There was a strange Jake and Amy plot hole in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8 finale, which exacerbated a problem from a controversial season 6 episode. It was shocking to see Jake resign from his dream job as a detective to prioritize his family. While this showed immense character growth from the immature and impulsive Jake viewers met in season 1, it didn’t quite make sense.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine always maintained a balance between the crime-fighting antics of its NYPD detectives and their personal lives. Plots unrelated to police work included Rosa revealing her bisexuality to her parents, Boyle adopting his son, and the squad dog-sitting for Captain Holt. One of Brooklyn 99’s core messages was that life was about more than work before season 8 featured Jake and Amy as parents for the first time.
Amy’s penchant for organization was a constant punchline throughout Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s run. Therefore, it was inconsistent with her character to fail to consider the full implications of parenthood, causing the plot hole. Not only did she and Jake not discuss whether they wanted children until after they were married, but Amy’s belief that she would be able to work flexibly as a police sergeant was uncharacteristically naïve. This final point was disproved by the fact that Jake had to quit the 99 for Amy to continue her career.
It was established early on that Amy was a perfectionist, organized, and controlling. Therefore, Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 6's “Casecation,” contradicted the show’s internal logic. Their wedding anniversary went awry after Jake confessed he wasn’t sure if he wanted children. Jake – nicknamed JP in the show’s pilot – raised a series of valid arguments, including a poor relationship with his father and their heavy workload being incompatible with raising a child. However, it was unfathomable to viewers that Amy would not have planned out this aspect of her life as thoroughly as her career aspirations. Instead of listening to Jake, she used Holt as a mediator to out-debate him. She left her husband with an ultimatum: have children or get divorced. If children were as important to Amy as this episode would have its audience believe, then she wouldn’t have waited until a year after being married to even discuss them with her partner.
Furthermore, Amy stated children were a crucial motivation for her becoming a sergeant. She argued the increased flexibility afforded by the promotion would free up plenty of time for raising a child. However, a recurring plot of Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8 was Jake and Amy being unable to juggle being working parents. Their cases were constantly interrupted by the need to look after Mac, their son. And, contrary to Amy’s season 6 promise, Jake bore the brunt of this. While this helped to create one of season 8’s most iconic moments – Jake’s Boyle-mediated interrogation being hijacked by Mac’s dirty diaper – it also undermined Amy’s pre-established ability to plan ahead.
While being a parent is obviously different from an ideation of parenthood, Amy convinced Jake to have a child with her under the pretense that they would have enough time to work and be parents. This was not the case, and Jake ultimately decided to put his family ahead of his career and quit the 99. Considering he was against having children for this very reason, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine ending was bittersweet. It's difficult to comprehend how a character that planned out every meticulous detail of her life expected two full-time police officers to raise a child, as well as why it took so long for the topic to be raised in the first place. Nevertheless, an inconsistency in Amy’s character was a detail viewers were willing to overlook for a wholesome conclusion to both Jake’s arc and Brooklyn Nine-Nine itself.