Hopefully most of you are upset as I am that the bridesmaid dress for the Boyle-Linetti wedding was not inspired by Roseanne from the television show Roseanne. For a show that can be pretty good with pay-offs (look no further than the casting choices for Gina and Boyle’s parents), this is such a missed opportunity.
Watching “Boyle-Linetti Wedding,” there’s the lingering feeling that an event episode like this should be treated as such—as an event. (Even though to most of the people involved in it within the show, it’s not.) Either in the form of a “super-sized” episode or two episodes making it an hour-long; “Boyle-Linetti Wedding” could easily dedicate twice as much time to individual plots to make them stronger. Because, sadly, when it comes to the plots in this episode that aren’t directly related to the wedding of the century (or at least, the wedding of the day), the episode is lacking in the plot department. As is often the case, this doesn’t mean the episode veers into the realm of unfunny for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but it’s still disappointing to see.
First, there’s the Amy/Jake plot. The bare bones comes from Amy having a “nemesis” in counterfeiter Gregor Minsk and Jake trying to date The One That Got Away (in his eyes and his eyes only), Jenny Gildenhorn (the girl who dumped him on at his bar mitzvah). From the tag, Chekhov’s Wedding Ring rears its ugly head when Gina first mentions Jake being on ring duty, and as expected, Jake both loses and ring and gets it stuck on his finger (two sitcommy plots for the price of one). As for Amy and her pursuit of Minsk, it really has less to do with the plot than the constant reminders that Jake and Amy had (or have, wink wink) feelings for each other.
The Amy/Jake plot suffers (for lack of a less harsh word) from being a string of predictable beats, topped off with a lot of telling and not showing with regards to any pining (either past, present, or residual). Will-they/won’t-they arcs can range anywhere from fun to insufferable, but right now, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is someone in between. Whenever Amy and Jake are mentioned in a more-than-platonic capacity, especially in this season, it feels like Brooklyn Nine-Nine is only doing will-they/won’t-they out of a perceived obligation—whether it’s to the network, the viewers, or just the very concept of what a television show should be. Earlier this season, Rosa told Jake to stop flirting with Amy, even though he was goofing around with her the same way he always had (and still does). Then all of a sudden in this episode, Boyle is afraid to talk about Jake and other women in front of Amy, and Amy and Jake are making jokey marriage proposals that are sure to get people excited. It reeks of the dreaded p-word—pandering—which is unfortunate, because an organic set-up of this potential relationship could be really good.
If the show wants to do an Amy/Jake relationship, then instead of just mentioning feelings or awkwardness every few episodes that’s never seen in between, it should—and I believe this is the technical term—“shit or get off the pot.”
Then again, Rosa and Marcus technically have gotten more focus on their relationship, but it’s a mess for different reasons. Based on this episode, Rosa is in love with Marcus, and while that should be a big step for the Rosa character, there has been neither enough Marcus nor visible reasons for the audience to even like or care about him and his relationship with Rosa. This is a character who apparently DVRs episodes of Bones and worries about Bones spoilers. Network synergy or not, the brief glimpses of Marcus have done nothing to show why Rosa even likes him, and if the point is to show an emotional growth for Rosa, then “show” is the key word.
When the episode actually focuses on the wedding itself, it’s impossible for it to miss. Rosa accidentally causing Lynn Boyle to have nerves is such a Rosa thing to do, only here, it makes perfect sense that she isn’t taking glee in such a thing. And Boyle’s giddiness over the wedding makes his increasing weirdness this season somehow delightfully sweet, even when he’s talking about things like “brother-sister sex stuff” and “ham hands” in the context of a wedding toast. It’s amazing to realize that while characters like Jake, Amy, and Rosa find themselves in a strange relationship abyss this episode and season, the Gina/Boyle sexy time explosion led to their characters somehow becoming better (not just as supporting characters but as characters who can sustain plots on their own) and providing even more laughs.
In fact, an episode like this is a great showcase for the Gina character (who is without a doubt the MVP of this episode), again reminding the audience why she even still has her job (even when she’s prioritizing a wedding that Jake himself points out no one actually cares about over a briefing); she has a take charge attitude, as proven by her classification as an I9C3G6 psychological profile, and this episode gives her a chance to drop her cool facade for something other than just herself and still manage to fix the ever-arising problems. She is a natural born leader, and she shows it here in spades here.
Plus, her zingers are just absolutely on point in this episode: