Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 7 episode 10 review: The gender reveal

In the weakest episode of the season so far, Brooklyn Nine-Nine reveals the gender of Jake and Amy’s baby — and questions whether there’s a Peralta curse.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s seventh season has built itself up on many of the storylines that have been staples of the series since day one. But one development that’s defined this season — and made it stand apart from the others — is Jake and Amy’s pregnancy. After trouble conceiving, the two finally found a way to start the family they always wanted. And this week sees the couple revealing the gender of their baby.

“Admiral Peralta” opens with Jake and Amy announcing the big news to the 99th Precinct. Of course, given the pair’s lack of subtly, all of their friends already know about the baby — depriving fans of the emotional announcement we deserved (and some much-anticipated enthusiasm from Charles, though we do get to see him faint when Jake jokes that they’re having twins).

Once the news is out, the two invite them all to a gender-reveal party. Beforehand, Jake tries to reunite his father and grandfather, both of whom have a more rocky relationship with one another than Jake has with his own father. Unfortunately, Admiral Peralta turns out to be as much as a jerk as Jake’s dad describes — and the reunion results in more animosity between the two, as well as the gender-reveal cake falling and being destroyed.

Luckily, Charles comes to the rescue and the the group is able to clean up the blue icing all over the kitchen and bake a new cake before the party begins. That luck doesn’t last long though, as Jake’s father puts the wrong food coloring in the cake. It’s comical when Amy cuts into the cake and finds green icing, declaring, “What’s inside of me?!”

She’s forced to wait to find out, however, as Jake’s dad also manages to cut off his other thumb while trying to find a bluer piece of cake. Jake rushes him to the hospital, where the two have a heartfelt discussion about whether or not the “Peralta curse” will prevent Jake from being a good father. In short, his dad insists what the audience already knows: that Jake is going to make a great dad, especially if he’s this enthusiastic about his son before he’s even born. Still, it’s a sweet moment between two characters we rarely see genuine interactions between, and it’s one of the better moments of the episode.

And speaking of sweet moments, let’s give a shoutout to the way Jake finally tells Amy the gender of their kid. He bakes her their own cake to make up for the failed party, but, of course, no dessert enters the 99th Precinct without being eaten by Hitchcock or Scully. When Scully turns out with blue icing all over his face, though, Amy realizes they’re having a boy. It’s a very Brooklyn Nine-Nine moment, balancing emotion and comedy, and it’s well done.

Flute Lessons

In one of this episode’s secondary plots, Terry decides to join the NYPD band. While he’s practicing his skills with the flute, Holt decides to step in and help — and we all know how Holt gets when he’s coaching someone. Poor Terry is forced to endure taunts that he’s the “Garbage Man” and not the “Muffin Man,” practicing until he’s out of saliva to even make music with.

We’ve seen this storyline with Holt before, and to be honest, this is the weakest storyline of this week’s episode. As can be expected, Holt eventually comes around and convinces the NYPD to bring Terry on as its flute player — a wish that’s immediately granted, since Terry is the only person who auditions and knows how to play the flute.

While we’re always game to see more of Terry and Holt together, it’s hard not to feel like this recycled storyline could have been better used on the episode’s other secondary plot, which feels more fresh and relevant.

The Witness

The other minor plot of this week’s episode has a much stronger theme, though, sadly, it’s overshadowed by everything else happening in “Admiral Peralta.” When Amy and Rosa are asked to look into a case that’s important to the mayor, the two realize Amy has given that case to Hitchcock and Scully — and that their fellow detectives have seemingly blundered in failing to identify an important witness.

With Hitchcock and Scully’s penchant for messing things up, it’s easy to assume the misstep wasn’t intentional. But it’s later revealed that they actually knew what they were doing in “losing” the witness’ identity. As it turns out, the witness in question is in the country illegally — and the two were trying to ensure ICE couldn’t use the case to find and deport them.

This is a very real concern in today’s political climate, and truthfully, this storyline could have used more screen time than it was given. Terry’s flute lessons fail to compare to the importance of this plotline, and some of Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s best episodes feature politically loaded messages like this one. It’s a shame the show didn’t have time to dive into this subject further, but it was still refreshing to see Amy and Rosa cover for their two coworkers, agreeing that helping the witness was more important than solving the case.

All in all, “Admiral Peralta” was still a strong addition to Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s seventh season, even if it wasn’t as humorous or impactful as the other episodes we’ve seen so far. It does set up more character development for Hitchcock and Scully though — and give us more reasons to be excited about Amy and Jake’s relationship going forward!

What did you think of this week’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Are you excited that Jake and Amy are having a son? Sound off in the comments below.