The Reason Amy's Pregnancy On Brooklyn Nine-Nine Almost Didn't Happen

The seventh season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine may have faced an abrupt ending thanks to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, which has shuttered production on nearly every current film and television show, but at least its last episode, "Lights Out," served as a perfect season finale.

As Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) and her husband, Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) prepare for the birth of their first child, a rolling blackout hits New York City, leaving Jake stranded elsewhere in Brooklyn as Amy goes into labor. As Jake works with his best friend and colleague Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), Amy ends up in charge of the 99th precinct when her bosses, Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) and Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) get trapped in an elevator, and when she starts to give birth, Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) and her other co workers must work to help Amy do so right there in the precinct. 

Luckily, everything ends well, as Jake and Amy reunite and their son, McLane "Mac" Santiago-Peralta, arrives in the world safely. This happy ending almost didn't happen, however, as indicated in an interview with showrunner Dan Goor in E! News. According to him, here's why Amy's pregnancy — and the entirety of "Lights Out" — almost didn't happen at all.

As Goor told E! News, he wasn't sure he wanted Amy to be pregnant on the show at all. "We had been thinking about it for a while because, you know, there are natural stepping stones in a relationship — not that our relationships have to go in that direction, but after marriage, having children is one direction it could go," Goor said. "And I really was firmly of the belief that it's a workplace show, and their relationship exists in the workplace, and I wasn't keen on them having kids. I just felt like that wasn't necessary."

Fumero, however, argued that trying — and, at first, failing — to get pregnant could be an amazing journey for Amy, a classic overachiever who is always the best at everything she attempts. Goor recalls a discussion he had with his lead actress, saying, "I said, I can't think of a compelling reason, and [Fumero] had one. Her reason was 'I feel like Amy — this is Melissa speaking –is a person who wants to get an A on every test, and getting pregnant is a test you can't study for, so if she has difficulty getting pregnant, it could drive comedy and be really compelling.'"

Ultimately, Fumero's real-life pregnancy played a role, though it wasn't the reason Goor changed his mind about Amy and Jake's baby. "Immediately, I was like, oh yeah. She knows that character so well, and that is so true," he said. "And so we decided, at that point, before the season started and before I knew she was pregnant, to make her and Jake decide to try and have a kid. And obviously there were several different directions we could then go in."

The seventh season episode "Trying," which chronicled Jake and Amy's many failed attempts to get pregnant, marked a turning point for Goor, who realized just how effective this storyline was for both characters. As Goor told the outlet, "We broke that episode 'Trying' — which is one of my favorite episodes that we've ever done, and it felt like we could have the best of both worlds if, after that, we did have her get pregnant. And probably a little bit, it was a thing where we could start to see that the actress was pregnant, and in a storyline where we weren't trying to say they couldn't get pregnant, but that could become disconcerting in one where we were really focused on it."

Plenty of shows try to hide when their lead actresses get pregnant in real life, particularly when their characters aren't pregnant. Luckily for Goor, however, Fumero's actual pregnancy proved pretty convenient. As Goor recalls, though, they still made sure that they only brought Fumero's real pregnancy into the story when it made sense for the narrative, waiting a while to add Amy's pregnancy into the mix. As Goor told E!, "One of the things I'm most proud of that we've ever done as a show was how we hid her pregnancy the first time when she was pregnant, when she went undercover as a pregnant lady. So I never felt like we had to [incorporate the pregnancy]. The main consideration was the kind of story we wanted to tell."

Certainly, Mac's birth story is pretty dramatic, as Amy tries to keep doing her job amidst the worst possible circumstances, and according to Goor, this aspect of Amy's birthing experience was inspired by Fumero herself.

Goor remembered, "When Melissa actually gave birth the first time, she was shooting the week before she had the baby. We shot the finale of season three a week before, and there was something that was so badass about it, and it felt like I wanted to see Amy doing the exact same thing. And also, these are people whose job means that there are times where they just have to make sacrifices like this. Like they can't do the birth plan that they always wanted to do. And just as an Amy fan, I always like how badass she is. I love that this felt a little bit like part two of the takedown in the wedding dress in season five. Plus it just seemed funny."

If you want to relive Amy and Jake's progress towards parenthood or Mac's dramatic birth, the seventh season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which airs on NBC, is streaming on Hulu now.