Given the way the previous
episode ended with Jess and Nick sleeping together, I definitely had big
expectations for this episode, and both the writers and the cast definitely exceeded
my expectations. Elizabeth Meriwether had previously said that the last three
episodes of the season would cover the events of one day leading up to Cece’s
wedding in the season two finale (New Girl: Jess, Nick and Cece related scoop), and I have to say that I really like
that the writers did that so the viewers can see everything that led up to Jess
and Nick sleeping together, as well as the immediate aftermath of them sleeping
together for the first time. I also think that also helps the other storylines
that are going on as well, namely Cece’s upcoming wedding to Shivrang.
After working several
different odd jobs and teaching a creative writing class to adults throughout
the season, Jess was finally offered a job teaching kids. They apparently
wanted her to get to the school right away so she could talk to the principal
of the school and sub for a class, which was disaster, mostly because the kids
were completely out of control.
That being said, the whole
scenario of the principal wanting Jess to come to the school immediately
because they wanted to talk to her, and they also needed a sub felt a bit
ridiculous to me. They didn’t tell her anything about the class that she would
be subbing for, such as what the kids were studying or show her the teacher’s
lesson plans, they basically took her to the classroom and left her to fend for
herself, which didn’t seem to go very well. Jess tried to tell them that she
was supposed to spend the day helping a friend get ready for their wedding, but
they basically ignored what she was saying and strong-armed her into subbing
for a class. As weird as the whole scenario with Jess being offered the job and
the school completely putting her on the spot to start teaching immediately, it
was definitely great to see Jess teaching kids again.
On top of being put on the
spot by the school’s staff, Jess was also having to deal with the fact that her
dad, Bob, came to town rather unexpectedly for Cece’s wedding, while also
trying to help Cece deal with the fact that she accidentally got an Indian
tattoo that had originally been drawn on her hand for the wedding got smeared
on her face and wouldn’t come off after she fell asleep on her hand. To me,
both of those storylines essentially felt like they were primarily meant to
serve as obstacles that kept Jess and Nick from being able to talk about the
fact that they had slept together.
With Jess preoccupied with
trying to sub for a class at the school that was offering her a job, while also
trying to help Cece deal with her tattoo, Nick was forced to spend the day with
Bob. Jess had specifically told Nick not to tell her dad that they had slept
together, and Nick initially tried to dodge Bob’s questions about his love life
by telling him that he was interested in a girl named Yolanda Winston and he described
“Yolanda Winston” as being the exact opposite of Jess, but of course Nick ended
up telling Bob that he’s interested in Jess after he mistakenly came to the
conclusion that Bob would be happy about this news.
Unfortunately, Bob wasn’t
the least bit happy about this news and promptly started chasing Nick. At one
point in the episode, Jess finally got to come home for a little while, which
is when she found out that Nick had told Bob that they had slept together. Bob
was very upset about the prospect of Jess dating Nick since he views Nick as
being a huge mess, while also seeing a lot of himself in Nick, which Bob told
Jess makes him think that he (Bob) wouldn’t be good enough for her, and he
wants better for her. I get that Bob was just trying to look out for Jess and
share his concerns about Nick with her, but I feel like the way he said it,
namely saying that he’s not good enough for his daughter, was very weird and
kind of creepy. I definitely think that the writers could have handled the
dialogue for Bob in that scene in a little bit better so it hopefully wouldn’t
have come across as being as awkward as it did in my opinion.
Personally, I’m really glad
that Jess told her dad off, saying that while she knows things between her and
Nick are very messy and complicated, she’s also an adult and is capable of
dealing with the situation on her own. Even though Bob was just trying to
protect Jess from potentially getting hurt, I feel like Bob was being pretty
hard on Nick, especially considering the fact that they’ve pretty much only
interacted with each other on two separate occasions. Nick may be a very dysfunctional guy, but
ultimately I think his good qualities outweigh his flaws.
That being said, it will
definitely be interesting to see if what Bob said about Nick will serve as
motivation for Nick to start trying to get his life together, and perhaps get a
more career-oriented job, which would be really interesting to see. After all,
the writers already showed Nick trying to be more responsible and mature in the
episode “Quick Harding Caulk”, and Jess even admitted to him that seeing him
try to be more responsible made him even more attractive in her eyes. Honestly,
I’m not quite sure what kind of career-oriented job would be a good fit for
Nick. I don’t think he should go back to law school since he said the reason he
dropped out was because he realized that he hated lawyers. They revealed that
Nick is good at dealing with his family’s financial matters in the episode
“Chicago”, which I think is very interesting since the writers have always made
it very clear that Nick is supposed to be very poor, so perhaps Nick could get
a job as an accountant. I think the fact that Nick is supposed to be very poor and
bad at managing his own money could lead to some very funny interesting moments
if he were to get a job as an accountant. Other than that, I have no idea what
kind of career path Nick should pursue, because I really can’t think of a job
that would be able to lead to a real career for Nick, while also having the job
be good fit for him.
The writers once again
reminded me why I love the character Nick so much, as well as Jake Johnson’s
portrayal of Nick Miller for what feels like the trillionth time as I was
watching this episode for the first time. There were so many things that Nick
did in this episode that made me laugh hysterically. A few of my favorite
things that Nick did in this episode were when he was trying to see if Jess had
a pulse while she was still sleeping after he woke up; the whole sequence with
him trying to make breakfast in bed for Jess was absolutely hilarious, and all
of his interactions with Jess’ dad, Bob, made me laugh quite a bit.
This episode also really made
me wonder where Nick got the idea to use the name “Yolanda Winston” as a code
name for Jess since he also used that name as a code name for Jess in the
episode “First Date”. I think it’s pretty say to say that he got the idea to use
Winston as a last name because of Winston, but where did the name Yolanda come
from? At the risk of sounding ignorant and racist, whenever I hear the name
Yolanda, I picture a woman who is African American. I don’t picture anyone who
looks anything like Jess when I hear that name. It just seems like such a
random first name to use as a code name for Jess.
In addition to being able to
see the immediate aftermath of Jess and Nick sleeping together, this episode
also dealt with the aftermath of Schmidt sleeping with Elizabeth for the first
time since they dated in college and he was still overweight. I have to say
that I really liked the morning after scene between Schmidt and Elizabeth. It was
really sweet and funny, but then again most of their scenes together in this
episode were really sweet.
As I’ve said before, I’ve
really felt like the novelty of the character Schmidt has really worn off for
me this, but I have to say the relationship between Schmidt and Elizabeth is
really starting to make me love Schmidt again. The problem that I’ve had with
Schmidt is that I was really starting to feel like Schmidt’s behavior was
becoming too wacky and over the top to the point where the character felt
rather cartoonish and not like he was someone who could actually exist in real
life. Plus, I felt like he was constantly acting like a jerk to the point where
I didn’t think he was being a jerk in a way that was also funny, it just made
him seem obnoxious, especially when it came to Cece. Schmidt may often try to
come across as being very confident and a major ladies man, but deep down I
think Schmidt is actually a very insecure person, especially when he’s with
Cece. Schmidt definitely came across as being incredibly insecure about the
fact that Cece’s a model during his whole “broken penis” storyline last season
when he saw her with some guys during a modeling job in the season one finale.
Elizabeth on the other hand
seems to really keep Schmidt grounded as a character and really brings out a
very genuinely sweet side of Schmidt, which I don’t think we’ve seen very often
before, especially when he was with Cece. Plus, Schmidt seems a lot more
comfortable when he’s with Elizabeth compared to how he acts with Cece. I also love
that Elizabeth is very confident and isn’t afraid to call Schmidt out on his
crap. She’s also not afraid to stand up for herself, which was especially the
case in this episode. I also think that Elizabeth allows Schmidt to really let
his guard down and really be himself, or at least be like the person he was
when they were dating in college and Schmidt was overweight. After all, in the
episode “Bachelorette Party” Elizabeth told Schmidt that she liked him when he
was “Big Guy” as she apparently called him. According her, it wasn’t until
after he lost a bunch of weight that he started acting like a jerk. Plus, I
think having Schmidt be with a woman who is a bit on the heavy side and doesn’t
look like a model makes Schmidt not seem as shallow as he has at times in the
past. I don’t know how long Merritt Wever is going to be around since she’s also
a series regular on Nurse Jackie, but I really hope that she’ll sticking around
for a while, and hopefully return next season depending on what happens in the
season finale, because I’m loving the relationship between Schmidt and
Elizabeth.
When Schmidt and Elizabeth
were in bed together at the beginning of the episode, they made plans to have
lunch together. However, when Elizabeth showed up at Schmidt’s work wearing a t-shirt
with a drawing of a cat on it that she was apparently wearing the first time
they met, Schmidt acted like he didn’t know Elizabeth when a woman he works
with showed up, prompting Elizabeth to storm off. Schmidt went after her, and Elizabeth
told him off, saying that she wouldn’t let him make her feel bad about herself.
A guy had apparently asked Elizabeth out on a date, but she had turned him down
to be with Schmidt. However, as Elizabeth got on the elevator she told Schmidt
that she was going to go on the date.
Schmidt and Elizabeth ended
working things out when Schmidt crashed Elizabeth’s date wearing a shirt with a
frog on it that she had apparently given him when they were dating and told her
that he wanted to be with her. Elizabeth accepted Schmidt’s apology and ditched
her date so she could dance with Schmidt, which was absolutely adorable. As
rude as it might be for someone to ditch their date to be with someone else, I
don’t blame Elizabeth for ditching the guy, because that guy seemed really
boring. Plus, it didn’t look like she was into him at all anyway.
I have to say that I felt
really bad for Winston as I was watching this episode, since it was his
birthday, and yet nobody really remembered it. At the same time, I absolutely
loved Winston in this episode and I thought that Lamourne Morris did a great
job. Winston spent the whole day thinking that his friends were throwing him a
surprise birthday party, but he was repeatedly disappointed to see that they
weren’t. He even got himself a birthday cake, but Bob promptly made him feel
guilty about wanting to eat it, telling him that it would ruin his figure and
make him fat. Personally, between the way he treated Nick once he found out that
Nick was interested in Jess and the way he acted towards Winston throughout the
entire episode, calling him “Wilson” and making him feel guilty about eating the
birthday cake that he bought for himself, this episode really made me hate Bob.
If I’m being honest, as much
as I’ve loved New Girl ever since it first began, I wasn’t too crazy about
Winston last season. It wasn’t that I thought that he was a bad character and I
didn’t like him, because that definitely wasn’t the case. It’s just that
Winston constantly came across as a very bland and sometimes forgettable
character that was constantly being overshadowed by Jess, Nick and Schmidt. I think
that’s because Jess, Nick and Schmidt are constantly doing quirky and sometimes
over the top things that make them seem like larger than life characters, while
Winston, as well as Cece are very dialed back when it comes to how they act.
That being said, I’ve come
to view Winston very differently this season. Last season Winston was just kind
of “there” and didn’t really make much of an impression on me, but after
everything that’s happened with Winston this season, he’s starting to really
stand out to me, and I finally have a much better sense of who Winston is as a
character. I don’t know how much time the writers had to create the character
Winston before they had to start the auditioning process for the role, but I
can’t help but wonder if the writers having to create a new character on what
I’m guessing was fairly short notice after Happy Endings ended up getting
renewed for a second season, forcing Damon Wayans Jr. to leave the cast of New
Girl contributed to Winston having such a bland personality that was very hard
to detect last season. Throughout this season, I feel like the writers have
given Winston some very definable character traits, such as the recurring joke
about Winston being very bad at playing pranks on people because his ideas for
pranks are either too stupid and pointless, or they are too extreme like how he
suggested to Schmidt that they ruin Jess and Nick’s date in the episode “First
Date” by stealing a bear from the zoo, injecting the bear with some hepatitis C
and letting the bear loose in the restaurant where Jess and Nick were, which I
thought was both crazy and hilarious to think about all at the same time.
Honestly, I think the
writers deciding to create a whole new character to take the place of the
character Coach after Damon Wayans Jr. left the show was probably better for
the show in the long run than it most likely would have been if the producers
had simply decided to recast the role of Coach. I thought that Coach was very
funny in the pilot, but at the same time he also seemed like a very over the top
character, which could have possibly turned the viewers, including myself, off
after a while since all the other characters on the show, with the exception
Cece, are all very whacky and eccentric in their own way. As much as I love
Jess, Nick and Schmidt, having a fourth character who was really over the top,
while only having Cece be a very dialed back and normal character, would most
likely have been way too much, even for me. I don’t think that Cece alone would
have been enough to balance out the quirkiness of the other characters. Having
a character like Winston in addition to Cece, who while being a very silly
character at times is for the most part very dialed back really helps balance
out Jess, Nick and Schmidt as a characters, if you ask me.
Cece and Shivrang had a nice
talk towards the end of the episode where Shivrang said that he was going to
call someone he knows who apparently knows a way to get the smeared tattoo off
Cece’s face. Shivrang also told Cece that if that’s their biggest problem at
the moment, he’d take it. Personally, I’ve really come to love the character
Shivrang, especially after watching the episode “Bachelorette Party”. I can’t
wait to see if Cece actually goes through with marrying Shivrang in the season
finale, especially since Schmidt appears to be pretty much completely off
Cece’s radar at the moment. That seems to be the case with Schmidt too now that
he’s dating Elizabeth again and seems to really be into her. I was thinking
that he would end up stopping Cece’s wedding to Shivrang for a while when he
was still acting pretty hung up on her, but now that he’s with Elizabeth, it
doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
This episode had a great
ending in my opinion, which began with Nick texting Jess while she was in bed,
asking her to meet him on the roof where he surprised her with a recreation of
the breakfast that he had made for her in the morning. Jess apologized for her
dad’s behavior, but before they could really talk about the fact that they had
slept together or everything that had happened with Bob earlier in the day,
they were interrupted by Schmidt and Elizabeth because they apparently wanted
to use a telescope to find the constellations in the sky that apparently
resemble the mole patterns on Schmidt’s back. I thought that was just…weird,
but it was strangely sweet at the same time.
Winston soon found them all on
the roof and immediately assumed that they were there to throw him a surprise
birthday party after all. He also assumed that they were giving him the
telescope that Schmidt had brought with him and Elizabeth as a gift. Jess,
Nick, Schmidt and Elizabeth all immediately started to act like that was why
they were all on the roof, when in reality, they finally remembered that it was
Winston’s birthday.
The episode ended with Jess
and Nick sharing a nice look, which was obviously their way of silently
agreeing that they would simply have to talk about everything that’s happened
between them some other time. I do think it was a little contrived that Jess
and Nick kept getting interrupted throughout the episode and never really got
to talk, but this is a TV show, and the writers do have to drag some things
between Jess and Nick out a little bit, because even though this is a comedy, I
definitely think they need to save some drama for the season finale. Hopefully,
Jess and Nick will finally get to talk in the season finale, and I’m guessing
if they do, there will probably be a bit of drama between them, which should be
interesting if that turns out to be the case.
All things considered, this
really was a great episode, and while it was very funny, it also had some nice
drama when it comes to everything that’s going on between Jess and Nick at the
moment. In addition to the many funny moments that this episode had, it also
had quite a few sweet and heartwarming moments that I thoroughly enjoyed. The
show has definitely benefited from having the events of the past few episodes
all take place in one day and that the viewers are getting to see how each of
the ongoing storylines are progressing each day as Cece’s wedding approaches.
I really do think that some
of the things that Bob said about Nick in this episode will ultimately end up
serving as the setup and possible motivation for Nick to start trying to at
least kind of get his life together a little bit more in season three, which
I’m sure would be both interesting and hilarious. The relationship between
Schmidt and Elizabeth has been a lot of fun to watch so far, and I’m really
looking forward to seeing how things continue to unfold between them. It was
also great to see Lamorne Morris really get a chance to shine in this episode,
and this episode made me realize that I haven’t given him nearly enough credit
in the past for how good his acting is on the show. The same can definitely be
said about the character Winston who has really into his own this season. This
episode was the perfect episode to lead into the season finale with, and it has
definitely gotten me even more excited for the season finale than I was before
this episode aired.
That being said, I give this
episode a rating of an A+.
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