New Girl Season 6 Episode 13 Review: “Cece’s Boys”

Can one scene or sequence make an entire episode of a show suddenly worthwhile? I never would have thought that the answer could be yes, but after watching the “sack waxing” scene in tonight’s New Girl, I might be wrong. There are just some scenes or sequences that are so ridiculously funny, so outrageously entertaining that they make the rest of the installment somehow better, and that scene with the guys at the spa certainly comes close to doing that for “Cece’s Boys,” which, overall, is a pretty mediocre episode of New Girl.

In theory, “Cece’s Boys” should be a great episode of New Girl, as it pairs up its characters in interesting ways and features plenty of fantastic jokes, from Winston’s fake cat hand at the beginning of the episode to the stupid antics of Donovan and Dean once Cece takes them both on as clients. However, everything comes off as very by-the-numbers, almost formulaic; there’s a lack of energy in most of tonight’s scenes that I can’t fully explain, but anytime the focus shifts from the guys’ spa day to Jess and Reagan’s efforts to recruit new models for Cece, the episode loses something–the jokes aren’t as funny, and the chemistry, that is typically so dynamite every week on New Girl, just isn’t there this week between Zooey Deschanel and Megan Fox.

Maybe there’s only so much you can do with Jess and Reagan’s storyline? The sequence in which they try out their different approaches to recruiting models is a ton of fun, but after that, their story just feels lifeless and predictable, as we can already figure out that things aren’t going to go well for Bruce and Kirby when they try to audition, even after a woman checks the two of them out while they’re walking down the street.

It also doesn’t help that Cece is sidelined for most of the episode, despite the fact that what Jess and Reagan are doing is for her. The title of the episode is “Cece’s Boys,” and even though we get a lot of Cece in her new office, she’s only there to react to the idiocy on display from Donovan and Dean, which is funny at first but quickly gets old and is a waste of Hannah Simone’s talents. Perhaps if Cece was scouting for new clients at the bar with Jess and Reagan, the storyline would have worked better, and maybe Hannah Simone would have injected some much-needed energy into the Deschanel/Fox scenes.

You know what isn’t lacking energy, though? The guys’ storyline in “Cece’s Boys,” which, as I mentioned earlier, essentially saves the entire episode. Schmidt is at his most neurotic in tonight’s half hour, as he fears that Nick and Winston will forget about him (like they’ve forgotten about Coach, who we discover has moved to North Carolina) once he moves out of the loft with Cece. Schmidt’s worrying leads to the guys trying to find a ritual of sorts that they can do together, something that will keep them hanging out even after Schmidt leaves the loft, and the idea that they finally agree on is a spa day.

Things start off well for the guys, with Nick enjoying his “bottomless” massage, and Winston stealing cucumbers so he can turn them into pickles. However, since this is New Girl, we had to know that everything wasn’t going to go great for the guys at the spa, and of course, things take quite the hilarious turn when they’re told that a Brazilian wax is part of the “elite package” that Schmidt purchased for them. Even when you take out the incredibly funny waxing scene, though, this storyline works simply due to the chemistry of Max Greenfield, Jake Johnson, and Lamorne Morris, and the wonderfully weird dynamic between Schmidt, Nick, and Winston. We’ve seen the friendship between the three of them only grow stronger throughout New Girl‘s six seasons, which is why their “Band of Brothers” salute to each other before they get waxed works as both a goofy line and as a genuine expression of love.

Furthermore, the guys’ storyline also brings up an interesting issue: How will New Girl deal with Schmidt and Cece’s absence from the loft in a (likely) Season 7? While it’s not the biggest change in the world, it will certainly challenge the New Girl writers to be more inventive in the ways that they bring Schmidt and Cece over the to loft and into the lives of their best friends. Nick and Schmidt won’t be able to simply argue at the kitchen table anymore, and could Jess and Cece’s relationship if Cece somehow gets pregnant or becomes too caught up in her marriage with Schmidt? These are all possibilities, and I’m curious how New Girl will tackle this issue next season.

Even though it features one of New Girl‘s best comedy sequences ever, “Cece’s Boys” is easily one of the weakest episodes of Season 6 and a bad omen for any future Jess/Reagan storylines. Maybe the two of them will always need a third character to join in on whatever shenanigans they’re up to, whether it’s Nick or Cece or Winston, in order to give their storylines more energy, or maybe this was just an off week for Zooey Deschanel and Megan Fox. We’ll have to see, but hopefully, New Girl does better with Jess/Reagan storylines in the future.

Other thoughts:

• What’s the funnier moment: Jess changing “Hands in!” to “Heads in!” or Schmidt’s pronunciation of the word “smush” when he responds to her? I’m going with Schmidt.
• I don’t know why, but Winston having a breakdown in the episode’s final scene just killed me. I couldn’t stop laughing, especially as we heard Nick comfort him.
• “Only child, right?” “Yes, now I am. As of yesterday.” That exchange between Jess and a potential model is easily one of the darkest and funniest moments from New Girl this season.
• So, who’s dumber: Donovan or Dean?
• “This isn’t going to be some back-alley sack waxing!”
• Sorry for the later review this week. FOX didn’t post a screener for this episode on their press site, so I had to watch it live, and my No Tomorrow finale review had to take precedent over this one.

What did everyone else think about this week’s episode of New Girl? Comment below and let me know.

[Photo credit: Adam Taylor/FOX]