Last night’s episode of New Girl, entitled “The Captain,” showed what this series can do when it’s firing on pretty much all cylinders. Not only creating some laugh-out-loud moments and producing several memorable quotes, New Girl also did some great character work last night for Nick and Jess and their relationship, along with Schmidt, who finally had to admit that it was because of his own actions that he is now alone.
So let’s start with Schmidt, because I really dug into the New Girl writers in my review last week for taking his loveable, douche persona and turning it into something entirely unlikeable. Thankfully, his attempts to break Nick and Jess up only last for this week, and they are more comedic attacks (that try to stop Nick and Jess from sleeping together) than serious actions that would emotionally hurt either Nick or Jess.
Ultimately, after Schmidt crazily takes all of Jess’s birth control pills (“I’m so aware of my nipples right now. If someone were to blow on my nipples, I would positively scream.”), she tells him simply, “You did a bad thing. Deal with it,” and that’s exactly what Schmidt does, leaving an apologetic letter by Cece’s door that she reads but then tears up as she goes on a date with another guy. While Schmidt trying to win back Cece’s affections because of his immaturity feels very similar to most of his story arc from season two, I’m really hoping that the New Girl writers have some unique twists up their sleeves to make it different, and after all they’ve done over the past two seasons, I have no reason to doubt the New Girl writing staff.
With Schmidt almost cartoonishly trying to disrupt the physical aspect of their relationship, Nick and Jess are forced to confront the emotional side of it, mainly the fact that Jess can barely stop talking about her feelings while Nick is like a stone figure, keeping everything bottled in. This storyline leads to some hilarious moments, such as Nick saying that he needs to go move his car every time he “struggles” inside the bedroom or, when he finally does open up emotionally, the fact that he loves the cello and when choirs come into rap songs.
However, the best thing to come out of Nick and Jess’s emotional issues is their conversation at the end of the episode. “This last month has been the best month of my life,” Jess tells Nick. “Me too,” he responds. “It’s like there was this fog around my life, but with you here, it’s gone.” The sweet, romantic honesty between the pair never feels cheesy, and it speaks to New Girl‘s strengths that the series can take such a great emotional moment like that and then immediately follow it up with a goofy, overly talkative Nick explaining how attractive he finds Jess and how much he would love to sleep with her, while she just stands there, telling him, “Yeah, okay, well then, let’s do it!” This combination of realness, humor, and romance is what makes Nick and Jess’s relationship one of the strongest components of New Girl as a series, and also what makes them one of the best couples to watch on TV.
Other thoughts:
– Winston’s storylines keep getting weirder and weirder every week on New Girl. Last night found Winston attempting to get his cat, Ferguson, to “hook up” with another cat, but the other cat’s owner thinks that Winston is just hitting on her. Watching Winston try to “set the mood” was hilarious, and I really want to see how far the New Girl writers can push “Crazy Winston” this season because so far I love it.
– Schmidt created a Billy Zane fan club after he saw Titanic. They call themselves the “Zaniacs.” “Why does that make me angrier than anything he’s ever done?” Jess hilariously asks.
Schmidt explaining to Jess what “The Captain” was over the sound of the blunder was really funny stuff and reminded me a lot of when Schmidt explained his “methods” to Jess’s gynecologist friend last season.
“If we needed to talk about feelings, they would be called talkings!” Nick Miller always makes the most sense.
“I really like you. And it’s been a month, and I’m not scared.”
“If you need me, I’ll be in my room listening to some mainstream hip hop.”
What did everyone else think of last night’s episode of New Girl?
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