The Overmining is the 9th episode of Season Four in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine television series. It originally aired on December 6, 2016 to 2.31 million viewers. Viewers give it 7.9 out of 10 on IMDb.
Episode Synopsis[]
The squad is working the night shift. Jason Stentley Captain "CJ" is having major problems with a big case, and Jake Peralta and Raymond Holt find the motivation to help him out. Inside the precinct, war ensues when Terry Jeffords enforces a green initiative and tells Gina Linetti to get rid of her precious space heater, while Rosa Diaz and Charles Boyle take a break from the night shift to visit a foot massage parlor.
Jake arrives for his shift and chats with Boyle, who said he had a “Dianne Wiest infection” watching TV. After several awkward seconds, Boyle blurts out how “Wiest” sounds like “yeast.”In the 9-9 briefing room, Holt and Jake discuss a case when they see Captain “CJ” Stentley crawling on the floor under the tables. He is looking for a backpack full of evidence which belonged to a runner for a drug dealer named Flaco, including a large amount of cocaine and a cell phone which could contain intel on Flaco (to Stentley’s amazement when Jake suggests it).
But he lost the bag, and asks Jake to “sugarcoat it” that he will not be in trouble before exiting. Jake is excited, as this could mean CJ gets fired for his incompetence and they could be put back on the day shift, but Holt tells him they’re going to help find the evidence as they’re police officers, and the drugs in it could get on the street or a criminal could be released due to the missing evidence. Jake reluctantly agrees.
t the department has a new green initiative to lower energy usage by 15 percent, so they all have to make cutbacks. Amy can no longer use a machine to laminate papers, Scully and Hitchcock have to lose their fondue fountains (for chocolate and nacho cheeses respectively), and Gina cannot use her 24/7 space heater. Gina refuses, and even names the space heater “Jacinta”, and further dares Terry to a battle of wills, saying he will be broken.
Jake talks to Holt, telling him he didn’t find the backpack but did find CJ’s wallet, badge and gun on top of a toilet paper dispenser, and questions Holt on why he’s trying to help the other incompetent captain. Holt refuses to resort to subterfuge, which Jake dismisses as him being boring and predictable, but Holt shows him a lead; security camera footage of the captain’s office where the office door is left open while CJ is playing a guitar in the break room for two hours, allowing an unknown individual to steal the unattended bag. Jake is happy that CJ will get fired and shrugs off Holt’s disapproving glare.
In the break room, Rosa is eating when a chipper Charles comes in to greet her. She’s not sure why he’s so happy working at 2 a.m., but he explains that he has found a 24-hour massage parlor that’s been massaging his feet, to his relief. Rosa refuses to go, citing that she doesn’t want a stranger touching her feet, as well as disgust at Boyle’s moaning noises to describe it.
In the kitchen, Jake finds CJ slumped on a table, who explains that he told the brass about the lost bag and screwing up the case, but instead of being fired, his transfer has been pulled. Jake is confused, and CJ admits he’s in over his head and so applied to be Head Administrator at the police academy; the job was his until this, and now he’s stuck at the 9-9. Jake realizes this could get the captain out, and suggests that if they can get CJ to singlehandedly find out who Flaco is, with Jake there to help but only Stentley will get the credit. CJ is worried he will screw up again, but confident in the plan.
Jake explains to Holt his plan to find Flaco and the backpack for CJ, and while Jake doesn’t know where Flaco is, one of his CI’s has an agreement with Marco Severino, who they can pretend to be drug dealers looking for a supplier to, and get hooked up with Flaco.
Terry catches Amy laminating a piece of paper (and photographing it for her blog), and she is sorry, but Terry calls himself a lousy sergeant as people don’t listen to him. Once she inquires, he tells her in secret that he failed the lieutenant’s exam, and he’s felling exhausted due to the night shift as well. Amy tells Terry (after denying that she’s ever worn a diaper during a test to save time) that he shouldn’t give up on the green initiative and is a great sergeant, and can get even gina on board with him.
Charles takes Rosa out to the massage parlor, and she agrees to try it once, but ends up loving it as well.
Jake, Holt and CJ park a van outside Severino’s restaurant, but after CJ causally mentions that he’s terrified and may start shooting if things go wrong, Holt tells him to stay in the van, with Jake telling him to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious, and if so to let them know through their earpieces.
At the bullpen, Amy is hand-laminating papers when Terry comes over, and asks Gina if she removed the space heater, which Gina denies. Terry threatens to take “Jacinta” away by force, only for Gina to show she is in a large ball gown with a large skirt around her to show Terry cannot prove the heater is under the skirt. Terry then point out that there’s a cord running underneath her skirt, and as well that she is on fire. Gina refuses to give up Jacinta and Terry tells her she does not have the upper hand, but after a few seconds of staring off, he relents and uses a fire extinguisher on her, wondering how he lost.
Holt and Jake pretend to be drug dealers and meet Severino while he dines, saying they need a new hookup after their old one was busted. However, as they and Severino talk, CJ keeps talking incessantly into their earpieces about everything he sees such as nightly dogwalkers, asking Jake to cough if two dogs mating is weird, and how he DJ’ed at his sister’s wedding and her home life. Eventually, his chattering on the earpieces is too distracting and Holt and Jake both tell him to shut up over it, blowing their cover and forcing them to arrest Severino without any information gathered.
At the 9-9 interrogation room, Holt tells Jake that crime scene investigators couldn’t find anything at the restaurant, and Severino is not talking. But the last call on his phone was to a contact believed to be Flaco at a warehouse on the water, with a raid happening soon. Jake goes to get CJ, but Holt tells him that CJ is a risk, before realizing Jake’s real plan. Jake admits that if they catch Flaco and CJ gets credit for it, he will be transferred out of the precinct. Holt is disappointed Jake is trying to undermine Stentley, but Jake says he wants him to succeed, to “overmine” him (to Holt’s disgust at a made-up word). Holt relents when Jake says they can put CJ in a car a block away from the action.
Gina puts tropical plants on her desk, requiring the use of three space heaters to keep them alive, to Terry’s chagrin. She also turns on a portable air conditioning unit to taunt him, causing him to storm off. Amy asks Gina to talk in private, but Gina already knows about him failing the exam (due to him leaving the letter in the open on his desk), but when Amy asks why she’s doing this, Gina simply tells her to stand aside (and then locks her in a closet).
At Flaco’s warehouse, the NYPD storm the place, and Flaco makes a run for it. Jake takes off after him into the street, where Flaco is hit by a car door opened by CJ and falls on the ground out cold. CJ is unaware of who he caught, having opened the door to get away from a spider in the car.
Rosa and Charles enjoy foot baths at the massage parlor, but when Rosa gets up to find the ladies, she finds a secret room with a guy counting money. She tells Charles that the place is a front for money laundering or something else, and they leave.
Holt gets off the phone with One Police Plaza, who are thrilled at Flaco’s arrest, and tells Captain Stentley that he has his transfer. CJ refuses however refuses, as the reason he wanted the transfer was because he didn’t feel like he could do his job, but with the mission’s success, he believes in himself again, to Jake’s horror.
At a ceremony later, Jake, Holt, and other police are present to watch CJ get the Medal of Honor for his actions in taking down Flaco, while Jake ruefully notes they’re still on the night shift before noticing a lot of reporters there, more than usual for such an event. Stentley is given the medal, and does a short awkward speech, before being questioned by reporters on topics such as dealing with international narcotics rings. CJ doesn’t know or understand some of the questions, and admits that he lost the backpack containing cocaine from evidence before being taken off the podium by another NYPD official. Jake notes what a train wreck he was, and Holt notes that CJ should never have been put in that position, and whoever recommended him for the medal and called the reporters messed up. Seeing a slight smirk on holt’s face, Jake realizes that the captain set the whole thing up, which Holt admits, even using “overmined” to his own disgust.
In the briefing room, Charles and Rosa go through papers, and find that the massage parlor reported 7 million dollars in profit the previous year, which is too much based on its smaller scale. Boyle realizes they have to shut it down, but he and rosa try to convince themselves not to by connecting a butterfly effect scenario where them shutting the parlor down ends with the mayor assassinated and martial law being implemented against riots, but eventually realize they have to shut it down as their job. The two go to shut down the parlor for money laundering.
Terry approaches Gina to say he has been thinking it over and decided the only fair thing, as Gina refuses to give up her space heater, is to give everyone a space heater. Which includes Hitchcock, who has already taken his shirt off again in her direction to see all night. Gina is disgusted and gives up the space heaters, saying Terry won. Terry is more excited that he beat Gina in a battle of wills than the energy usage issue, while Gina secretly signals to Amy about the plan working. Just then Jake and Holt come in, with news that Stentley has been removed from active duty, and Holt is replacing him, meaning that he, and the rest of them, are going back on the day shift, to cheers.
- To fumfer is a yiddish word that means to mumble or speak unclearly. It can also mean to putter aimlessly or waste time.
- Holt references Andreas Marggraf
- Gina says her little birds tell her everything, which may be a reference to Varys' spies from Game of Thrones
- Justin Bieber
- The Ellen DeGeneres Show
- Smash Mouth
- CJ's prepared remarks after getting the Medal of Honor consisted of him saying:
- Babba Booey which is a catchphrase from The Howard Stern Radio Show
- Cornholio, which is from Beavis and Butthead
- Jake Peralta
- Terry Jeffords
- Amy Santiago
- Terry Jeffords
- Gina Linetti
- Amy Santiago
- Terry Jeffords
- Amy Santiago
Cast[]
| Actor | Character | |
|---|---|---|
| Andy Samberg | ... | Jake Peralta |
| ... | Cal | |
| Stephanie Beatriz | ... | Rosa Diaz |
| Terry Crews | ... | Terry Jeffords |
| Melissa Fumero | ... | Amy Santiago |
| Joe Lo Truglio | ... | Charles Boyle |
| Chelsea Peretti | ... | Gina Linetti |
| Andre Braugher | ... | Raymond Holt |
| ... | Billy | |
| Dirk Blocker | ... | Michael Hitchcock |
| Joel McKinnon Miller | ... | Norm Scully |
| Ken Marino | ... | Captain Jason Stentley |
| Sean Dillingham | ... | Marco Severino |
| Joseph A. Garcia | ... | Yordano |
| Maurice Hall | ... | Martin A. Navratilov |
| Edelyn Okano | ... | Kris Lloyd Evert |
| Paul Urcioli | ... | Deputy Commissioner Ultrecht |
Cool Cool Cool Things[]
Trivia[]
- Amy loves laminating
- Scully and Hitchcock had a chocolate fountain and a nacho cheese fountain next to their desks
- Jake found CJ's wallet, badge and gun on top of the toilet paper dispenser
- CJ's favorite expression is "That's gonna leave a mark"
- CJ was playing the guitar in the break room for 2 hours on a work day
- Rosa would rather die than have a stranger touch her feet before going to the foot massage parlor
- It took CJ 9 years to pass the Police Academy, which is a 6 month program
- Amy has a blog where she posts "lam jobs" short for laminating jobs
- Terry failed the lieutenant's exam
- Amy wears diapers to tests
- Charles' fake case's name is Señor Riff Raff who is a one-armed smuggler from the Dunes of Tunisia
- If anyone suspicious came by the restaurant CJ's plan was to run them over and back up if they're still moving
- CJ DJ'd at his sister's wedding and he played too much Smash Mouth
- CJ's sister has two kids and a beautiful house
- Holt hates it when Jake makes up words
- Amy learned how to kiss from books
- Charles cried while getting a foot massage
- CJ was awarded the Medal of Honor
- His prepared remarks were "baba booey!" and "cornholio"
Soundtrack[]
C.J. comes up with a song:
You have the right to remain silent
Come on and party tonight
Running Gags Mentioned[]
Connections to Other Episodes[]
- The squad is working the night shift as punishment for going to help Holt & Peralta in Florida in the earlier episode Coral Palms Pt. 3.
- After Jake tells Holt about his plan to find the drug dealer, Holt says, "What's the plan, son?" to which Jake responds, "Well Dad,..."; This is the second time that Jake blatantly calls Holt, "Dad"
- The first being the cold open to Season 1's The Apartment
- This is the second time Holt calls Jake son, the first being in Greg and Larry
Videos[]
Images[]
Behind The Scenes[]
- From S4 E4, The Night Shift, to this episode, the nameplates on the squad's desks are not theirs but the new day shift staff's. They are mostly named from the crew of Brooklyn 99 and are the following (with the original table staffer's name in parentheses):
- Sgt. Colleen Larson (Sgt. Terry Jeffords) - Assistant Art Director
- Det. Beth Rosenbaum (Det. Amy Santiago) - On-set Dresser
- Det. Kory Goetzman (Det. Jake Peralta) - Assistant Property Master
- Det. Amy Barnett (Det. Rosa Diaz) - Set Designer
- Det. Alexis Jacks (empty seat in front of Rosa) - Costume Supervisor
- Crystal Chavarria (Gina Linetti) - Art Department Coordinator
- Det. Chris Merlin (Det. Michael Hitchcock)
- Det. Otto Lundgren (Det. Norman Scully)
| Filming Location | City, State | Details | Scenes |
|---|---|---|---|
| NYPD 78th Precinct | Brooklyn, New York | Building exterior | Establishing shots meant to represent the 99th Precinct |
| South 5th Street | Next to river, beneath Williamsburg Bridge | Ensemble walking down the street in the Title Sequence | |
| CBS Studio Center | Studio City, California | Stage 12 | Scenes that take place in the 99th Precinct |
| NY Street Backlot | CJ in the van, talking over earpiece |