‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’: All Bets are Off in the Second ‘Jimmy Jab Games’ (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 7 Episode 4, “The Jimmy Jab Games II”]
You know how the saying goes… when Terry (Terry Crews) and Amy (Melissa Fumero) are away, Jake (Andy Samberg) will play.
OK, that’s not quite the real saying. But nonetheless, it’s true; when Terry and Amy are invited to a conference and the squad’s stuck on parade duty, Jake’s put in charge. His first decree as squad ruler? To reinstate the Jimmy Jab Games, a mini-game competition with a paid vacation day as a prize.
Turns out he’s struggling a bit with the notion that he might no longer be “cool,” and in an attempt to prove his objective awesomeness, Jake makes a bet he regrets. Meanwhile, Holt tries to figure out Rosa’s motivation for trying to win the games.
The Bet
Jake and the rest of the crew — Holt (Andre Braugher), Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz), Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) — get down to business planning the event. Boyle insists that in Gina’s absence, he wants to be the announcer; he makes this happen by getting Debbie (Vanessa Bayer) involved, so there are still six participants.
While Boyle gives his 10-minute long opening performance (complete with a costume change), Hitchcock decides to make things more interesting for Jake: if Jake wins, he’ll do his paperwork for a year, but if Hitchcock wins, Jake has to give him his new car. “What happened to the cool guy who used to make bets with his best bud?” he asks, when Jake hesitates. But then, disturbed by the implication he might no longer be “cool,” Jake takes the bet. Yikes.
Rosa’s Mysterious Reason
And as a result of Jake’s indiscretion, Amy decides to stick around for the games. That’s fine, because Debbie has to drop out. What’s not fine is the fact that Hitchcock passes with flying colors as a result of his “doping” — he’s taking Scully’s prescription meds to make him, as he puts it, “limitless.” Meanwhile, Holt’s certain that there’s something fueling Rosa to want to win, but he’s not sure what it is.
Things start getting interesting during the elevator competition, when the remaining competitors have to fit in the elevator wearing bomb suits. Jake, after falling from the ceiling during the last game, can hardly walk. Amy gets into the elevator, but there’s no more space, so she “Armageddon’s” herself by quitting the competition so Jake fits and can keep their car… for now.
More Important Than Winning
Between games, Holt thinks he has Rosa’s motives figured out: she’s going to propose to Jocelyn. Quite the opposite is true. Jocelyn broke up with Rosa, she says, and she needs the day off to get her mind right. When Rosa starts crying, Holt realizes she’s not lying.
That tragic epiphany becomes even more upsetting for Jake in short order, when, during the next game, both Holt and Rosa withdraw from the competition. “Some things are more important than a competition,” Holt says. As bad luck would have it, more of the ceiling falls on Jake after that announcement, wounding him even further.
Little Debbie, Big Problems
Thankfully, the last game is an obstacle course — and Hitchcock is seriously suffering, too. “Turns out taking a bunch of random pills is really bad for you,” he says.
Nonetheless, he and Jake soldier on, weaving through barricades, buying hot dogs, extracting olives from Heimlich practice dummies and more. It all comes down to Jake and a door he needs to break through… and with a little adrenaline boost from an EpiPen, he (literally) pushes through. Jake is the winner! And more importantly, he gets to keep his car!
But there’s a twist coming, in the form of Debbie’s true intentions. After receiving a little encouragement from Boyle, she proceeds to the evidence lockup and steals a whole bunch of the stuff inside. “I can do anything I put my mind to,” she says as she walks away with a suitcase full of the stuff.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, NBC
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