‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season 5, Episode 14 ‘The Box’ Recap: ‘Outside The Box’ [SPOILERS]

One common job for detectives includes interrogating case suspects. Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) is feeling lucky. In “Brooklyn Nine-NIne’s” latest episode, titled “the Box,” Jake questions a suspect. Meanwhile, Phillip Davidson (guest star Sterling K. Brown) comes in the precinct and approaches Administrator Regina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) who’s on her phone. He then asks her where to go if the office summoned him for interrogation. Linetti goes into a savage mode and reveals that the detectives look at Davidson as someone who’s guilty.

A dentist by day, ‘Murderer’ by night

Before interrogation even began, Captain Jacob Holt (Andre Braugher) ruled out that Davidson is a murderer. But Peralta says that there is no evidence for it. The body decayed before hikers found it in the woods. A report even states that police found bear semen on the corpse’s head.

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Before they go in the interrogation chamber, Peralta and Holt argued about if Holt should come in with Peralta inside. Holt says that before he was captain, one of the best parts of being a detective is to do the interrogation. Holt then demonstrates how he does it in front of Peralta. Peralta, being Peralta, is amazed.

In the interrogation chamber, Peralta begins questioning Davidson by confirming that Davidson is with Robert Tupper before his death. Davidson rejects the question and says that he was not with him. Meanwhile, Captain Holt followed up and asked what Davidson did on Friday when the murder happened. Davidson, quick like a cat, said that he was doing surgery on a patient’s gums.

Peralta then asked Davidson who he was with during that time. Davidson answered that he was only with Robert since his two assistants went home early. Davidson adds that Robert talked to him about his plans on firing an assistant named Sheryl.

Losing the battle, Peralta plummets the fact that someone might have wiped Robert’s phone clean. He threatens Davidson by saying that Robert’s phone has a backup on the victim’s laptop. Davidson defends himself and says that he and Robert were going to fire Sheryl because she was stealing from the clinic.

In between interrogations

Peralta bursts and summons Holt outside the room. They argued about how Holt tried to undermine Peralta and his questioning. But Holt says he only did that to make Peralta look like a trustworthy detective for Davidson. If that happens, Davidson will let his guard down, and Peralta gets the answer he needs. It is a win-win situation for both parties.

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Captain Holt proceeds to ask Davidson. He questioned why the cleaners cleaned the medical room in a way that an industrial facility would. Holt claims that because of that, traces of blood and DNA were wiped out in the process.

As a medical practitioner, Davidson defends himself by saying that the clinic should always stay sterile since it is a medical room. Peralta follows up the question with another question. But of course, who would admit to a crime they committed?

Captain Holt leaves the interrogation to Peralta. He and Kevin are off to see the show. Peralta intimidates Davidson by saying that he is the real criminal. Peralta still questions Davidson’s phone that wasn’t with him during the night the crime happened.

With the case losing on the hands of Peralta, he tried connecting small facts about Davidson and used it against him. Davidson’s grandfather owns a cabin in the town where hikers found the dead body of Tupper. Peralta tries to prove his theories and contact Davidson’s grandfather. But to his surprise, Davidson’s grandfather hasn’t spoken to his grandson in years.

Unethical practices of interrogation

With this discovery, Peralta and Captain Holt start to panic. If they don’t find a new way to crack Davidson open, they will lose the case. They begin to get “intimate” with Davidson. But instead of getting the information they needed, Davidson only played with both of them.

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They resort to insinuating guilt on him by asking Davidson to say the name of his “victim” in front of its dead body, Peralta and Captain Holt tried to see if he was guilty of what he did. But it didn’t work. It seems like Davidson is too nonchalant to feel guilty if ever he was the killer.

Feeling disappointed, Captain Holt and Peralta decide to ditch their plans and cheat their way in. Peralta walks into the chamber and lies to Davidson’s face about his grandfather’s cabin. He tells him that someone saw Davidson go in it. Claiming that it’s his grandfather’s neighbor, Peralta fails on the attempt. It was a good try, but the “neighbor” he’s mentioning has been dead for three years.

Davidson then calls for his lawyer Claire Daymont (Romy Rosemont). Of course, his lawyer was disappointed since the two officers spent the entire night trying to frame up her client. Claire decides that it’s time to leave. She also threatens that the judge will hear about the alleged frame-up that Peralta and Holt started.

Before they release Davidson, Holt and Peralta argued one last time. The only reason why Peralta wanted to win the case was to impress Holt. But to a turn of events, his mind thinks of something that would save the situation.

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Peralta grabs a folder and busts through the chamber doors. He starts what he calls a monologue. By mentioning how Davidson was a “lucky bitch,” he catches his mouth. Peralta said how Davidson’s murder weapon is one of the Periodontics awards in the clinic. He then connects how everything happened and pinpointed Davidson as the real killer. But Davidson snapped and spilled his truth. Peralta solved the case by bringing out Davidson’s temper and insatiable desire to calm down.

‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Box’ Overall Verdict

It was a rollercoaster ride for Peralta and his desire to get validation from his boss Captain Holt. “The Box,” tells the story of coming up with ideas that will make someone notice. It’s thinking of ideas that are unconventional. Instead of settling for the good, everyone should aspire for the best.

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” continues next Sunday, April 8th, with “The Puzzle Master” at 8:30/7:30c on FOX.