‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Season 5, Episode 15: ‘The Puzzle Master’ Recap: ‘The Things You Do For Love’ [SPOILERS]

It looks like love has its flaws. On tonight’s episode of FOX’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) gets promoted from Detective to Sargeant. But with the promotion comes a new partner. In a “puzzle arson” case, Santiago meets with her “puzzle master crush” Melvin Stermly (David Fumero). But Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), her fiance, feels jealous about Stermly getting too close.

Will they solve the case without ruining a beautiful relationship? Or will the arsonist finish the puzzle before the NYPD catches up? Find out in “The Puzzle Master!”

Why Is He A Hot Puzzle Maker?

If Santiago and Peralta want to solve the puzzle before the next building burns down, they need to work fast. The good thing is that Santiago idolizes a puzzle maker who makes crossword puzzles for newspapers. Peralta thinks that it’s okay for Santiago to have a crush on a puzzle maker. He believes that puzzle makers look like nerds, but he was wrong. Stermly is one good-looking puzzle maker–not to underwear modeling gig for extra cash.

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The “puzzle arsonist” is a big fan of Stermly. In fact, it left puzzle questions and addressed them to Stermly. While Santiago and Stermly discuss the note the puzzle arsonist left, Peralta notices that Stermly might be a better guy than he is. Jealousy grows and leaves him steering clear Stermly and Santiago. Peralta tries to lead the case and introduces a new motive to them, believing another puzzle maker wants to embarrass him by letting him answer an unsolvable puzzle. They head to an event hosted by Stermly to look for facts.

Higher Rank Up For Grabs

Meanwhile, it’s Captain Ray Holt’s (Andre Braugher) time to get that promotion. An opening to become a commissioner is up for grabs. Since he’s qualified for the position, he signs up for it with the help of her assistant Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti). Holt and Linetti studied a list of potential captains that might get the position other than him. When they attended the forum for the new commissioner, they found out that one of the captains they feel threatened the most retired. In replacement, a female captain named Captain Olivia Crawford (Allison Tolman) took over the position of captain as a replacement to the retiree.

Being the “dinosaur” that he is when managing a station, Holt freaks out and proves he can implement new ways. But Captain Crawford is a younger woman with fresher ideas. Instead of backing out, Captain Crawford fought Holt with words. It’s safe to say that Captain Crawford won the small talk since she got to flip her hair away from Holt and Linetti.

Jealousy Is An Ugly Emotion

Peralta gets more jealous of Stermly as the case draws nearer to a close. His ideas on solving the case are not working, so Santiago resorts to Stermly for plans. As a puzzle maker, Stermly is becoming more and more analytical to match all the clues left by the arsonist. Peralta’s plan to go undercover and go to Stermly’s event didn’t work. He overheard two people in the toilet talking about someone named “Sam” who might be the arsonist. When he updated Stermly and Santiago, they both disagreed with his findings. Instead, they left the event and continued working on clues.

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Back at the station, Santiago tells Peralta about Stermly’s plan. Peralta, being a jealous man, follows Santiago’s assignments to him just to show that he’s not jealous at all. Then comes Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), who continually reminds Peralta of his jealousy. He declines the allegations and asks Boyle to stalk Sam Jepson (Will Shortz). To his juvenile behavior, the arsonist burned another building to the ground in the are he patrols on.

PR Purposes

After the heated talk with Captain Crawford, Captain Holt eats a plate of grapes in the corner of the room. Linetti gives Holt a pep talk and says that he shouldn’t give up because Captain Crawford threatens him. After that, Linetti sees the Head of the Committee, Patrick Faricy (Stewart Skelton) munching on a plate of crab cakes.

Holt approaches Faricy and asks if he can do small talk. But Faricy was quick and addressed the issues on Crawford. He told Holt that the committee chose Crawford as captain for PR purposes. As Faricy left with his crab cakes, Holt takes a breath in for relief. In his presentation, Holt drops Faricy in what he said. He exposed the committee for hiring a female captain for a PR stunt.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Things You Do For Love

Since Peralta failed his mission, Santiago burst and confronts him. The argument turned into a discussion on why Peralta acts the way that he is. Santiago found out that Peralta was jealous of Stermly. Peralta says that he’s afraid that Santiago wouldn’t want to marry him because he’s not as smart as Stermly. But Santiago assures him otherwise. Then Peralta’s mind tells him that the word the arsonist is spelling through burned buildings is the word “marry.”

Meanwhile, Captain Crawford dropped by Captain Holt’s office. She thanked him for exposing the commissioner. Crawford also psyched Holt out by saying she’s more likely to win now since the committee is not biased anymore.

On the other hand, Santiago and Peralta solved the case. They turned in Helen Gorbelson (Meghan Murphy), an avid fan of Stermly. She pleaded guilty to the arson in the city. All she wanted to do was to propose to Stermly through a word formation of the burned buildings’ structure.

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” continues next Sunday, April 15th, with back-to-back special episodes “NutriBoom” and “DFW” at 8:30/7:30c on FOX.