Melissa Fumero reveals what it was like on the final day of Brooklyn Nine-Nine: ‘It freaking wrecked me’

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Melissa Fumero has revealed what it was like shooting the final episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, in an emotional personal essay.

The NBC comedy ran for eight seasons, with the series finale airing on Thursday (16 September) in the United States.

Fumero, who plays Detective Amy Santiago in the award-winning sitcom, offered an unfiltered,  teary-eyed look at everything that went down during the final filming session, in a piece for Entertainment Weekly.

She compared the bittersweet experience to graduating high school because “deep down, you know all your friends are going to different colleges and you’re never going to see them again”.

Around lunch, Fumero wrote, the cast exchanged gifts without breaking character. Actor Joe Lo Truglio (who plays Detective Peralta’s best friend Detective Charles Boyle), gave his co-workers a thin slice of jamón ibérico. Boyle is a culinary enthusiast and so his gift of cured ham was very on-brand.

“The whole way it arrived was so over the top — and so Boyle — that just opening it, I was dying laughing,” Fumero recounted.

Fumero also received an All Saints leather jacket from Stephanie Beatriz (who stars as the no-nonsense, hardcore Detective Rosa Diaz) but “one without blood on it”.

Other gifts included a frame of the necklace Jake gives Amy in the final episode from the show’s co-creator, Dan Goor, a frame of Santiago’s police badge courtesy of the props department, and the nameplate on her desk in the bullpen.

Before long, Fumero continued, it was time to rehearse the final scene of the 153rd episode with everyone — from co-creator Mike Schur to executive producers David Phillips and Luke Del Tredici — watching.

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“It was not a super stacked day. Just a few scenes,” said Fumero, revealing that the last scene of the finale was the “very last thing” the cast shot.

“The director had given Terry the instruction to take a beat and look at everyone before he said "Nine-Nine!" And just during rehearsal, it freaking wrecked me. I was not expecting it. By the time Terry looks at me, his eyes are full of tears — and I don’t think I’ve seen Terry cry — so I just completely lose it and shout the most pathetic "Nine-Nine!" of my life.”

On the list of long goodbyes Fumero had braced herself for, none was as hard as bidding adieu to Jake and Amy, one of television’s favourite millennial couples.

About her co-star, she said, “Andy and I had such a beautiful working relationship. We got along really well, right from the go, and we were really open with each other and were just so collaborative.”

Speeches by Samberg and Goor, multiple hugs under the watchful eye of the show’s Covid officer and a long walk back to Fumero’s car in the same parking spot she’s had for eight years brought the curtain down on the show’s present.

Fans of the show flooded social media with heartbroken messages of support for its cast.

“Please excuse me while I begin binge-watching the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and sobbing into my flourless chocolate cake,” wrote one person.