Once again the writers have
managed to reinforce my belief that New Girl is one show that was fortunate
enough to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, which is a very rare thing in my
opinion. Personally, I absolutely loved New Girl’s first season, but I’ve
actually enjoyed this season even more. A big part of that is due to the
direction that the writers have taken the Jess and Nick relationship in this
season. Most shows typically drag things out forever before anything even
remotely significant happens between two characters that the viewers know will
ultimately get together and become a couple, and one couple that constantly
comes to mind when I think about how the writing for Jess and Nick’s
relationship is different from most shows would be Ross and Rachel from
Friends, and honestly the writing for Ross and Rachel’s relationship often
annoyed me at times. That’s also why I applaud Elizabeth Meriwether for being
fearless enough to deviate from the typical format of will they or won’t they
couples on TV shows.
The writers definitely had
Jess and Nick take a major leap forward in their relationship, but I’ll talk
more about that later since I’m getting ahead of myself. The episode began with
Nick, Winston and Schmidt walking in on Jess shaving Cece’s armpits, but she
soon got a text message from a guy named Teddy, who Jess quickly revealed was
the guy that she lost her virginity to. Anyway, Teddy was back in town and
apparently wanted to get together with her for a drink, which prompted Nick to
quickly become fixated on wanting to know about Teddy. The whole thing with
Nick fixating on Teddy throughout the episode was very funny in my opinion. Jess
telling Nick, Winston and Schmidt that she lost her virginity to Teddy quickly
led to them each telling the story of how they lost their virginity, and they made
it a contest to see who had the worst story.
Jess started off her story
by telling them about her prom night. She went to the prom with a guy that she
had started a gender equality society with, which led to some very awkward
moments between her and her date. Jess ended up storming off, only to run into
Teddy in the hallway and they ended up singing together as Teddy played the
guitar, which is apparently how they met. However, they didn’t sleep to
together that night, which quickly prompted the guys to ask Cece to tell the
story of how she lost her virginity.
Cece’s story was pretty
short, but it was pretty funny. Cece apparently lost her virginity to Mick
Jagger, which is just…bizarre in my opinion. The flashback started with Cece
telling a bartender that she just wanted to lose her virginity in a very
spontaneous way and not plan it out. A moment later Mick Jagger came up to Cece
and told her that he wanted to sleep with her. Mick Jagger didn’t actually
appear in this episode, and according to Elizabeth Meriwether, they never approached
him about actually appearing in the episode, and honestly I think it was fine
that they used a body double to be Mick Jagger since the flashback was so
quick. My favorite thing about Cece’s story was the way Hannah Simone was very
matter of fact in her delivery when Cece told the others that it wasn’t an
embarrassing story for her, she simply likes telling people that story.
Schmidt lost his virginity
to Elizabeth when they were in college, and I have to say the whole story of
how he lost his virginity was definitely one of the biggest highlights of the
episode for me. When he was talking to Nick about his plans to sleep with
Elizabeth, he tried to act as if he had been a major player when he was in high
school and said that his nickname had been “The Sex Haver”, but he awkwardly
asked Nick for advice about sex. I have to say that whoever was in charge of
teaching sex education at Schmidt’s high school definitely needs to be fired if
the questions Schmidt asked is any indication of his teachers’ teaching
abilities. Schmidt and Elizabeth’s first time was a rather clumsy and awkward,
especially since Schmidt ended up using way too much lubricant. The fact that
Schmidt and Elizabeth were trying to have sex on the top bunk of a bunk bed
didn’t help either. Despite the fact that Nick had told Schmidt that he
wouldn’t be there, Nick ended up staying in because he had done some hallucinogenic
mushrooms and was hiding in a corner of his bed on the bottom bunk since he was
hallucinating that there was an evil troll there with him. I have to say that
it must have been pretty traumatizing for Nick be there while Schmidt and
Elizabeth were trying to have sex, even if he was high at the time.
Just when I thought Nick’s
family couldn’t be any weirder, the writers proved me wrong when Nick and
Winston told the story of how Nick’s dad, Walt, took them to a hotel with two
women named Octopussy and Mysteria, who were prostitutes. Winston lost his
virginity to Mysteria, but Nick in the end decided that he couldn’t go through
with sleeping with Octopussy. Winston was apparently unaware of the fact that
they were prostitutes, but Nick had apparently figured it out. Walt had asked
Nick to not tell Winston that Octopussy and Mysteria were prostitutes until
after he died. Winston initially refused to believe that Mysteria was a
prostitute, but once he finally believed that Nick was telling the truth, he
pretty much went into a state of emotional shock for a little bit and started
to wonder if Mysteria was even her real name. I have to say that I loved
Lamourne Morris’ performance in this episode, and I love that the writers
continued the running gag that Winston likes to call Walt “Pop Pop”, because I
find Winston’s attachment to Walt, as well as Nick’s reaction to the whole
thing rather hilarious. It’s definitely provided some pretty funny moments on
the show, and it was great to see Dennis Farina on the show again.
That being said, I have to
say that the writers made Winston seem pretty stupid in this episode, if you
ask me, and I’m not just talking about the fact that he had never figured out
that Mysteria was a prostitute. During the flashback of his first time, they
showed Winston watching the movie Titanic,
and it looks like he didn’t know that the Titanic had sank at that point in his
life since he didn’t know how the movie ended. Didn’t he pay attention in any
of his history classes when he was in school? Had he never read a history book
before? I just don’t get how Winston could possibly not know that the Titanic
sank at that point in his life and not be a total idiot. Sighs.
Jess finally told the guys
the story of how she lost her virginity. She apparently ran into her prom date
at a bar when she was twenty-two, and one thing led to another and they both
ended up trying to have sex inside a children’s play castle that was in a park.
The whole thing was a total disaster though. Her prom date wasn’t able to get
an erection due to the fact that he was taking antidepressants, and they ended
up both getting stuck in the doorway of the play castle with Jess lying on top
of him. They quickly saw that there were some cops in the park investigating
the murder of a man that had just taken place. It was at that point that Jess’
prom date apparently finally got an erection, and he also started crying,
telling Jess that he thinks he might be gay.
Being bisexual myself, I
personally hate it when TV shows have a character tell someone that they are
gay when the two of them are either in the middle of having sex, or have just
gotten done having sex with them, so I didn’t really care for that part of the
scene. In my opinion, it just seems like a pretty stupid and somewhat offensive
joke that has unfortunately become a bit of a cliché when it comes to comedy.
In the end, Teddy turned out
to be the firefighter who got Jess and the guy she went prom with out of the
play castle. One of my favorite parts of that flashback was the music that they
played as Teddy was carrying Jess in his arms and as they were talking in the fire
truck. The music made the scene a bit cheesy in my opinion, but I thought it
was cheesy in a good way. Nick once again became hung up on wanting to know
about Teddy once Jess revealed that he was a firefighter, more specifically if
he was the kind of firefighter that went and helped put out fires, or the kind
that simply hung around the firehouse and took care of the dogs. Nick
definitely seemed to get a little jealous when Jess told him that he was the
kind of firefighter that helped put out fires.
One thing I love about TV
shows that do episodes where the plot of the episode is told mostly through
flashbacks, especially when it comes to comedies, is when the writers include
little moments and jokes that are ironic when you know how the characters’
lives turn out down the road, and this episode definitely had some nice moments
like that. For example, Nick apparently didn’t like to drink in the past,
because he preferred to be “drunk on life”, however Octopussy convinced him to
have a drink, which he instantly liked. Nick definitely likes to drink
alcoholic beverages quite a bit in my opinion, so I thought that was pretty
funny.
Out of all the nods to the
present that they did during the flashbacks, my favorite was definitely the
fact that during Jess’ flashback of how she finally lost her virginity when she
was twenty-two, they established that Schmidt had apparently met Cece at a bar
once while he was still overweight, but when he went to talk to her, she
completely ignored him when he asked if she liked DVDs, which is a pretty
bizarre thing to ask a complete stranger, if you ask me. Nick and Winston were
also there with him that night, and Jess and Cece did notice them while the
guys were goofing around at a table when Cece suggested that Jess sleep with
one of them since Jess was anxious to lose her virginity. However, Jess
shrugged off the idea since Nick, Winston and Schmidt all seemed weird to her,
and I can’t say that I blame her. If I had never met them before and I had seen
them at the bar that night, I probably would have thought that they seemed
weird too.
There was one thing that I
did think was a little odd about the fact that Jess and Cece had seen Nick,
Winston and Schmidt before they actually met is the fact that neither of them
appear to have recognized the guys from that night. I know that people don’t
always recognize someone that they briefly met if they run into them again
several years later, but I was kind of hoping that at least Jess or Cece, or perhaps
Schmidt would have figured that they had seen each other at the bar where Nick
works once several years ago.
The bad thing about
flashback episodes of TV shows based on my experience is that shows tend to
have the actors either wear really bad wigs or style their hair in a very
unflattering way. I absolutely hate the way the wigs that Jake Johnson wears in
flashbacks look on him. Jake is a very attractive man, but the wigs that he
wears in flashbacks on this show just make him look gross. The fake moustache
he always wears in flashbacks looks gross too. The fake Afro wig that Lamourne
Morris wore in the flashbacks of how he lost his virginity looked pretty weird
too. I’m pretty sure that Hannah Simone was wearing a wig in the flashback of
how she lost her virginity, and I actually thought her hair/wig looked pretty
nice in that flashback.
In the end, Jess decided
that they were all losers when it came to the story of how they each lost their
virginity, however Winston told her that she was the winner since she lost her
virginity to a fireman, while he lost his virginity to a prostitute.
The most disappointing
aspect of this episode for me was the fact they didn’t show a flashback of how
Nick ended losing his virginity. Nick just quickly told Jess that he lost his
virginity to a girl named Alison Daniels and that they did it on a blanket in
the woods. I really wish they had done a flashback of Nick’s story, because
knowing Nick, I’m sure that it would be pretty funny and most likely a little
awkward.
I love the way the writers
handled the ending of the episode with a montage of what each character did
after they left the loft, because you could see how sharing their stories about
how they lost their virginity impacted their lives in the present. Nick
apparently decided to take the advice Walt had given him about not always
thinking a lot about doing something before he does it, and decided to once
again act on his feelings for Jess by going after her when she was about to get
on the elevator to go meet Teddy and carried into his bedroom where they slept
with each other, which Jess seemed very willing to go along with. Winston and Daisy
started having sex as Winston was watching Titanic on the TV so he wouldn’t
feel too pressured or stressed out while they were having sex, Shivrang asked
Cece if she thought they should have sex since they are going to get married in
two days, but Cece said that she wanted to wait. Schmidt and Elizabeth were in
bed together when Elizabeth noticed the sex toy that Schmidt had been talking
about at the beginning of the episode, but he said he didn’t think they needed
it. However, Elizabeth suggested that they use it anyway since Schmidt brought
it with him. I have to say that Jess and Nick’s reactions to the fact that they
had just slept together at the end of the episode were absolutely priceless and
felt very true to who they are as characters and the dynamic between the two of
them.
All things considered, this
was a fantastic episode that had a lot of funny moments and great bits of
dialogue that have been making me laugh hysterically when I’m merely thinking
about them, which is something that New Girl has been able to consistently do
ever since it first began. The only other comedies that are able to constantly
make me laugh just by thinking about them are It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
and Happy Endings. The fact that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Happy
Endings and New Girl are the only comedies currently on TV that are capable of
doing this is one of the many reasons why they rank as my top three favorite
comedies.
I truly believe that it has
really paid off for Elizabeth Meriwether to handle writing the relationship
between Jess and Nick the way she has been this season, especially after
watching this episode. It definitely takes a lot of guts for a writer to be
willing to have two characters get together rather quickly on a TV show, and I love
that Elizabeth is willing to take that risk. It’s obvious that Jess and Nick
won’t immediately become a real couple or get married and live happily ever
after any time soon simply because they have now slept together, but it has
still been very exciting to watch the evolution of Jess and Nick’s relationship
this season, and the recent developments between them is a big part of what has
made New Girl “Must See TV” for me personally.
That being said, I give this
episode a rating of an A-.
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