‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season 7, Episode 3 ‘Pimemento’ Review: Faulty Memory

Making the leap to NBC comes with a lot of changes for Brooklyn Nine-Nine. For instance, we have a captain demoted to an officer for a year. With the adjustment to the new setup final, it is now time to deal with pressing matters. Such is the sudden appearance of a crowd favorite. Also, the precinct deals with something everyone wishes not to do: a Conflict Management Seminar.

On Thursday’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Adrian Pimento (Jason Mantzoukas) asks for Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Charles Boyle’s (Joe Lo Truglio) help as he lost his memory. While dealing with this strange case, Jake struggles to keep his attempts to have a baby with his wife, Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) a secret from Charles. Back at the precinct, Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) tries his best to motivate everyone for a boring, six-hour seminar about Workplace Conflict.

The ‘Funny One’

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Everyone in the Nine-Nine hated Workplace Conflict seminars. It is six-hour-long, mandated by regulations, and inconceivably boring. They felt so much disdain about it that Terry had to try to get them in a good mood to at least take it seriously. Of course, none of which helps when now Officer Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) figures it out. Begrudgingly, the team braces itself as they prepare to face the ‘Funny One,’ Brad Portenburg (Paul Welsh). Luckily, Amy comes up with a strategy to have them finish the seminar quickly: she memorizes the entire handbook.

Unfortunately, this strategy results in chaos. With the seminar done in under six hours, Brad decides to take on in-house conflicts of the precinct for the remaining time. Everyone soon starts bickering with each other. Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Scully (Joel McKinnon-Miller) banter while Terry and Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) mock each other. Anyone else in the room started screaming, too, (probably) much to Brad’s satisfaction. Even with Brad gone, the team had scowls on their faces until Amy decides to break the ice and Rosa follows suit. Luckily, that seems enough to have the team try to get back to their normal selves.

Finding Dory Disease

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Adrian Pimento is crazy to some degree, but this time around, his case is different. Now working as a Private Investigator, Adrian finds himself running away from someone trying to kill him. Also, Adrian lost much of his memory; a result of his extensive head trauma. Most of the time, all Jake and Charles had to do was to make sure that Adrian did not get himself into trouble. In this ridiculous sequence, Adrian gets shot, has Jake and Charles look at his tattoos for clues (while fully naked), then runs away while the duo is distracted.

It took Jake and Charles an argument before they found any promising leads as to what really is going on in Adrian’s case. As it turns out, Adrian’s doctor, Dr. Jones (Jim Rash) deliberately had Adrian take the medicine that messes with his memory. Jone’s wife hired Adrian to bust his affair with a spin class instructor. Once Dr. Jones is in cuffs and both Jake and Adrian find themselves stuck on the ledge of the building, we watch as the duo make up while Adrian almost kills them all, touched by their friendship’s dynamic.

A Little Much

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What was the distraction that led to Jake and Charles solving the case? Well, Jake and Amy are trying to have a baby, but Amy does not want Charles to know about it. Obviously, Charles is the overeager friend, excited to know the latest developments in his best friend’s marriage. Jake knew that he could not keep himself from telling Charles, so he decides not to hang out with him as long as possible. Eventually, Charles gets a whiff of what is going on so when he learns about the secret, he flips.

It was touching and funny to watch as Jake and Charles make up on the ledge of Dr. Jones’ office. The duo’s unique dynamic is one of the show’s best anchor points that have fans watching. The dialogue intensifies as Charles expresses that it was not just the secret, but rather the quality time they used to spend together is what he is upset about. Thankfully, now that the secret is out, Jake and Charles can hang out in peace.

‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season 7, Episode 3 ‘Pimemento’ Final Verdict

Brooklyn Nine-Nine brings back one of its craziest characters in such a nice fashion. Here, Adrian is presented in his full, crazy glory, not as Rosa’s ex-boyfriend. Adrian’s character would be nice to have as a series regular given his performance in this episode. Also, exploring precinct dynamics with Officer Holt ran flawlessly. There is no awkwardness involved between them (just mostly bickering) and everyone seems accustomed to Holt hanging around with them. This is likely helpful in deepening his already-close relationship with his chosen family despite how crazy they all were in this episode.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine continues Thursday, February 20th with ‘The Jimmy Jab Games II’ at 8/7c on NBC.