Tears in Room 405, Stephanie Beatriz and the Nine-Nine Reunite
The actor who played Rosa Diaz tried very hard not to cry at New York Comic Con, and lost, along with most of the room
Room 405 at the Javits Center is a convention room, not a confessional. On Thursday it held a sold out crowd, four people from a sitcom about a Brooklyn police precinct, and a great many tissues.
Stephanie Beatriz set the terms early. According to a recap from Cracked, she warned the host not to ask her anything that might make her cry. The questions came anyway.
The session was billed as NBC 100 Presents, a Brooklyn Nine-Nine retrospective, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. in Room 405 on the opening day of New York Comic Con. NBC is marking its 100th birthday, and this was its way of throwing the Nine-Nine a party. Co-creator Dan Goor sat with three members of the cast, Beatriz, Melissa Fumero and Joe Lo Truglio.
Two Women in a Precinct
The show ran for eight seasons and 153 episodes, first on Fox from 2013 and then on NBC until 2021. It followed a squad of NYPD detectives in Brooklyn and their stern new captain, Raymond Holt, played by Andre Braugher. Beatriz played Rosa Diaz, the detective with the stern face. Fumero played Amy Santiago.
Their friendship got its own moment on Thursday. Fumero reached back to a first season episode, Sal's Pizza, and a car scene she half remembered, in which Rosa tells Amy she has her back. Beatriz cut in with the reason it worked. They were two women in a precinct full of dudes. Fumero agreed, and said it was a relatable moment for a woman, especially one working in an industry dominated by men.
"I refuse to cry," Beatriz said, by Cracked's account not very convincingly. "I refuse."
The Pop Insider, which also covered the panel, reported that the casting stories were their own small comedy. Beatriz first read for the role of Amy. Goor wrote Rosa for her instead. "I knew we wanted you as soon as we saw you," he told her. All three actors said Andy Samberg, the show's lead, had personally invited each of them to join, and Beatriz did an impression of him asking if she wanted to do the show for seven years.
The Coming Out Episodes
The first real tears came with Rosa's coming out. In the fifth season, over two episodes, Rosa told her colleagues and then her family that she is bisexual. Beatriz is bisexual herself and had creative input into the story.
"I'm going to look at the ceiling as I say this, nobody take my picture," Beatriz told the crowd.
Looking at the ceiling became the house method for the rest of the panel. Beatriz spoke about how often, as a Latina, an immigrant, a queer person and a woman, she has had other people's words coming out of her mouth, and how much it meant when the people in power asked her what she wanted to say. When she finally turned back to face the audience, Cracked reported, she was crying and the crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
Goor broke next. He tried to explain his side of the story and could not finish the sentence. When he recovered, he quoted Holt. "Every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place." He added that the line came late in the writing. Then, at his own expense, "It's not even sad!"
Caw-Caw
The hardest question came near the end. The panel was asked about Braugher, who died in 2023. Lo Truglio remembered a set ritual. When a scene wrapped, Braugher would say "Cut!" Over the seasons it became "Cut-cut!" and then a bird call, "Caw-caw!" Lo Truglio did the bird.
Fumero, looking up at the ceiling like everyone else, said she kept most of her memories for herself. She shared one. Her dressing room was next to his. "He sang every day in his room," she said. When she was pregnant and had become an expert at power naps, his music would lull her to sleep, and she would usually wake to the sound of him singing at the top of his lungs. "And he had a beautiful voice."
Beatriz, her face streaked with tears, said only this. "I rebuke this question."
There is no reunion on the books. The Pop Insider noted that nobody announced a reboot. Goor did make a pitch from the stage. Citing Netflix figures, he said the show has been streamed for 50 percent more hours than Seinfeld, and he hoped someone from Universal was in the room. The crowd roared. Whether anyone at Universal heard it is another question.
For now, the Nine-Nine lives where it always has, on a couch at midnight, on a loop. If you want more NBC history from the same week, our story on Shane Gillis and his third night hosting SNL picks up the thread at 30 Rock. And the full Cracked recap is worth reading with a tissue nearby.
