Brooklyn Nine-Nine Review: Balancing (Season 8 Episode 4)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 Episode 4, “Balancing,” is, pardon the pun, a perfectly balanced episode.

It opens with Terry’s sick burn, “maybe I don’t have an arch-nemesis because I solve all my crimes” and only gets better from there as Jake’s obsession with catching another murderer he swears is taunting him spirals in unexpected directions.

This episode is an example of how the Brooklyn Nine-Nine we fell in love with and the new, more mature Brooklyn Nine-Nine can work effortlessly together.

Suprise, this isn’t another episode focused on Jake’s dream murder investigation, it’s a choice between solving the case or showing up for his child.

It’s a script flip that proves to be invaluable in these final hours for our working parents.

“Balancing” makes the clever choice not to abandon the action of the precinct in favor of Jake and Amy’s babysitting mishaps with Mac. Instead, the episode hilariously incorporates the chaos of the Johnny Franzia case into the background as the two struggle to find a work/life balance.

Everything about this concept is well thought out, from Jake throwing out a line about this random arch-nemesis in Season 5 to the innocent babysitter montage early in the episode setting up for Franzia’s big reveal.

Perhaps the greatest tactic is having Charles take over the Franzia case while Jake looks after Mac.

It’s such a fun plot tool to have Charles describe all the insane action happening off-screen while Jake pretends he’s not utterly devastated his bathroom mirror didn’t have a creepy message scrolled on it when he got out of the shower.

Jake’s causal envy over the fact that Charles will be murdered in his apartment by Franzie is the kind of dark humor Brooklyn Nine-Nine does ridiculously well. This sadistic humor is elevated by Charles’ increasingly dark encounters with the murderer, only for his best friend to act out in jealousy rather than concern.

These running bits fill the beats around the heart of this episode with quality fun.

From Holt refusing to invest in another one of Jake’s rivalries to Amy being so desperate to go to her meeting, she suggests Jake give their baby to Franzia and tells him to “grow up” when Jake says he’s not giving Mac to a serial killer.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been making murders fun since 2013.

We have waited an unreasonable amount of time to see Jake and Amy kill it at parenting, but the time has finally come for them to shine.

Of course, by shine, we mean spiral into a chaotic mess of homicidal babysitters and syrup so potent it has Scully turned on. That chaos is just icing on the cake as Amy and Jake are forced to face their biggest parenting worries on a day crucial to their careers.

Jake being the one to sacrifice his arrest so Amy can campaign for police reform is right for his character growth and the show’s themes. It’s a big moment for Jake as he puts his wife and kid before the job he loves.

Even Amy, who loves her job and is making a difference by going to her meeting, gets to have a moment of disappointment as she realizes she missed Mac’s first pull-up.

It’s a somber, yet hopeful, moment for these two working parents — and the heart of this episode’s success.

Also, Jake begging Amy to introduce Mac to screen-time so he can force his child, who can barely walk, to watch all the Transformers movies is so on-brand. It’s nice to know parenting hasn’t changed him too much.

“Balancing” already juggles killer cases and emotional parental triumphants, yet still feels the need to take on more.

Not that we’re complaining because despite how much insanity Holt texting Kevin a dick pic should add to this loaded storyline, it only seems to elevate the comedic material.

This season has taught us so much about our favorite precinct dads, from the fact that Cheddar takes French lessons to Kevin sending a scatter plot in response to an obscene photo because that’s what turns Holt on. It’s all valuable storytelling.

Terry has had some questionable storylines this season to fill time, so it’s a nice change of pace to see him very much in his own lane and being petty as hell.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine strikes an important balance between the comedy we love and the character dynamics we need.

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs Thursdays at 8/9c on NBC.

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