Brooklyn Nine-Nine Review: The Therapist (Season 6 Episode 11)
We get to meet Jocelyn on Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6 Episode 11, “The Therapist,” and that alone earns the episode three stars. The rest of the stories are tepid at best and bordering on offensive at worst.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine has had some fantastically strong episodes, especially Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6 Episode 10, “Gintars,” and Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 6 Episode 8, “He Said, She Said,” so it is allowed a dip.
This is a dip, though.
The best parts of the episode are teeny little moments that pop up amongst otherwise weak storytelling.
The therapist as the murderer is predictable from the first meeting at the park. Jake’s realization that he rejects therapy because he blames his attempt to get therapy for his parents’ divorce is likewise predictable.
Jake has grown so much in the past six years. Taking him back to issues he faced in Season 2 regarding his guilt is a slight to the character and to fans that have watched him grow into the insightful person he is on “He Said, She Said.”
The story backslides the character.
Even though Jake comes to the realization that he would benefit from therapy, that doesn’t happen until the close of the last Act. The episode is peppered with digs at the profession and, importantly, the therapist is a murderer.
Very minimal research would reveal that Multiple Personality Disorder doesn’t work that way. Having Jake take on a bunch of British accents is not nearly funny enough to justify the disregard for psychology and psychological disorders.
Many people believe what Jake expresses at the beginning of the episode, therapy isn’t for them and therapists are weird.
Even given the long list of traumatizing and complex situations Jake has faced, he has gotten by just fine without therapy. Boyle, on the other hand, seems completely maladjusted and unable to see how people interpret him sexual language even though he’s been in therapy for years.
The overall message becomes that you don’t need therapy if you are a “normal” person like Jake, and if you are an odd person like Boyle, therapy will not help you very much.
The episode also attaches Terry’s character to his less interesting and overdone qualities: his fear of judgment.
Terry talks about himself in the third person and is obsessed with yogurt and fitness. We get it. He cares what other people think.
This is one of the least interesting things about him. His identity as a father, and as a father figure to the squad is far more fascinating.
Within the “sex book shame” story, the highlight is when Terry realizes that he is on speaker phone a he has just asked his wife to say how awesome he is at sex.
That is what I want to see.
I want stories about Terry navigating life as an empathetic and feminist Black father to two girls.
Rather than focusing on his prowess in the bedroom, I would like to see him feeling unsure how to have conversations about sex with his daughters.
Terry is underdeveloped on the episode, as he has been all season, and I hope that he gets at least two episodes before the end of Season 6 that authentically focus on issues he is facing in his life that are not focused on his physicality.
The story I do like is the C plot where Rosa resists introducing Jocelyn to Captain Holt.
The biggest laugh on the episode comes from Rosa saying Captain Holt is judgemental, Captain Holt saying that’s stupid, and Rosa using it as the example of his judgemental nature.
The pacing, dialogue and use of replay make the short bit sing.
Jocelyn pretending she is Denise is adorable and funny. Captain Holt’s explanation of why that is funny is also heartwarming.
I also always love when Rosa, in her Rosa way, reveals how much she cares about her 99 family.
Rosa kissing Jocelyn is the BEST. I can watch it over and over.
I also love Captain Holt’s sweet little phone conversation with Kevin. It is a random, but deeply intimate, view of how a loving marriage works.
What did you think of this episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.
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Janelle Ureta
Janelle Ureta is equal parts Veronica Mars, Raven Reyes, and Rebecca Bunch, but she aspires to add some Tammy Taylor to the mix. An attorney turned teacher, Janelle believes in the power of a well-told story. She is currently exploring how to tell short stories, 140 characters or less, on twitter. She loves to talk about TV, and right now she can't shut up about Timeless, Dear White People, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The 100, or Younger.