I know that I’ve been very
vocal about the fact that I think that season two of New Girl is better than
the first season was and that I believe that the show has really been soaring
higher than ever before creatively ever since Jess and Nick kissed in the
episode “Cooler”, but I have to say that I have very mixed feelings about this
episode. Don’t get me wrong though, I really liked it. Personally, I think that
this episode had the potential to be a really great episode, but it sadly
failed to live up to its full potential in my humble opinion.
As I was watching this
episode for the first time, I couldn’t help but think that this episode would
have been much better if it had been a one-hour episode opposed to being a
typical thirty minutes long episode, which really ends up only being about twenty-two
minutes long once you cut out the commercials. This whole episode felt very
rushed to me. In the opening scene, Jess, Schmidt and Winston are playing
around with some balloons that Jess had bought from a guy in a van and they
were inhaling helium from the balloons, which made their voices sound high
pitched. While that was all happening, Nick came into the apartment in an
especially cranky mood as he was talking to his mother on the phone. A couple
minutes later Nick comes back into the room and informs them that his father
had died of a heart attack, and at first they didn’t want to say anything since
their voices all sounded funny from the helium. It was only after Nick asked
them why they weren’t saying anything that they finally said something, hugging
Nick and offering him emotional support with their voices still under the
effect of helium from the balloons as the show went to the theme song sequence,
which I thought was pretty funny.
When the show returned from
the first commercial break, Jess, Nick, Winston and Schmidt had just arrived at
Nick’s parents’ house in Chicago where he grew up. Although, Nick made a
comment where he says that his family apparently lived in a van from fall of
1988 to the spring of 1989. Schmidt is upset because the airline apparently
lost his bags, so the only clothes that he has with him are the clothes that he
was wearing when they were on the plane. Winston tells Nick that he’s also very
upset about Walt’s death, which I think is really nice since they made it
pretty clear in the episode “A Father’s Love” that he viewed Walt as a father
figure. Winston also mentions that Walt had apparently once told him that he
loved him more than he loved Nick, which prompted Nick to mention that his
father had told him that too at some point. Ouch! That must be pretty tough for
Nick to deal with, but I digress. Winston and Schmidt also warned Jess not to
laugh when his family talk about him being responsible since Nick’s family
apparently doesn’t understand why they would think that was funny.
The scene where the viewers
are introduced Nick’s mother, Bonnie, his brother, Jamie, his cousin, Bobby really
highlights why I think that this episode would have been better off as a
one-hour episode. As soon as they entered the house you can immediately hear
Nick’s younger brother, Jamie, and one of his cousins, Bobby, who’s from Boston
arguing over whether soft drinks should be called pop or soda, which I think is
really weird, but then again we didn’t get to hear the beginning of the
argument. They also featured an elderly woman who I believe was Nick’s grandma
who was repeatedly talking about weed throughout the episode. I’m not sure why
she kept talking about weed, but that was pretty weird. Maybe the writers were
trying to make the character come across as being senile. We were also quickly
introduced to Nick’s mom, Bonnie, who was played by Margo Martindale. I have to
say that I wasn’t all that happy when they first announced that Margo would be
guest-starring as Nick’s mom since I didn’t like her on Justified and I wasn’t
crazy about her in the episode of Suits that she guest-starred in either. That
being said, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked her in this episode.
Anyway, Bonnie was instantly
relieved to see that Nick had arrived since she claimed that she could count on
him to take care of everything, which included planning an Elvis Presley themed
funeral for Walt, much to Nick’s dismay, but he still promised her that he
would take care of everything. Bonnie also instantly hated Jess before she even
said anything to her. The whole thing with Bonnie hating Jess for most of the
episode was definitely one of the weakest parts of this episode since they
didn’t really give a reason why she didn’t like Jess. Maybe it was simply
because she didn’t know Jess since that was something Bonnie mentioned at one
point in the episode. Although, Nick did say that he had told her about Jess. I
suppose Bonnie hating Jess could also have been at least partly because she was
simply very upset about the fact that Walt had just died, which I would
consider somewhat understandable, but if that was the reason, I think the writers
should have established that at some point in the episode.
This episode was definitely
pretty dramatic compared to the usual tone of New Girl, and a lot of that was
due to Jake Johnson’s acting in this episode, which was just spectacular. He
really played the whole thing with Nick being very stressed out about planning
the funeral pretty much all on his own very well. Although, Jess did try to
offer Nick emotional support throughout the episode, which led to Nick putting
her in charge of writing the eulogy for Walt’s funeral.
As much as I’ve enjoyed all
of the storylines regarding the sexual tension between Jess and Nick this
season, especially after their kiss in the episode “Cooler” it was really nice
to see the writers step away from that for an episode and instead focus on how
Jess and Nick have frequently tried to offer each other emotional support
whenever one of them is going through a difficult time. While they didn’t focus
on the romantic element of their relationship too much, the writers did reference
it briefly in this episode on several occasions, such as when Jamie asked Jess
if she and Nick were sleeping with each other while she was trying to talk to
them about Walt as she was writing his eulogy.
As Jamie and Bobby were
talking to Jess about Walt, they quickly began to argue about a gold chain that
Walt had and whom it actually belonged to. As the episode progressed, Nick
became increasingly stressed out about planning the funeral to the point where
he stormed out of Bonnie’s house and later showed up at the funeral drunk with
another drunk guy who had agreed to be an Elvis impersonator for the funeral.
This whole fiasco upset Bonnie even more than she already was, but then again I
do think her feelings were valid given the fact that Walt had just died and she
was obviously still grieving.
I know I mentioned on
several occasions that the novelty of Schmidt’s character has pretty much worn
off for me, but I have to say that I really liked him in this episode. The two
main problems that I have with Schmidt is that I think he can be a major
jerk/douche bag at times, which I know is a part of the character, but
sometimes it’s just not funny to me. It also bugs me that Schmidt’s behavior can
be rather weird where it seems very cartoonish at times to the point where I
don’t think he comes across as a realistic person that could exist in real life.
That being said, I feel like Schmidt’s behavior in this episode was rather
funny, while also being grounded in reality to a certain extent. I say this because
I found Schmidt’s fear of death and dead bodies very relatable. Whenever I’ve
gone to a funeral and I see the person’s dead body lying in a casket, it almost
always kind of makes me feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin.
I loved the scene where
Winston was helping Schmidt practice being around a dead body by lying on a
bead and pretending to be dead. That whole scene was pretty funny. The scene
when they were at the funeral home where Schmidt kept putting his head in
Walt’s casket and realizing that he wasn’t afraid of death or dead bodies
anymore was rather bizarre, but it was still hilarious at the same time.
Bonnie asked Winston to say
a few words to the people who had come to the funeral while they waited to
start the funeral, saying that she wanted him to keep the mood light. However,
Winston ended up breaking down in tears over Walt’s death as he was talking to
everybody, which was just hilarious if you ask me. Bonnie felt like the whole
funeral was essentially ruined at that point and wanted to just stop the
funeral and have everybody leave, but Jess showed up dressed like Elvis at that
point and started singing the song “In the Ghetto”.
Initially this didn’t
impress Bonnie, but Nick showed up, a bit more sobered up than he had been when
he first showed up for the funeral and told her that while Walt would probably
have pretended to slip and fall so he could sue the funeral home, he would have
liked that Jess was impersonating Elvis. Nick went on to give a nice speech
about Walt, saying that while he wasn’t sure if Walt was a good person in the
grand scheme of things, he was still going to miss him since he was his dad.
Jake Johnson’s performance when he was giving Nick’s speech at the funeral
really showcased what a great actor Jake is, but the whole episode really
showcased Jake’s talent and his acting in this episode really was very
deserving of an Emmy. I also like that they also once again referenced the fact
that Jake Johnson/Nick is a terrible singer, which they first established in
the pilot. After Nick’s speech, Jess got everyone at the funeral to join her in
singing “In the Ghetto”, which I thought was really funny.
Jess and Bonnie seemed to
work things out after the funeral, and I like to think that it was Jess filling
the role of the Elvis impersonator at the funeral that ultimately won Bonnie
over. Bonnie gave Jess a snack for the trip home and they hugged. Nick and
Bonnie also shared a nice goodbye. Bonnie apologized to Nick for being so
dependent on him as he was growing up, and she also told him that she was glad
that he had someone who takes care of him (Jess) and asked him to visit her more
often. I also loved the part where Winston and Bonnie were saying goodbye to
each other. She was mad that he had taken several things that had belonged to
Walt and initially wanted him to give it all back, but she quickly changed her
mind and told him that he could keep the things he took. I’m really glad that
they once again addressed Winston’s emotional attachment to Walt in this
episode. It would have been strange if they hadn’t mentioned that, especially
after what we saw in the episode “A Father’s Love”.
Apparently, Jamie was under
the impression that siblings had to get married in order starting with the
oldest sibling. When Jamie asked Nick towards the end of the episode how soon
he thought he would be getting married, Nick glanced at Jess before telling him
that he didn’t know and told him that siblings don’t have to get married in
order, which prompted Jamie to run off and ask his girlfriend to marry him. That
was definitely a great way to reference the Jess and Nick relationship without
putting too much focus on it.
All things considered, this
was a pretty good episode, but I really do think it would have been much better
if it had been an hour-long episode. Making this an hour-long episode would
have allowed the writers more time to flesh out the personalities of Nick’s
family members a bit more, especially when it comes to Bonnie and the fact that
she didn’t like Jess until the end of the episode. It just seemed rather
bizarre to me that she instantly hated Jess, and yet the writers never really
explained why. It would have also been nice to see a bit more of the
conversations between Jamie and Bobby, which were all extremely bizarre, mainly
because the viewers didn’t get to see the beginning of their arguments, with
the exception of their argument over who owned the gold chain that Walt had
once had. Maybe it was the writers’ intention to only show bits and pieces of
their conversations, so it was up to the viewers to imagine how their arguments
started. I don’t know, but their interactions with each other left me wanting
more, and not in a good way.
Hannah Simone wasn’t in this
episode, and honestly I’m glad that she wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I like the
character Cece; it’s just that I don’t think that it would have made sense to
have Cece come along to Chicago with Jess, Nick, Winston and Schmidt for the
funeral given the fact that Nick and Cece haven’t interacted with each other
all that much in the past.
If the writers had really
wanted to include Hannah in this episode, I suppose they could have given Cece
her own subplot, perhaps with Shivrang. I’m glad that the writers didn’t do
that though since this episode already had too much going on for my taste.
Adding a subplot for Cece most likely would have been overkill and would probably
have been unnecessary filler anyway.
That being said, I give this episode a rating of a B+.
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