The Enemy of the Squad’s Enemy is its Friend in the ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season 6 Finale (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[SPOILER ALERT! The following contains major spoilers for Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6, episode 18, “Suicide Squad.”]
If it’s true that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” then the Nine-Nine have made new friends out of old enemies in their pursuit of eliminating the corrupt Commissioner John Kelly.
Those old enemies? CJ (Ken Marino), The Vulture (Dean Winters) and Madeline Wuntsch (Kyra Sedgwick). All three of them have their reasons for wanting to get Kelly ousted, and Jake formulates a plan that caters to their very specific, and very distinct, skill sets. But given their histories with the Nine-Nine, can they all be trusted? Meanwhile, Terry’s in deep denial about transferring to Staten Island.
Suicide Squad
The main storyline this episode revolves around Jake’s “Suicide Squad” consisting of CJ, Wuntsch and The Vulture. All of them want Commissioner Kelly out of office for very different reasons (CJ’s upset Kelly won’t let him eat raw chicken), so they’re okay with helping their enemies as long as it gets Kelly gone.
But it’s harder for Holt to trust Jake’s plan, considering he has no trust for his worst foe. He tasks Rosa and Terry with following Wuntch and keeping it a secret from Jake.
Kidnapping Chaos
In order to trigger Kelly’s stingray system, Jake says they need to commit a crime serious enough for it. They’re going to kidnap a cop: CJ. Jake, Amy and Charles are the kidnappers and Holt is the driver. They’ll get CJ into their van, and the Vulture and his “two worst detectives” will be tasked with investigating the crime, so he can eliminate any evidence at the scene. Wuntsch can get proof that Kelly is using his stingray system by planting a bug on Kelly.
Of course, things don’t quite go as planned. When the group goes to “kidnap” CJ the next morning, he struggles with them for longer than planned. Once they’re in the van, everyone’s relieved no more of the plan revolves around CJ, so everything should be fine. Right?
WRONG. The Vulture’s detectives bag evidence at the scene, so now they have Jake’s hair. Even worse, Wuntsch didn’t plant the bug on Kelly, because she figured out Terry and Rosa were following her and knows Holt doesn’t trust her, so she doesn’t trust them.
An Unexpected Betrayal
Jake manages to get Wunstch to come back to the team, but her help is conditional on Holt apologizing for “everything he ever did to her.” Realizing their jobs are at stake, Holt says he’s sorry, and Wuntsch hatches a plan. There’s a policeman’s ball that evening, and she says she can plant the bug on Kelly there… and Holt can go as her plus-one. In order to get close to the commissioner they have to dance, and when Holt twirls Wuntsch into Kelly so she can plant the bug, Kelly says, “Right on time, Madeline. Did Raymond buy it?” Wuntsch has betrayed them!
Jake and his group decide to make a hostage video with CJ in order to up the pressure on Kelly and get evidence that he’s using the stingray. Much like the rest of the plan, this goes sideways fast when the NYPD bursts in and arrests them for the kidnapping. As it turns out, The Vulture was in on Wuntsch’s plan, too, and CJ’s been bought off, so he won’t tell the truth. It looks like the Nine-Nine are in serious trouble.
Rectifying the Situation
Or are they? When Kelly, Wuntsch and Holt stand outside the interrogation room, Kelly hands Wuntsch his phone to take a photo of him with the dejected Holt. This allows her to clone the device to a secure server, making a record of all stingray authorizations. Wuntsch was on their side the whole time! Angered, Kelly tells Wuntsch and Holt that while they may have won this round, they’ll both “live to regret” what they did.
For Holt, that day might come soon enough. With Kelly gone, Wuntsch is acting commissioner… and in that position of authority, she tells Holt she really was “up to something” when she decided to help them. That night, the squad goes to Shaw’s to celebrate Terry’s last day at the Nine-Nine: apparently the transfer is going through. Holt shows up and tells the squad no one’s going anywhere, because Wuntsch has made a personnel change at the precinct that frees up some of the budget. “I told her I only spent a month as a patrolman before making detective,” Holt says, “she said that’s against regulations, and has decided to… rectify the situation.”
And with that, Holt’s no longer a Captain. He’s a patrolman.
Other Observations
- What a fantastic end to the season. This is the kind of thing I wish we’d seen from Nine-Nine throughout its sixth season — a larger storyline that ties to the everyday stuff the squad does.
- If Wuntsch is now commissioner (or acting commissioner), does that mean we’ll be seeing her more often next season? Her insult-ridden dynamic with Holt is always hilarious, and now that he’s a patrolman, their relationship can only get more poisonous.
- Another note about the commissioner thing — does this open another avenue for Holt to get the job? He was so disappointed when Kelly won, but it seems like he might be able to reach for that dream again.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 7 Premiere, 2020, NBC
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