikeable manner, which confused me xD.

I watched the first episode of the 8th season and thought it was so bad that I lost interest in watching the 8th season at all. I'm not surprised it was their last. Way too concerned with trying to appease our world, rather than living in their own. I have a vague recollection of giving s08e02 a shot, but don't remember much about it.

worst episode for me was most of season 8💀 definitely felt like the humor was more forced that season

The worst episode is actually the one where Amy and Jake discuss kids. Or any episode in season 7

Gina was by far my least favorite character. She just seems so out of place all the time. And I feel like she most of time did nothing for the story and was just there to be funny even though she was not funny at all, more annoying. And I hated that she was always mean to Amy for no reason. I did not miss her at all wen she left.

Gina was always the character in this episode.. she was amplified, which was the point.

The one where Jake gets a man deported is an absolute shocker as well tbf

DO A VIDEO ON THE GOOD PLACEEEE

I didn’t mind this episode, it didn’t feel like she was out of character at all, to me the worst episode was Jimmy Jabs 2. It was comedically ridiculous and they were constantly lowering the bar on how much they reached for comedy, going so far low as a right out penis joke without any other context, And felt completely unoriginal and undoing all character development.

The worst for me was S08EP01 Where they forced down agenda into a comedy show..

The worse episode was the first episode of the final season

Great breakdown thank you. A pleasure to hear your content.

"Fan Favorite"???? Dude I don't really mind Gina but she is undoubtedly the least popular member of the main cast. Opinions of her range from revulsion to apathetic, she is absolutely not a fan favorite.

Casecation and the Halloween heist where Amy hired someone to pretend to be a mental health professional so she could spy on Jake's heist plans, while he did therapy. Unorthodox, disrespectful, invasion of privacy, violation of trust. I was absolutely disgusted

Shout-out to that one time Holt immiddiately suspended Jake, actually thinking that he'd intentionally set off a device that destroyed evidence after Dillman suggested it. It was one thing to think that it was a prank gone wrong, but it was quite another to so coldly dismiss him out of hand and think that he'd do something like that over his desire to be put on the special task force - in fact, just in general, the way he went about revealing that information during the episode seemed... Really dam cold. I thought that the defining characteristics of Holt where that underneath his cold demeanor he genuinely cared about and understood his colleagues, so I really can't imagine that he wouldn't have sat Jake down and talked him through his decision, but instead he basically spends the whole episode dismissing and putting him down, needlessly letting Jake hope for the position when he's already made up his mind for someone else before tactlessly revealing it in front of everyone, and it just comes off as mean spirited and honestly rather mean. It's almost as if his whole relationship with Jake just got reset for the episode, but only from Holt's end. There seemed to be no trust or care from Holt down to Jake, as if it where an episode written for the beginning of their relationship, not several seasons down the line where they've both been through literal life and death situations together. There wasn't even an apology from what I remember at the end. Jake supported Charles and that was nice, but for an episode where Holt spent the entire time dismissing one of his best detectives and most trusted colleagues out of hand, all we get at the end is him... Not giving any sort of apology and refusing to acknowledge him again for a joke.

Gina being the face of the worst episode, imagine my shock

For me the worst episode is when Terry's idol appears. I know it only appeared 2 times, but those two episodes were very boring😴

Season 8 episode 1 will ALWAYS be the fuckin worst

The worst episode for me was the one where Amy set up a fake therapy for Jake.

The worst episode of B99 is He Said, She Said and it's not close. Preachy, atonal, has an impractical plot, and gives Amy a ridiculous out-of-character scene in order to deliver THE MESSAGE™.

Yep I was thinking he is probably going to talk about this episode. It probs my most hated episode of the show I think I have only watched once, whereas the rest of the show I have seen close to 20 times (no joke btw).

Can we all remember what horrible parents Rosa had in Gina’s fair well episode. Or at least the fake out one, season 5 episode 10.

Honestly I never really enjoyed Gina anyway.