Let me start off by saying
that as I’ve reflected on this episode in preparation for writing this review,
I had a really hard time deciding exactly how I feel about it, which is one of
the reasons why I’m several days late on posting this review. Don’t get me
wrong, I loved this episode as I was watching it; it’s just that the way this
episode ended was a major let down to a certain extent, and I also have several
other issues with this episode that I’ll address later in this review.
While the writers took a
break from focusing heavily on the post-kiss drama between Jess and Nick in the
previous episode, they went back to focusing very heavily on the aftermath of
their kiss in this episode, especially when it comes to the awkwardness that
their first kiss as well as their subsequent make out sessions has created
between them.
Personally, I found the
whole thing with Nick randomly putting his hand on Jess’ breasts at several
different points throughout the episode rather funny. It reminded me a lot of
the character Dr. Fitch Cooper on Nurse Jackie and the whole thing with his
sexual Tourette’s where he will randomly grab women’s breasts. For the record,
Cooper is one of my favorite characters on Nurse Jackie, which is a part of why
I thought Nick doing that in this episode was so funny, but I digress.
The more that I think about
this episode, the more I realize just how mixed my thoughts on this episode
are. On the one hand, this episode had a lot of funny moments throughout it,
especially between Jess and Nick. However, at the same time the way things
ended between Jess and Nick at the end of this episode is the main thing that
makes my reaction to the episode so mixed. One thing that I find myself
thinking about a lot is how poorly the ending of this episode was handled
compared to the endings of the episodes “Cooler”, “Marriage” and “Quick
Hardening Caulk” and how great the buildup to the end of the Jess and Nick’s
storylines in those storylines were handled. With this episode, it kind of felt
like the writers were trying to build up to some big moment, but once Russell
looked at what Jess and Nick had written on the cards when he asked them what
they thought their relationship was, I feel like this episode really collapsed.
Another issue that I have
with this episode is that I don’t think the episode had a very good flow to it.
If there’s one thing that I think really hurt the flow of this episode aside
from the way the episode ended, I think it would be the whole thing about Jess
and Nick repeatedly flip-flopping about whether or not they were on a date.
Towards the start of the episode, Nick pretty much decided that he was going to
ask Jess out on a date when he was talking to Tran (The silent old Asian man
from the episode “Menzies”) in the park and he even practiced asking Jess out
with him, and what he was planning to say to Jess was actually pretty sweet,
especially for Nick. However, the writers immediately followed up the scene
between Nick and Tran with Nick going to ask Jess out on a date, only to end up
coming across as a total idiot, making Jess think that he was only asking her
if she wanted to hang out as friends.
