We’re counting down the days to Thanksgiving by looking at a variety of Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes. Thanksgiving episodes are all different, but they have lots of tropes in common. Today we’re looking at the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode “Thanksgiving.”
Basic Info
Directed by: Jorma Taccone
Written by: Luke Del Tredici
Episode Number: Season 1, Episode 10
Where to Watch It: Hulu
Found Family
Jake Peralta hates Thanksgiving because his dad wasn’t around when he was a kid and his mom always had to work. Ray Holt tells him that the beauty of Thanksgiving is you can make new family traditions.
In the end, he shows up for Amy Santiago’s Thanksgiving party and makes a toast to his new family.
Meanwhile, Amy nervously hopes that if the Thanksgiving dinner goes well, she’ll get closer to Holt. In the end, he gives her constructive criticism on her toast and she’s ecstatic for the mentorship.
Food
Jake says that his tradition is to eat “mayo-nut spoonies.” That’s spoonfuls of mayonnaise with peanuts. He explains it was the food he made up when he had to cook for himself at age six.
Amy invites everyone over for dinner, but her cooking is terrible. She thinks baking soda is an acceptable substitute for salt. So, everyone ends up sneaking away and flushing their food down the toilet.
In the end, Charles Boyle puts together a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner using food from all the takeout places that are open.
Football
Jake’s one tradition is watching football. At one point while he and Holt are working a case, he tells Holt, “There’s tons of illegal stuff happening in there, but they’re watching the game and I DVR’d it. I don’t want to see the score.”
History
Boyle tells everyone that at the first Thanksgiving, they ate lobster. No one’s interested.
