In case I haven’t already
made it perfectly clear in my previous reviews for New Girl, I think that the
show is on a major creative streak this season, and that streak once again
continues in this episode. It was definitely very risky of Elizabeth Meriwether
and the rest of the writers to have Jess and Nick kiss each other for the first
time when they were basically right at the halfway point of the second season,
but I feel like it was definitely the right decision to have them kiss at that
point, and the show has been flying even higher than ever before creatively
ever since, if you ask me.
From where I’m standing, the
episode had to end with Jess and Nick making out given the increasing sexual
tension that developed between them as the episode progressed. I think the
ending of the episode would most likely have fallen flat if they hadn’t kissed.
The buildup to them making out at the end of the episode was very well done
since the sexual tension that’s been brewing between them since the show began
and especially so far this season seemed to reach an all-time high in this
episode.
The whole thing with Jess
struggling with her feelings for Nick really started to intensify when Nick was
telling her, Winston and Schmidt about how he had an idea for the bar to have a
guy’s night, which his new boss, a woman named Shane, apparently loved. Nick
said that it could potentially lead to a promotion if things with the guy’s
night went well. Jess’ feelings became even harder for her to ignore as the
episode progressed due to Nick acting surprisingly mature for him, which led to
her acting very weird around him. At one point in the episode, Nick asked Jess
for a ride to the hardware store for supplies for the bar’s guy’s night, which
caused Jess to flip out on Nick when he mentioned that he also wanted to stop
and get a salad and that he was thinking of taking a vitamin.
Jess’ struggle with her
feelings for Nick continued while they were at the hardware store and she saw
him yanking a chain and then holding a big pipe. She ended up running off and
reminded herself that she had apparently once walked in on Nick masturbating to
a mail order steak catalogue, which I think is just…weird. Anyway, Jess was soon
hit in the jaw by a big pipe, knocking her out.
The writers left out quite a
few details about what happened after Jess got knocked out by the pipe at the
hardware store, because the next time that we saw Jess and Nick, Nick was
putting Jess in bed so she could rest after having apparently been treated by a
doctor and was bringing her some hot soup. Hilarity ensued as Jess, who was all
whacked out on pain medication, started hitting on Nick and repeatedly told him
that she wanted to have sex with him. It was very clear that Nick was very
confused by Jess’ behavior and was trying his best to rebuff her rather
aggressive advances as he was attempting to get her to rest. One thing led to
another and Nick ended up getting hit by Jess and burnt his hand in the hot
soup that he had gotten for Jess and was also knocked onto the ground in the
process. I personally loved the ending of that scene when Jess was asking Nick
to get her some mustard, oblivious to the fact that he was rolling around the
floor in pain.
Nick continued to be
confused by Jess’ confession about wanting to have sex with him and asked
Winston and Schmidt for advice about whether or not he should take Jess’
actions seriously or disregard them as something that Jess said because she was
on pain medication and was really out of it at the time. It was quickly
established that Jess had no memory of her behavior when she saw that Nick had
gotten a black eye and was wondering how Nick got it, which kind of made it
look like Nick was going to just dismiss the whole incident. However, Nick obviously
wanted to acknowledge the situation when he began rejecting Shane’s advances
during the guy’s night at the bar. Nick was surprised when Jess showed up at
the bar for the guy’s night since she had told him earlier that she wasn’t
going to come and awkwardly tried to dismiss Shane’s advances in front of Jess,
but ended upsetting Jess after he referred to her as his “room friend”.
It was really interesting,
for me at least, to see Odette Annable guest-star in this episode as Nick’s new
manager, Shane, who he was also having a fling with. I first became familiar
with her when she guest-starred on Brothers & Sisters as a love interest
for her husband, Dave Annable’s character, Justin Walker, and I really liked
her on that show. I also enjoyed seeing her on House during its final season,
but I especially liked her in this episode. I thought that she played the role
of Shane very well, and I think it will be interesting to see if she’ll come
back in future episodes so we can see some of the aftermath of what happened
after Nick walked out on Shane to go after Jess.
Things between Jess and Nick
finally reached a major boiling point towards the end of the episode when they
both returned to apartment and Nick told her about how she had told him that
she wanted to have sex with him and asked her if she really meant what she said.
Jess admitted that yes, she have feelings for him, especially after seeing how
he’s been trying to be more responsible and successful lately. Nick called her
a gold digger, which Jess laughed off, saying that if she were a gold digger,
she would be the worst gold digger in the world for wanting him, which I think
is hilarious. Nick asked Jess to prove that she’s not just into him because
he’s doing well at the bar, and Jess proved it by kissing him. They quickly
began making out and arguing about bunch of different things such as how Nick
had burnt his hand in Jess’ soup and the way Nick kisses all at the same time.
Things came to a screeching halt after Nick accidently broke Schmidt’s fish
tank and they started arguing about who should clean it up and how they should
clean up the mess. However, they kissed again before they each went to their own
separate bedrooms.
I have to say that I love
how the whole thing with Jess and Nick making out with each other played out.
The fact that they were arguing with each other the whole time felt very
fitting given how they’ve acted with each other in the past and are frequently
arguing with each other, but in a passionate way, not in a mean spirited way.
While I loved the Jess-Nick
storyline, there were a few things that I found kind of ridiculous about it.
For starters, I thought it was pretty ridiculous that Jess, Schmidt and Winston
were shocked that Nick had given them a check for their drinks at the bar. It
was like they were completely unfamiliar with the concept of having to pay for
food at restaurants or having to pay for drinks at Nick’s bar. Maybe he hasn’t
always made them pay for their drinks in past due to his tendency to be rather
immature and irresponsible, but I still thought their reaction to him giving
them a bill for their drinks was kind of stupid.
I also thought that it was
kind of stupid that Nick told Jess was he was thinking about getting a salad
and taking a vitamin. To me, those are things that you shouldn’t just think about
doing; they are things that you should just due since they are good for your
health. Although, given the fact that Nick has always been rather immature, his
behavior in this episode did seem very true to the character. Plus, I found
Jess’ reaction to the whole thing rather funny. I also thought that the whole
thing with Nick doing his own laundry and screwing it up since he didn’t
separate his white laundry from his clothes that were various colors due to him
apparently not doing his own laundry in the past pretty funny as well.
As I’ve mentioned in my
previous reviews for the show, the novelty of the character Schmidt has
completely worn off for me, but I will say that I absolutely loved him in this
episode. One of the biggest problems that I have with the character Schmidt is
that I feel like he often comes across as being a bit too over the top and
cartoonish to come across as a real person that can ever be taken seriously. I
get that this is a comedy, so of course the characters are going to constantly
be doing and saying funny things, but sometimes I feel like the writer take
things a bit too far with Schmidt to the point where he acts too weird to come
across as a person who could actually exist in the real world. Even if a
character is supposed to constantly be doing funny things, I still think it’s
important for the characters on the show to be grounded in reality to some
extent, and sometimes I feel like the writers fail to do that with Schmidt.
That being said, the writers did an excellent job of making Schmidt come across
as a real person that people can have sympathy for in this episode, while also
making his storyline rather funny.
The episode began with
Schmidt getting drunk in order to deal with his emotional pain over Cece
planning to marry Shivrang, so Winston decided to take Schmidt to the aquarium,
because that’s apparently what Winston likes to do when he’s upset about
something. Schmidt quickly saw a fish that he immediately became obsessed with
and wanted to buy. He got mad and started completely freaking out after an
employee at the aquarium told him that it would be illegal for him to buy the
fish. Schmidt got a fish tank and was determined to catch a fish just like the
one at the aquarium in the ocean. I have to say that I loved Jess, Nick and
Winston’s reaction to the situation, and it was very clear that he viewed the
fish as being symbolic of Cece.
Another reason why the
novelty of the character Schmidt has worn off for me is because I feel like he
often lacks depth on the character, but I feel like he really exhibited quite a
bit of depth in this episode. It was also really nice to see Winston try to be
a good friend to Schmidt, especially when he told Cece that her planning to
marry Shivrang has been very painful for Schmidt to deal with and that it would
probably be a good idea if she kept her distance from Schmidt for a while,
which she agreed to do. In the end, Schmidt admitted that he had realized that
his obsession with the fish was indeed about Cece and decided that he needed to
return the fish that Cece had gotten for him to the ocean. The fact that
Schmidt ended up accidentally throwing the fish backwards when he was trying to
throw it into the ocean at the end of the episode was absolutely hilarious in
my opinion.
As I’ve mentioned in my past
reviews for the show, Winston didn’t really stand out to me last season, but
he’s really stood out to me as a character quite a bit this season. I loved
seeing Winston trying to help Schmidt with his plan to get a fish like the one
at the aquarium in this episode. Schmidt ended up getting stung by a jellyfish
when they were in the ocean and wanted Winston to pee on the wound. However, Winston
told Schmidt that he had peed in the ocean and suggested that he poop on the
wound. That’s just…gross.
One last thing that I’d like
to mention about this episode is that I think it was very well timed given the fact
that we’ll be meeting Nick’s mother and other members of his family in the next
episode. All of the casting news and spoilers that I’ve read about the episode
have indicated that it’s going to be revealed that Nick is actually the most
mature and normal member of his family, which I think is hilarious given the
fact that the writers have always made it clear that Nick is a rather immature
person who’s a major slacker whose life is a huge mess in a lot of ways, so
that makes me think that Nick’s family is going to be even more messed up than
I originally thought when they first introduced his father in the episode “A
Father’s Love”. The reason why I feel like this episode is so well timed is
because it was Nick trying to act like a more mature and responsible person
than he usually is in this episode that made Jess want Nick so badly. I really
feel like that this episode will really help the introduction of Nick’s family
an even bigger payoff than it probably would have if they hadn’t written the
character Nick the way they did in this episode.
All things considered, this
really was an altogether fantastic episode that was very well written with
great acting from the entire cast. It had the perfect blend of drama and
comedy, and the buildup to the scene where Jess and Nick are fighting and
making out all at the same time was handled beautifully. The way this episode ended
with Jess and Nick definitely left me wanting more, but in a good way. I can’t
wait to see the next episode.
That being said, I give this
episode a rating of an A+.
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