The latest reunion event for the beloved police procedural sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine was filled with nostalgia, grief, gratitude and tissues.
On the opening day of New York Comic Con, key members of the Brooklyn Nine-Ninefamily blessed the Big Apple’s biggest entertainment convention with a retrospective Q&A as part of NBC’s 100th anniversary celebrations. Series co-creator Dan Goor and cast members Joe Lo Truglio, Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz spoke to a full house of superfans about their favorite moments and memories from the making of the show, and, very quickly, the clear day in Manhattan turned misty.
Like most comedy shows that find enduring success long after the series finale, Brooklyn Nine-Nine had a big heart and three-dimensional, constantly evolving characters whose inner lives were never betrayed by the writers for the sake of a joke. Over eight years, eight seasons and two different networks, the artists responsible for the show’s success went on their own emotional journeys, and they graciously shared their experiences with their fans earlier today in one of the more moving talks of the young festival.
I went into this NYCC panel anticipating some complicated emotions from the fans and stars alike, especially when the conversation turned to departed Nine-Ninestar Andre Braugher, but the love, pain and joy displayed at the event surpassed my expectations and convinced me that it would be criminal for NBC to drag their feet on a B99reunion special any longer.
Despite her character’s stern demeanor on B99, Beatriz had to warn the panel host not to ask her any questions that could make her cry. Beatriz even had to look away from Fumero at several points during the interview to keep her face dry, specifically when the co-stars answered a question about the evolution of the friendship and love shared between their two characters, Rosa Diaz and Amy Santiago respectively.
“I don’t remember the scene – I feel like there was a scene in a car where Rosa’s says like, ‘I have your back. How could you not know that you have your back?'” Fumero recalled, referencing the Season One episode “Sal’s Pizza,” “And I loved that scene so much because I think–“
“–We’re two women in a precinct full of dudes,” Beatriz interjected.
“Yeah! Yes! That’s what it was, yes,” Fumero agreed, “It was such a relatable moment as a woman, especially if you work in an industry that’s male-dominated.”
“Which one isn’t?” Beatriz cracked to uproarious applause.
Fumero continued, “We can question, like, would these two women be friends if they weren’t in the same job – I like to think they would – but that partnership, that (feeling of) ‘We’re in this together,’ that bond… And then celebrating their differences.”
Beatriz wouldn’t properly break until the panel host asked her about the two-episode storyline from B99Season Five in which Rosa came out as bisexual to her coworkers and her family. As a bisexual woman herself, Beatriz had creative input in the story and tone of the episodes, a topic that brought both her and Goor to tears in their reflections on the arc.
“It’s funny, it feels very antiquated now,” Beatriz said of how the show dealt with Rosa’s sexuality, “It’s not that long of a time (since) that episode happened, but now, the landscape of the world has changed a lot. I will say, there are things that I specifically asked for that Dan did.”
Goor added, “Stephanie led the way.”
As tears welled up again, Beatriz joked to the audience, “No, I’m gonna pull them back into my head!” Before continuing on. “I’m going to look at the ceiling as I say this, nobody take my picture,” Beatriz told the crowd (looking at the ceiling quickly became the most popular method of hiding tears for the entire B99panel).
“As a person of color, as a Latina, as an immigrant, as a queer person, as a woman, it is oftentimes (the case) that other people’s words are coming out of your mouth,” Beatriz explained with her head turned away from the cameras, “And what’s really nice is when the people in power, many of them white men, they decide to good with their power. They decide to have a moral compass, they decide to think about what kind of things they want to put into the world, and so they look over to the side and they ask you, ‘What do you want to say?'”
When Beatriz finally faced the audience and her former boss, tears streamed down her face and the NYCC crowd erupted in cheers and applause. The scene moved Goor, who unsuccessfully fought tears while explaining his own thoughts on Rosa’s coming-out episodes.
“Stephanie really led the way. And there were a lot of things she wanted to say, and we really made sure…” Goor trailed off as emotion overcame him. When he composed himself, Goor quoted Captain Raymond Holt, saying, “Every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place.”
“Which wasn’t in the draft until late,” Goor added of the famous line before poking fun at his own weepy state, exclaiming, “It’s not even sad!”
Towards the end of the panel, dry eyes were few and far between both onstage and off when the four members of the B99family were asked to speak about Andre Braugher, his impact on them and his passing in 2023.
“Andre was just… (We were) so lucky to have time spent with him,” Lo Truglio said of his late cast mate. “One thing I remember about Andre is when the scene would end, he would say, ‘Cut!’ And, after a while, there was a thing that started to happen which was, ‘Cut-cut!’ And so, a few seasons in, we got (imitating a bird) ‘Caw-caw!’ So we’d do a scene and then you’d see Andre just stand up and caw-caw! It was the best!”
Fumero, facing the ceiling, offered some of her own favorite memories of Braugher, though her most treasured ones stayed with her. “There’s so many, and a lot of them are just for me to have, but I loved hearing him,” Fumero said, “He sang every day in his room. My dressing room was next to his, so I heard his playlist every day. And I got so used to hearing his music that when I was pregnant and I got really good at power napping, like whatever he was playing would lull me to sleep.”
“I would usually wake up from my nap to the sound of him singing because he would sing at the top of his lungs in his dressing room,” Fumero continued of Braugher’s musical side. “And he would sing on set, and I have videos of him singing and he would just always… and he had a beautiful voice.”
With a tear-streaked face, Beatriz said simply, “I rebuke this question.”
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