Sabotage (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

In its original American broadcast, "Sabotage" was seen by an estimated 2.96 million household viewers and gained a 1.4/4 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research.[1] This was a slight decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 3.11 million viewers with a 1.5/4 in the 18-49 demographics.[2] This means that 1.4 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 4 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it. With these ratings, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the fourth most watched show on FOX for the night, beating Bob's Burgers, but behind The Simpsons, The Last Man on Earth and Family Guy, third on its timeslot and seventh for the night, behind Secrets and Lies, The Simpsons, 60 Minutes, The Last Man on Earth, Family Guy, and Once Upon a Time.

"Sabotage" received generally positive reviews from critics. Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "B-" grade and wrote, "'Sabotage' doesn't necessarily work against or pedal backwards from any of that, but it certainly doesn't continue the careful character work that Brooklyn Nine-Nine has accomplished lately."[3] Allie Pape from Vulture gave the show a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "With just three episodes left in the season, I'm really scratching my head as to where this is all going. At least the Gigglepig story line offered an end-to-end form for the front half of this season, and the past two episodes' digging into family matters provided some interesting emotional beats."[4]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "Of late, 'Brooklyn' has toggled back and forth between episodes with two stories and episodes with three, and the latter group often ends up feeling rushed throughout. That mostly wasn't the case with the subplots of 'Sabotage,' which each had a couple of funny ideas at their core – Holt and Terry disagree about whether to lie to Gina about missing her dance performance, and Boyle is forced to work a case with Scully and Hitchcock, who turn out to be secretly competent – and executed them well."[5] Andy Crump of Paste gave the episode an 8.5 rating and wrote, "There are enough good wisecracks and character beats here to justify 'Sabotage,' but they don't make up for the lax writing and missed opportunities."[6]