99 (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

Plot

The squad travels to Los Angeles for the funeral of Captain McGintley, the precinct's former captain. At the service, Holt learns he is being considered to replace the retiring NYPD Commissioner and agrees to return to New York for the interview. On the way to the airport, Jake insists on stopping at Fox Plaza, the real-life building used as Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard. The group gets trapped inside for two hours when a door locks, causing them to miss their flight.

Since storms in the Midwest have grounded all flights out of LAX, they rent a run-down RV for a cross-country drive. In Texas, Holt detects smoke from the RV, and everyone evacuates moments before it explodes. They spend the night at a cattle stud farm owned by Boyle's cousins, where Rosa privately tells Boyle she is bisexual and in a relationship with a woman, but refuses to share more details. The next day, Jake arranges a cargo plane from Jacksboro Municipal Airport, but while driving there in a cattle trailer, police pull them over.

Jake realizes Holt called 911 on them and confronts him. Holt confesses he sabotaged the RV by dumping cheese puffs into the fuel tank, engineered the plaza delay, and broke the speedometer to slow the trip. He admits he was compromised by Seamus Murphy when clearing Jake and Rosa, and he fears what the commissioner role might bring. The team vows to help, and Amy creates a plan to get them to New York in time for the interview.

Afterward, the squad gathers at a bar, where Holt announces he made the shortlist for commissioner and raises a toast to the 99th precinct.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, the episode was seen by an estimated 1.94 million household viewers and gained a 0.7/3 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This represented a 12% increase in viewership from the previous episode, which had 1.73 million viewers with a 0.7/3 in the 18-49 demographics. With these ratings, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the third highest rated show on Fox for the night, behind The Mick and Lethal Weapon, seventh in its timeslot, and fourteenth for the night. The episode received critical acclaim. LaToya Ferguson of The A.V. Club gave it an "A" grade, writing that the episode takes the saying "go big or go home" to heart and is classic Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx noted that the episode is loaded with callbacks in a smart way that tells an actual story representative of why the series remains fun.