'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Review/Recap: "USPIS"

Marcela Lima ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

While Brooklyn Nine-Nine has had some fantastic guest stars through the seasons, this particular episode took the cake in that category. From Kid Cudi and Adam Sandler last season to Eva Longoria and Kyra Sedgwick this season, there certainly hasn’t been a lack of familiar faces. Our mystery guest in this episode was actor and comedian Ed Helms playing the role of Jack Danger, an agent for the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS, for short).
In this episode, Detective Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) and her task force have the job of tracking down a drug called “giggle pig.” She puts Detective Peralta (Andy Samberg) in charge (what could go wrong there?) and forces him to work with agent Danger.
After finding a secret key that is linked to a mailbox that the USPS rarely uses anymore, Danger, Peralta, and Detective Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) head out on their covert mission. Once they find the package of “giggle pig” in the old mailbox, the detectives spot a mysterious man heading towards them. After letting the possible suspect get away, Detective Diaz reprimands Peralta and lets him know that he has disappointed her, yet again.

Now, if you know Jake Peralta, you know that he is prone to disappointing others, but the sincerity and hopelessness in Diaz’s voice brought out a softer side in Peralta. Despite being a tough-headed goofball, he surprisingly has feelings, and those come out at the end of the episode when he apologizes to not only Diaz, but agent Danger as well (for taking classified information). This is a change of scenery for Peralta, and this multi-faceted depiction of him adds to the development of his character.
Throughout this second season, Peralta has showed different sides of his personality and has changed and grown with every new episode. Of course, he’s still the childish and immature Peralta that we stick around for, but now, he’s more relatable and relevant to the audience members.
After the initial disappointment when the audience found out that his last name is actually pronounced as “donger,” we quickly realized that this agent takes his job extremely seriously, with memorable quotes like “The postal service doesn’t make mistakes,” when Peralta questioned him about a possible flaw in the system.

Ed Helms’ character was awe-inspiring, to say the least. His portrayal of a USPIS agent was a tribute to his work on The Office where he played a dedicated and often arrogant worker. In this case, he was both extremely dedicated and extremely arrogant. To Danger, USPIS was life. To Danger, e-mail was destroying the jobs of all “real” mail workers. Enthusiastic? Yeah, I guess we could say that.
This episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine had all of the right components: witty puns, fabulous actors, transforming characters, and a positive ending. In the end, the cops bust the case and catch all of the bad guys. Peralta learns to say sorry to other people, and Diaz’s task force racks up another win. Their “wild goose chase,” as Danger liked to call it, resulted in a victory for the entire 99th precinct.
Overall Episode Grade: A