S04.E07: Mr. Santiago

[formerlyfreedom]

At Amy's intricately planned Thanksgiving dinner, Jake goes "full Santiago" (binder and all) in order to impress her father, a former cop. With Jake and Amy's focus elsewhere, Charles is left on turkey duty and Holt helps Pimento cope after learning he can no longer work for the NYPD.

[dusang]

I hope Amy isn't cooking.

[ClareWalks]

I hope we meet her (6? 7?) brothers that were mentioned in the pilot. I'd love to see a super-competitive Santiago Thanksgiving :)

[Primetimer]

What better way to celebrate a holiday than by pitting relatives against each other?

View the full article

[FlyingEgret]

Betting on the National Dog Show  and competing binders - my kind of holiday!

[bosawks]

Wire Fox Boys!!!

[Dots And Stripes]

I really liked this episode. All 3 plots worked. Sure Jake and Mr. Santiago solving the case was too easy, but I can forgive plot holes when the show is so good overall. I loved Holt being so into the dog show. I loved the battle to save the turkey. I loved that Mr. Santiago out maneuvered Jake.

[Happytobehere]

Jimmy Smith is awesome.

Rosa's boyfriend remains ick.

A,l I could think of when Gina opened that window and released the turkey was the classic WKRP episode where Carlson and Herb released all the turkeys from the helicopter; which gave us the now famous, "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

[Dots And Stripes]

Just now, Happytobehere said:

Jimmy Smith is awesome.

Rosa's boyfriend remains ick.

A,l I could think of when Gina opened that window and released the turkey was the classic WKRP episode where Carlson and Herb released all the turkeys from the helicopter; which gave us the now famous, "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

I thought of that too. I'd like to think her telling the turkey to fly and Amy's response was an intentional nod.

[RevmodDon]

No Marcus, Holt's nephew?

[thuganomics85]

Jimmy Smits was everything I wanted as Amy's dad.  I could definitely see how being her father ended up shaping the way Amy is now.  Him and Jake not getting along but then coming around and solving the case was a bit routine, but I still enjoyed their interactions, and how it ended with Amy telling them both to just knock it off, and she can date whoever she wants.  But even though it failed, I kind of love that Jake actually went "full Santiago", with the research and the binder.  I love that despite his goofiness and jokes, he truly does love Amy, and wants to make the best impression possible.

So, it's Holt's turn to have to be stuck with Pimento.  He still has one or two moments (did laugh at him saying he knows where to find dead dogs after Holt said he didn't want to miss the In Memoriam), but I'm already kind of getting tired of him, honestly.  But as with most things, Holt, there was still some great laughs, with him getting into the National Dog Show ("Whoever groomed the Irish setter might want to think about blowing his brains out."), and how they not only took over the TV in the bar, but had everyone invested and cheering with them in the end.

The rest of the gang dealing with the turkey was fun enough.  I thought it was going to end with the turkey falling out of the window, and they end up eating it after that, but it chasing them all into the bathroom was hilarious.

Amy fake smiling about how she was going to slit everyone's throats, and Rosa was just like "We know you actually mean it!", and Amy just dropping it was great.  I love how Melissa Fumero can get her scary face on.  Although, while I understand the importance of getting everyone on point, I really did want to hear Holt's thoughts on Lemonade.

I have no idea if Boyle's reference to Dexter was a minor shoutout to Smits' stint on that show's third season.

Fun episode, although I still think first season's Thanksgiving episode was the best of the group (really, it is probably one of my favorite episode of the entire series.)

[ItCouldBeWorse]

4 hours ago, RevmodDon said:

No Marcus, Holt's nephew?

Would be weird with Rosa and Pimento there.

[Johnny Dollar]

Your list is missing Nikolaj.

[Maya]

Why wasn't anybody with their own family on Thanksgiving? I missed something.

[Trillium]

I'll fanhawk that maybe this was just a squad Thanksgiving and those with family did it another day. I'm not sure if they specified this was actually Thanksgiving Day. 

 

As usual everything Holt said was amazing. Even Pimento made me laugh, but I was hoping that him betting the money Holt loaned to him would get Rosa to kick him to the curb until he gets his house in order. I don't hate him but he can be overwhelming. 

[Seelouis]

Amy had a throwaway line in the beginning. Something like "I know your families are all out of town".  So I fanwanked that they all had to work the rest of the weekend and had to stay behind. 

Has no one mentioned the awesome cold open?  Love that Boyle knew how Holt would eat a marshmallow.  

Edited November 23, 2016 by Seelouis

[swimmyfish]

I really liked Pimento this episode - pairing him with Holt was smart, since Holt tends to bring out the best in everyone. Pimento also really reminded me of Jake when he was running through the alternate-career scenarios, except that Pimento doesn't necessarily see himself as the hero in any outcome. He's like the Faith to Jake's Buffy.

I loved the Holt-impression contest at the beginning of the episode, and Boyle's impression made me laugh out loud, but I was strangely disappointed when it turned out to be correct. Although it is always nice when Boyle gets to be insightful.

I hope there's going to be a web extra sharing Holt's thoughts on Lemonade - as a nation, we really need that right now.

[iMonrey]

I love the running gag that whenever Jake says "Nikolaj" Charles or someone else repeats the name as if to correct the pronunciation, and yet they're all saying it the same way.

Jimmy Smits was a brilliant choice to play Amy's dad. 

OK I know it's just farce but how did Charles expect to pluck that entire turkey and have it ready to cook by dinner time? You know how long it would take to pluck a whole turkey that size? And he was really going to chop its head off in the bathtub?

Edited November 23, 2016 by iMonrey

[DearEvette]

I didn't think I'd like the Pimento subplot, but I underestimated the power of Holt.  I love that they had the whole bar rooting for the Wire fox terrier in the end.

I also loved the camera work when Gina set the turkey free and it turned on them.  From the turkey's perspective, made it sinister.  LOL.

I always enjoy the cold opens and this one was fun.  But I kinda hoped that Holt would have done something completely different, like be allergic and break out into hives or something.

And yes, Holt, please tell me your thoughts on Beyonce's Lemonade.

[peeayebee]

9 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Amy fake smiling about how she was going to slit everyone's throats, and Rosa was just like "We know you actually mean it!", and Amy just dropping it was great.  I love how Melissa Fumero can get her scary face on.  Although, while I understand the importance of getting everyone on point, I really did want to hear Holt's thoughts on Lemonade.

Yes. We need to hear his thoughts on this. But I love when Jake interrupted Holt to say that he should let Amy talk, and then we see that Amy is standing right.there staring at Holt. Perfect.

 

52 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I love the running gag that whenever Jake says "Nikolaj" Charles or someone else repeats the name as if to correct the pronunciation, and yet they're all saying it the same way.

Now I can't remember what Jake called him. Nickelback? What was it? I did love that Gina named the turkey Nikolaj and then later Amy referred to the murder of Nikolaj (the turkey), and Charles asks her not to do that.

Really fun ep. The Cold Open was great. Everyone's impressions were funny, and I figured Charles' would be right, but it was still fantastic seeing and hearing Holt's reaction to eating a marshmallow.

Magic genitalia. Hee.

Pimento: You carry a checkbook with you?
Holt: Of course. You never know when you're going to need groceries.

Watching the dog show was fun. I'm glad the wire haired terrier won. It was great seeing the bar involved in it. A dog show having an In Memoriam was funny.

Yes, it was silly that the turkey hadn't even been cooked yet, let alone killed, but that's just the sitcom trope I guess. Anyway, it was great. I loved when the turkey chased everyone into the bathroom. The shot of them all running single file across the hall was great. My favorite shot of the ep was when Boyle said it was up to him, and the camera slowly zoomed in on him. 

[Rinaldo]

4 hours ago, Seelouis said:

Amy had a throwaway line in the beginning. Something like "I know your families are all out of town".  So I fanwanked that they all had to work the rest of the weekend and had to stay behind. 

And I could buy that, if I closed my eyes and wished real hard, for all of them except Boyle/Nikolaj. Where's the kid spending Thanksgiving, if not with him?

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

OK I know it's just farce but how did Charles expect to pluck that entire turkey and have it ready to cook by dinner time? You know how long it would take to pluck a whole turkey that size? 

Bingo. I'm willing to believe all kinds of silly things if I'm entertained, but Boyle the foodie has to know how long it takes to get from a live turkey to one ready to cook. (It's a start-at-dawn thing, if not day-before.) And then cooking one that size is not going to be instantaneous. What was he (i.e., the writers) thinking?

[dusang]

21 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

And I could buy that, if I closed my eyes and wished real hard, for all of them except Boyle/Nikolaj. Where's the kid spending Thanksgiving, if not with him?

With Boyle's girlfriend Genevieve?

[theatremouse]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I love the running gag that whenever Jake says "Nikolaj" Charles or someone else repeats the name as if to correct the pronunciation, and yet they're all saying it the same way.

To my ear, Boyle does actually pronounce it ever so slightly differently than Jake does, but not to the extent that any English-speaker would consider Jake's pronounciation "wrong", nor that Jake could ever easily match. It's the ever-so-subtlest difference in emphasis and a twinge in the vowel.

[Traveller519]

"Kevin's parents have never liked me, but that's because they're terrible homophobes who think I made him gay with my magic genetalia."

"You do know we're not going to the Carribean" "I did not"

And then breaking the bottle in the bar, and leading the charge for the Wire Fox Terrier.

And that doesn't even include the Cold Open.  

What a show for Holt.

[MaryMitch]

I'm so glad that Amy has that spacious apartment - with a bathroom the size of my bedroom!

This was a great episode. I watched with a friend who didn't know the characters, so we had to watch it twice to catch everything.

[snowwhyte]

A few too many things that didn't make sense. Would Holt really be willing to eat a marshmallow? Why were they not with their families on Thanksgiving? Boyle not knowing that the turkey would take all day to prepare and cook. Pimento getting 35/1 odds on the dog to win a dog show. For all that it was an enjoyable episode.

[theatremouse]

It bugged me more that Boyle claimed to have killed many live turkeys in order to cook them yet didn't know how to handle it when it got loose. I mean, I get if it'd been really pissed that's scarier, but he seemed totally at a loss right away.

I did appreciate the detail that Holt and Pimento pronounced Caribbean differently in the same exchange/span of 10 seconds. Good character detail.

[MrWhyt]

19 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Amy fake smiling about how she was going to slit everyone's throats, and Rosa was just like "We know you actually mean it!", and Amy just dropping it was great.  I love how Melissa Fumero can get her scary face on.

The cut to Amy waiting to speak and the look on her face killed me.

[Maya]

4 hours ago, snowwhyte said:

A few too many things that didn't make sense. Would Holt really be willing to eat a marshmallow? Why were they not with their families on Thanksgiving? Boyle not knowing that the turkey would take all day to prepare and cook. Pimento getting 35/1 odds on the dog to win a dog show. For all that it was an enjoyable episode.

I thought it was weird that they were acting like Holt had never eaten a marshmallow before. 

[Rinaldo]

40 minutes ago, Maya said:

I thought it was weird that they were acting like Holt had never eaten a marshmallow before. 

It seemed implicit to me that somehow they had all discovered this about Holt. But that idea was weirdly missing from their conversation.

[Driad]

It puzzled me because if Holt had never eaten a marshmallow, there may be a reason, and he might not willingly eat one now. I have never eaten a Twinkie because they never seemed like real food to me, and they still don't, so if you offered me one I would not eat it. However, I enjoy almost everything Holt does, so OK.

[Danny Franks]

So I notice Pimento still hasn't fucked off. That's a shame. I'm just skipping his scenes completely, now.

Loved the cold open. Any time Holt breaks character is hilarious, even if it doesn't make sense. Also, did he call is a "marshed mellow"? One other thing I never imagined Holt saying: "they're super homophobes who think I made Kevin gay with my magic genitalia."

I can't get enough of Amy Santiago, and any episode that features her particular brand of anally-retentive, uptight crazy is good. And I like that she's learning too. No trying to cook herself, and even scheduling bathroom breaks so they can't clog her toilet again.

I liked how eager Jake was to impress Amy's dad. Going full binder, doing all his research, even learning that all of the Santiagos have a favourite font. Because of course they do. "All this research is gonna work. Should I prepare for things all the time? No, that's crazy". 

Loved the double binder reveal. Santiagos really don't do anything half-arsed, do they? And I liked Amy telling both of them to stop being dicks about winning or giving approval. The 'winning her father's approval' approval plot is a traditional comedy trope, and I'm glad this show called it out for being bullshit.

[wknt3]

5 minutes ago, Danny Franks said:

Loved the cold open. Any time Holt breaks character is hilarious, even if it doesn't make sense. Also, did he call is a "marshed mellow"? One other thing I never imagined Holt saying: "they're super homophobes who think I made Kevin gay with my magic genitalia."

Great line and not as crazy as it sounds. I am not gay, but Andre Braugher might be able to convert me...

[bethy]

I'm not sure I understand why wanting the approval of a parent of the person you're dating is so bad that it requires being called out for. I didn't think they ever implied that Jake would stop dating Amy if her father didn't like him or that her dad would expect her to stop dating Jake if he didn't like him. To me it's totally normal to want to be liked by your significant other's parent or perhaps to be a little wary of the person your child is dating. Of course they took it to the extreme because it's a comedy, but the underlying principal wasn't offensive to me. 

Plus, didn't Amy do something of the same thing before she met Jake's mom? 

[Mrs OldManBalls]

1 hour ago, Danny Franks said:

Also, did he call is a "marshed mellow"?

He did and I laughed so hard. 

[peeayebee]

1 hour ago, Danny Franks said:

Also, did he call is a "marshed mellow"?

Thanks. I knew it wasn't 'marshmallow,' but I didn't rewind to find out. I may use that term when the opportunity arises, not that anyone around me would get it.

 

Quote

Loved the double binder reveal. Santiagos really don't do anything half-arsed, do they? 

I loved this, too, also that Victor wasn't taken in by Jake. I was worried when he was wowed by Jake coming up with the sons as suspects, so I'm glad Victor was on to him the whole time.

I love when Victor criticized Jake's binder by saying the tabs weren't cascading. The little movement Smits did with his fingers tickled me -- I wish literally. 

[Traveller519]

Hopefully Jake didn't go to heavy on the Thanksgiving Dinner, cause I bet Amy was incredibly turned on by all that Binder work.

[possibilities]

Leslie Knope was into binders, too. I wonder if this is a trait based on someone specific in Greg Daniels' life.

[biakbiak]

On 11/24/2016 at 10:25 AM, possibilities said:

Leslie Knope was into binders, too. I wonder if this is a trait based on someone specific in Greg Daniels' life.

Greg Daniels doesn't have anything to do with Brooklyn 99. Perhaps it's Mike Schur or he just finds itfunny.

[PatternRec]

On 11/23/2016 at 5:24 AM, Johnny Dollar said:

Your list is missing Nikolaj.

You mean Nikolaj...

[AnnieBeez]

10 hours ago, PatternRec said:

You mean Nikolaj...

Nikolaj

[shelwood]

Why wasn't anybody with their own family on Thanksgiving? I missed something.

I assume (and maybe it was explicit in earlier Thanksgiving ep(s)?) that they were on call, since T-day is a pretty busy day for cops in NYC with the parade and all. That or it was not on actual Thanksgiving (I know the volunteer fire company I belonged to has an annual "turkey dinner" for members, since we always have a ton of calls on Thanksgiving.)

[Texasmom1970]

My favorite line of the night when Holt was watching the dog show. When he scoffed at the commentator and said, "We all know what that means, she's a bitch."

I love how into the dog show he was, he even managed to make Pimento half way tolerable.

[Ailianna]

9 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

 

My favorite line of the night when Holt was watching the dog show. When he scoffed at the commentator and said, "We all know what that means, she's a bitch."

 

I love how he was so into it, that he didn't seem to notice his own punny-ness.  Of course a female dog is a bitch.

[Inquisitionist]

On 11/23/2016 at 0:39 PM, Rinaldo said:

And I could buy that, if I closed my eyes and wished real hard, for all of them except Boyle/Nikolaj. Where's the kid spending Thanksgiving, if not with him?

Bingo. I'm willing to believe all kinds of silly things if I'm entertained, but Boyle the foodie has to know how long it takes to get from a live turkey to one ready to cook. (It's a start-at-dawn thing, if not day-before.) And then cooking one that size is not going to be instantaneous. What was he (i.e., the writers) thinking?

I hear all your points, Rinaldo, but the laugh content was so high on this one, I didn't even notice these issues in the moment.  (Disclaimer:  I've been too busy to watch the show at all for about a month, so I skipped over the last few episodes on my DVR -- still there -- and headed right to this one over the weekend.  It did NOT disappoint!)

[jhlipton]

On 11/22/2016 at 9:47 PM, Dots And Stripes said:

I thought of that too. I'd like to think her telling the turkey to fly and Amy's response was an intentional nod.

I have to believe so.

 

On 11/23/2016 at 0:48 AM, RevmodDon said:

No Marcus, Holt's nephew?

he and Rosa broke up and this was for the squad (and Amy's dad) only.  No reason for him to be there.

On 11/23/2016 at 7:24 AM, Johnny Dollar said:

Your list is missing Nikolaj.

On 11/26/2016 at 3:25 PM, MischaMouse said:

Nikolaj

Nilolaj.

On 11/24/2016 at 8:18 AM, Danny Franks said:

The 'winning her father's approval' approval plot is a traditional comedy trope, and I'm glad this show called it out for being bullshit.

There was an implicit "You're not good enough for my daughter" which I'm glad Amy squashed.

This week on Hawaii 5-0, two of the characters have kids who are dating and one says "Grace chose Will" and the other goes "Oh, please, Will chose Grace."  No, idiots, they chose each other.  Duh.

[biakbiak]

6 hours ago, jhlipton said:

There was an implicit "You're not good enough for my daughter" which I'm glad Amy squashed.

It wasnt implicit he stated it out right.

[jhlipton]

18 hours ago, biakbiak said:

It wasnt implicit he stated it out right.

I thought so -- I was replying to this comment:

On 11/24/2016 at 9:01 AM, bethy said:

I'm not sure I understand why wanting the approval of a parent of the person you're dating is so bad that it requires being called out for. I didn't think they ever implied that Jake would stop dating Amy if her father didn't like him or that her dad would expect her to stop dating Jake if he didn't like him. To me it's totally normal to want to be liked by your significant other's parent or perhaps to be a little wary of the person your child is dating. Of course they took it to the extreme because it's a comedy, but the underlying principal wasn't offensive to me. 

Plus, didn't Amy do something of the same thing before she met Jake's mom?