Bomb Threats and Wedding Vows Close Season 5 of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’

Alci Rengifo

The final episode of season 5 of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” finds itself with a curious dual identity. It is the finale of the series’ run on Fox, and the beginning of its new home over at NBC. Earlier this year fans were stunned when Fox announced the cancellation of the sitcom, prompting a wave of support from even industry notables like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Guillermo Del Toro. In came NBC to save the day and give the show a new home. Curiously enough, the season finale could have been a replay of the classic final chapter gimmick: A wedding. Finally NYPD couple in blue Jake (Andy Samberg) and Amy (Melissa Fumero) tie the knot while everyone else come to their own crossroads.

As Jake and Amy plan their wedding, a sudden glitch arises. Jake receives a bomb threat from a mysterious voice, threatening to blow up the proceedings. Of course this puts everything on pause as focus is put on capturing the potential terrorist. Meanwhile Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) refuses to open an email that could reveal the status of his candidacy for Police Commissioner. Gina (Chelsea Peretti) tries to convince him during the episode that he most likely has nothing to fear. But the wedding seems to pull everyone in. Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) and Terry (Terry Crews, back from being Bedlam in “Deadpool 2”) spend the episode running around trying to get Amy’s veil dry cleaned, instead running into a potential love interest for Rosa. You can’t get married on TV without roadblocks everywhere, in this case even Amy’s ex, Teddy (Kyle Bornheimer) shows up to be an annoyance. And just who made the bomb threat?

Even the old let’s do a wedding trick hasn’t lost some of its charm. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” doesn’t go for mushy clichés and manages to combine the premise with its usual brand of laughs. The bomber making the threat turns out to be Amy’s very own “arch nemesis,” someone she arrested previously who quite simply hates her. When Teddy appears on the scene to deal with the bomb threat, his lines are absurdly hilarious, “You called me boring. So I leveled up my cool and now I run the bomb squad.” This whole season of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” has had a bit of a chaotic feel to it, not in a bad way, but it was obvious the showrunners were not completely sure if the show would return. In that spirit the season finale has few major twists, it eschews a lot of the bigger, corporate conspiracies which took place earlier in the season. This time it’s all about the character’s journeys. At one point Gina tells Holt that it seems like everyone is going off on some sort of adventure. Rosa’s possible new love interest, Alicia (Gina Rodriguez), opens the door for truly exploring Rosa’s recent opening up as a bisexual (which has inspired some nice moments where the other characters all offer their full support).

The wedding itself is given a decent twist. The whole bomb threat delays the original plan, so instead Jake and Amy settle on a small ceremony at the precinct, presided over by Holt. Even Fred Armisen’s Mlepnos, who appeared briefly in the pilot, make a return here to play proper violin music for Amy to walk down the aisle. Later the wedding vows completely steer away from tradition as Amy tells Jake, “There is a bomb at this wedding as well, your butt. Your butt is the bomb. There will be no survivors.” Odd words but appropriate for a sitcom that dabbles in goofy wordplay.

The big question at the end of the episode is what is to happen with Holt. Of course fans will already be wondering what happens with Jake and Amy, but we can bet they will be fine. Holt has some stand out moments in this episode, especially when he grants Jake and Amy permission to say they love him (after he says it first to them). There seems to be a sense of finality in these moments, but then the episode decides to truly mess with us and ends with Holt finally getting an answer to his question about being commissioner, just as everyone else is having a good time at the bar. Holst shows no expression and reveals nothing when he reads the answer. And cut, we go to black.

Relief comes from knowing that it isn’t over. Now fans will simply have to tune in on NBC to see what comes next with this merry band of NYPD cops. One network may have decided to call it quits, but another feels there’s still more on the plate to share.

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” season five finale aired May 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox.