Brooklyn Nine-Nine 1x21 "Unsolvable"

Whatta man whatta man whatta man whatta mighty good man

I'll tell you what's unsolvable to me: Why the hell Scully and Hitchcock are even on this show. Seriously though. Sometimes they are kind of funny--the upsie-downsie kill shot, for example, but they are too over the top stupid and a blemish on an otherwise perfect ensemble. Yeah, I said it, otherwise perfect!! Jake is basically the sexiest man alive; Amy is so OCD that it makes her charming; Jeffers is so masculine and sensitive at the same time, I just love him; Gina is outlandish and hilarious (she has a nap blanket named Wolfie "hold me close wolfie!"); Captain Holt just beats down every stereo type like he beats down people with his wicked BRF (look this up if you don't get it); Boyle is such a caring individual, and so enthusiastic (!); and under that cold exterior, Rosa has a heart of gold. I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that Brooklyn Nine-Nine wasn't really pushing the character development at first, or at least I thought they weren't. By the end of last night's episode though, when Jake was staring at Amy longingly and Terry was trying to tell him that solving every case won't make him happy, I realized how much he's grown since the first episode. Then I thought about every character and realized that each of them has grown in some way or another since the first episode. The changes have been so subtle I didn't realize that in the process of laughing at the stupid jokes, I was actually growing to love each of these characters. (EXCEPT SCULLY AND HITCHCOCK) That is a sign of great writing. I say it every week, but this show is just so enjoyable. The pacing is perfect, the jokes are always spot on, and the writers have succeeded in sneaking heart into the show without making it sappy.
Last night we finally found out that Jake obsesses over solving cases as a way of coping with an emptiness he feels (well, no one actually said this...I told you the show isn't sappy!). As I mentioned above, after Jake solved an "unsolvable" case and didn't really seem all that pleased, and Jeffers pointed out that solving cases won't make you happy when you really want something else to make you happy. That's when Jake glanced over at Amy, who's happy with Teddy at the moment, and Jeffers pieced everything together.
We also found out that Boyle and Vivian are still fighting over the Canada issue, so Rose and Gina let him use their secret bathroom/ utopia to call Vivian during the day. Of course, Scully and Hitchcock found out about it and Gina caught them doing God knows what in there.
And Amy told her first lie to the Captain when she wanted to go to the Berkshires with Teddy instead of help him over the weekend with a presentation. Turns out you can brush your teeth too aggressively, and scrape off all your enamel? Good to know.

The season finale airs next week, and I'm sure even more character development will occur (finale cliffhangers! the best/ worst plot device ever). This is totally depressing, but at least The Mindy Project comes back the week after that, so that helps with the pain of it all.