'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Review/Recap: “Chocolate Milk”

Marcela Lima ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

The title of episode two of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s second season had fans pondering what in the world chocolate milk could have in common with the opening scene: Sergeant Terry Jeffords’ (Terry Crews) visit to the doctor for a vasectomy.
The explanation of the title comes in after the theme song, when Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), explains a new case that involves a stabbing survivor who owns a chocolate milk restaurant. Wanting to take on the case with Sergeant Jeffords, Jake agrees to drive him to his vasectomy in exchange for his partnership.
After agreeing to partner with each other, Peralta and Jeffords question the restaurant owner, who proceeds to inform them that being in the chocolate milk business is an invitation for enemies. The cockiness and “hipster” vibe the owner gives off creates an amusing dynamic between the cops’ simple words and the unexpected terminology the owner uses as universal language. From his calling his shop a “ ‘straunt,” (short for restaurant), to calling his customers “Milkers,” the owner provides humor in an otherwise tense situation.

Detective Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) and Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) prepare for an evaluation, but are surprised when a new officer, Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch, is the one performing the evaluation. Detective Santiago’s plan of wooing the evaluator with a basket of fresh pears, though characteristically subservient of Santiago, will not work on the bold and assertive Wuntch.
Sedgwick plays this character to a “T,” holding a grudge against Captain Holt, who, years earlier, led her on to believe he was interested in her, but shockingly confessed that he was gay. She plays a masculine character who shows little to no emotion, and her actions towards the 99th precinct are believable and realistic, when referring to the situation at hand.
After a lot of explaining and clarifying, Holt and Wuntch realized their opinions of each other were wrong, and reconciled their decades-long feud. The gesture was expected from the very beginning. In a world where happy conclusions please the fans, it was inevitable that Wuntch and Holt would patch together their relationship, and the precinct would receive a favorable evaluation.

While the evaluation is occurring, Peralta and Jeffords, who did not go through with his vasectomy, go around town attempting to find the perpetrator of the stabbing. Throwing in vasectomy and baby jokes wherever he can, Peralta proves to the audience that his humor is just as adolescent and immature this season as it was last season. But hey, none of the fans are complaining: This is the Jake Peralta they know and love.
Again, in the theme of happy endings, the perpetrator in the “chocolate milk stabbing” case confessed and Peralta and Jeffords solved the case while becoming close “work friends,” as well as “friend friends,” as Peralta liked to state.
While the plot was not as riveting and exciting as the first episode of the second season, when Detective Peralta gloriously returned to the workforce from an undercover assignment, Detective Santiago (Fumero), Diaz, and Boyle’s exceptionally witty vasectomy puns at the beginning of the episode make us almost forget that the plot is centered around a trivial chocolate milk shop stabbing. The episode, as a whole, was foreseeable: Peralta and Jeffords solved the case, Muntch and Holt reconciled, and Santiago got the good grade and evaluation she was banking on. Though predictable, this episode was brimming with clever puns, new relationships, and demonstrated a more touching and emotive side of the show.
Episode Grade: B+