The strength of any given sitcom is often directly related to the power of its characters, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine is one of those shows that really does give the audience a wide variety of characters to care and cheer for. These are men and women that almost leap off of the screen in their liveliness, and there is no character quite like Rosa Diaz.
Though she’s something of an enigma, as the show has gone on, she has revealed more and more of herself, becoming one of the most underrated characters in the process. Like the other characters, she’s shown that there are actually quite a few sad things about her.
Her Terrible Taste In Pie
Rosa is many things, but it’s made clear on several occasions that she doesn’t always have the best taste. In particular, it’s shown that she has terrible taste in pie. Given that pie is one of the best things that human beings have ever invented, this seems a real shame.
Surely, of all of the people in the precinct, Rosa could have seen fit to develop a refined sense of what does and doesn’t comprise pie. No wonder Boyle is horrified.
Afraid To Open Up
From the very first episode, it’s made pretty clear that Rosa is one of those people who doesn’t like to share much of her life with anyone, even those that she is closest to.
Obviously, a lot of this is played for fun, and it’s particularly enjoyable to see her rebuff Boyle’s attempts to get to know her better. However, there’s also something a little sad about the idea of someone who makes such an effort to distance herself from others.
Her Relationships Failing
Perhaps because she’s so unwilling to open up to others, Rosa has some bad history when it comes to relationships and romance. While, for the most part, she keeps her feelings about this bottled up, there have been a few times when that facade has cracked. She has shown others, most notably Captain Holt, that she really does have a very deep well of feeling, and she feels bad that so many of her romances haven’t worked out like she wanted them to.
Her Reluctance To Make Close Friends With Anyone
Given that she has such a resistance to talking seriously to anyone about her problems or personal life, it’s not really surprising that Rosa didn’t really have any close friends at the precinct. At least for a little while…
While she appears to be okay with this state of affairs, there are more than a few hints that, in reality, she does crave the sort of support and human warmth that such friendships often provide people.
How Much She Seems To Really Value Her Friends
As the series goes on, Rosa gets a lot closer to people, including Amy (who, in the beginning, was something of a nemesis, or at least someone that Rosa thought she could look down on with impunity).
There’s something touching, and also a little sad, about the obvious love that Rosa comes to feel for Amy. There is something even more precious about her friendship with Boyle, who ends up becoming almost a sort of confidante for her (she even goes to him for relationship advice).
Her Inability To Have Work Life Balance
Rosa is one of those people who takes their job very seriously indeed. In fact, in that respect, she’s very much like Jake. However, unlike Jake, she struggles to find a balance between her life at work and her life at home, particularly when it comes to romance.
Time and again, she feels herself torn between these two. More often than not, she ends up giving her work more attention. However, this isn’t always to her advantage as it has cost her a few relationships.
Snapping When She Was A Child Because Of The Pressure To Be Perfect
Though she tries to keep the secrets of her youth hidden from her colleagues and friends, there are quite a few times when they happen to learn strange (and sometimes unsettling) things about her. In particular, it’s revealed that she was one of those people who keenly felt the pressure to be perfect and to never let themselves give into anything that might be perceived as weakness.
It’s actually quite sad to see the way that she snapped, but it makes sense that she would do so.
The Time She Spent In Prison
Fans of the show will remember the infamous time in which Jake and Rosa were framed by someone and ended up spending time in jail. It was one of the most wrenching storylines, in particular, because both of them clearly suffered a great deal in their incarceration.
It must have been particularly difficult for Rosa, for she’s one of those people who doesn’t deal particularly well with being powerless or duped by someone else (even if they were both ultimately exonerated).
Her Family And Her Sexuality
As the show goes on, the audience and the characters learn more and more about Diaz and what makes her tick. Among other things, they learn that she is bisexual, which ends up causing quite a lot of trouble with her family, who can’t seem to accept this essential fact of Rosa’s identity.
It’s a rather wrenching moment, to be sure, and it really helps the audience to feel sympathy for Rosa and her struggles.
Her Anger Problems
Considering she has a lot of trouble connecting with people and that dealing with her emotions in a healthy way, it’s not really surprising that she has a bit of trouble with managing her anger.
On several occasions, the viewers have seen how she is prone to scary outbursts. It’s obviously very funny when such things happen, but it’s also a rather sobering reminder that, beneath her tough exterior, there are quite a few things that she’s trying to work through.
