Hello again and welcome back! I know I do this a lot, but hold up, I'm making 'Teenage Fanatic' history. As of this post, I have released, not one, not two, but three blog posts today!
I know! I didn't think I could do it either. Anyway, as you've probably guessed from the title, today I will be blogging about the most recent 'New Girl' episode. I know, I know, it came out on Wednesday, and today is Sunday. But don't kill me, I was out of the city, and was only able to get enough internet to watch it, not to blog about it. But I'm back now, and ready to re-cap the hell out of this episode. Let's get into it . . .
The episode began with Schmidt talking to Cece in the loft, before inviting her to a party that his office was hosting. I know what you're thinking, does this mean he has finally come to the decision between Elizabeth and Cece that was left hanging at the end of last episode? No, no it doesn't. During the conversation, Schmidt gets an incoming call from Elizabeth, casually passing it off as a call from 'Doctor Whilan Cover', who's supposedly an oncologist. Of course, there are several holes in this theory, for instance, why would Schmidt be speaking to an oncologist in the first place? But Cece seems to buy it, or is at least distracted when Winston comes in and asks for advice about taking care of Daisy (his possible girlfriend)'s cat. It all leaves Schmidt pretty unscathed.
We then see Nick and Jess in the bathroom doing some more couply things, before Jess asks Nick for some advice about her new job. Apparently, she's been finding it really difficult to fit in and make friends, because there is an exclusive clique of teachers who refuse to acknowledge her existence. Being the 'popular' guy that he is, Nick offers his assistance and says that he'll 'fix it', and that's that. Winston once again barges in to the bathroom and asks for some advice about cats, to which he receives unhelpful responses once again (cue the opening theme).
Nick and Schmidt are now seen in the elevator making small talk, before Schmidt seeks some advice regarding his Cece/Elizabeth problem (making it the second time that day Nick has been asked for advice, uh oh). Nick says that he should just let Elizabeth go, and that's final, before immediately changing the subject. Winston then barges into the lift (as it seems neither Schmidt or Nick remembered to press any buttons upon entering the elevator), and confides in them that he is going to ask Daisy (Brenda Song) to be his girlfriend at the same time he goes over to take care of her cat. Receiving support from the guys, he sets out to do just that.
Meanwhile, Jess is seen in the staff room at her new school, listening to an address by the principal to all of the staff. What started out as a conversation about the change in finances, turned into a talk about the principal's new jacuzzi (a weird segue, but whatever). After the staff meeting, Jess once again attempts to befriend the 'elite' group of teachers, but inevitably stuffs it up in her adorkable fashion. However, have no fear, because Nick swoops in and saves the day with his offer of free school supplies and free drinks at the bar, winning them over instantly (because what teachers can resist free alcohol?).
Back at Schmidt's work, he is showing Elizabeth (recent Emmy winner Merritt Wever) his brand new office (an exact two third replica of John Draper's from 'Mad Men') he recently acquired from his promotion. They're interrupted when Schmidt's rival, Beth, loudly enquires if Elizabeth will be attending the office party the next night. Of course, she knows nothing about it (Schmidt having invited Cece earlier), but he manages to cover it up, stating that he was just about to before they were interrupted. Elizabeth goes, leaving Schmidt with another problem to face.
We then see Winston, awkwardly trying to ask Daisy (or London Tipton, whichever you prefer) to officially be his girlfriend. He is dubious when he notices the shower is running, which she passes of by stating that she was about to have a shower herself. When he finally gets it out, she says yes. Everything seems to be fine, until he finds a man's shoes lying around her apartment. However, she still tries to cover it up by claiming that they're hers, before trying to push Winston out of the apartment with her cat in hand. He almost makes it out, until he hears the shower stop running, and finally asks if somebody's in there. She says no rather bluntly, before finally pushing him out and closing the door before he can ask anymore questions.
Meanwhile, back at the bar, Nick is looking on as Jess tries to win over the gang of teachers rather unsuccessfully. However, she seems to be oblivious to this, as when she walks over to Nick and asks for more drinks, she says that it's all going really well. He has no hesitation in telling her the truth, stating that if this were high school, they'd be the cool kids and she'd be the nerd. Then, we are treated to one of the famous 'New Girl' flashbacks, where we see Jess singing as a part of a weird, medieval style quartet in her high school's 'Spring Sing' annual talent show. Not long after, we see high school Nick being cheered on by a crowd as he manoeuvres his hacky sack, in what was revealed to be called the 'Miller Sack Pack'. Establishing his 'coolness', Nick tells Jess to just 'roll with the punches and go with the flow' and not to follow her instincts (and obviously, that apparently means drinking, a lot). The last thing we see is Jess standing on a table being cheered on by the crowd at the bar as she spurts out random facts about life, such as 'sometimes fireman are women'.
The next morning, Jess wakes up incredibly hung over as Nick reminds her of some of her escapades from the night before, including dancing in a toilet bowl. However, she isn't conscious for long, forcing Nick, Winston and Schmidt to wake her up again by loudly singing their own acapella rendition of 'I Believe I Can Fly', complete with clapping. Once again, she is awake, and finally gets out of bed to get ready for work. As she does this, Schmidt lectures Nick about taking care of Jess, and says that now they're dating, he needs to step up and stop her from making stupid decisions rather than encouraging her. He doesn't get far in the conversation however, as Winston interrupts him and finally voices his fear that he thinks Daisy is cheating on him.
Later on, we see Schmidt walking in to Cece's modelling shoot, and inform her that she is no longer allowed to attend the office party, formulating the excuse that it has now been made an 'employees only' gathering. She seems to buy this, and says that her shoot would probably run late anyway.
Meanwhile, Winston and Nick are still in the loft and discussing the 'Daisy' issue. Nick thinks its obvious that she has been cheating on him, and finds it stupid that after finding out that there is a man in her shower, Winston agreed to look after her cat anyway. Therefore, he suggests that Winston should break up with Daisy. However, Winston has other ideas, the main one being that he'll murder her cat.
We then see Jess walk in to the staffroom, still incredibly hungover (rocking a pyjama top and dark sunglasses), met with cheers from the gang of teachers as they recall her antics the night before. She is now officially 'in' with the group, so much so that they bought her a gift. Now, instead of drinking out of paper cups, Jess has her very own coffee mug. To top it off, it is adorned with a moustache (which seems to entertain both her and the others very much).
We are now back in the apartment with Winston, as he tries out several different methods for murdering Daisy's cat. As he's attempting to put a noose around the cat's neck, Nick walks in and tries to turn him off the idea. However, it seems that Winston is resolved in his ambition to kill the cat. Jess then walks in and informs Nick of the plan that she has formulated with her new posse, which is to break in to the school principal's backyard and use his jacuzzi. Finally stepping into action and taking Schmidt's advice, Nick warns her that it is not only a bad idea, but also a felony. Yet, even after that, she is still determined to shake her 'nerd' image and live a little, stating that in high school, Nick wouldn't have ever noticed her. He's quick to say that that's only because he never went to class, but she doesn't settle for that. Now, Nick is caught between stopping Winston from murdering the cat with a hammer, and stopping Jess from potentially getting arrested. The age old choice: the best friend or the girlfriend.
Back at Schmidt's workplace, it is finally time for the office party. As Schmidt is busy talking to Elizabeth, he spots Cece enter (despite him uninviting her hours earlier) and search for him in the crowd. When Elizabeth asks him what's wrong, he slowly guides her towards the stairwell and attempts to distract her by talking about how this is what inspired the idea for the escalator (whatever that means). Leaving her in there, he then goes out and greets Cece, who reveals that she needed to quit the shoot and came to see him. Schmidt then leaves Cece in his office, and runs into Beth, his rival, on the way to finding Elizabeth. Hell bent on destroying him, she states that the gas has been spilled and all that she needs to do is light a match. Tossing aside her comments, Schmidt runs off in search of Elizabeth.
In the loft, Winston has finally cornered the cat once more, and is preparing to smother it with a blanket. As he is about to do so, he suddenly stops, and realises that he is acting a bit insanely (as if we didn't already know that). He decides to cool off and finally stop terrorising the cat.
Back at the office, Schmidt has found Elizabeth and is proposing to her a role-play idea. He says that they can act as strangers, and she is the first person to leave the party due to her being the 'early to bed type', while he follows soon after. Of course, he is just using this as an elaborate scheme to distract her from Cece's presence. It almost works, until Elizabeth spots her in the distance behind Schmidt talking to Beth. He is quick to cover it up, using the excuse that 'between modelling jobs she does catering', which she seems to buy. Schmidt then requests to talk to Cece for a few moments, as it's 'only right', to which Elizabeth reluctantly agrees. Once over there, he hands Cece an apron and requests that she put it on, using the excuse that his boss was asking about her presence, and he said that she was a caterer. Going along with it, Cece thinks that this is Schmidt's way of telling her that he really wants her to be there.
Meanwhile, Jess is trying to break in to the principal's backyard with the help of her new clique. Determined to prove herself, she asks for a boost over the fence and lands not-so-gracefully in the bushes.
We then flash back once again to Schmidt and Cece, as he tells her that he needs to leave, and do a loop of the party to avoid suspicion. As he's walking away from her, he runs into Elizabeth again who greets him by name, before responding with 'Oh, do I know you?' to enforce their little role-play (once again, to avoid an awkward run in with his two girlfriends). She then says that she has to 'leave' because she has a conference call early in the morning, and Schmidt says he's going to stick around and have another beer. As Elizabeth makes her way to the door, she is stopped by Beth, who insists she stay. Once Schmidt makes his way to Cece, they round the corner, and run straight into Elizabeth. It almost seems as if Schmidt is going to tell the truth to Cece, until she interrupts him, and questions if Elizabeth works there now. He goes along with it (of course), and just watches as the two girls have an awkward conversation. In character, Elizabeth completely ignored Schmidt and headed out, causing Cece to comment on how cold she acted towards him, and blamed it on their break up. Surprisingly, after everything, Schmidt is still standing strong, and neither girl has any clue what's actually going on.
At the principal's house, Jess is still trapped in the backyard alone, when Nick (having followed her) comes to her rescue. Also landing in an ungraceful fashion, Nick apologises for getting involved in her business in the first place, and says that if she's going to do something stupid, he's going to do it with her. It's all lovey dovey, until the principal finally cops on to the fact that there are people in his backyard. Nick pushes Jess into the bushes and takes the blame, coming up with the excuse that he used to live in the house and was just having a visit, before pointing out his old room. Unfortunately for him, he pointed to the bathroom, and before he could make a bigger full of himself, Jess popped out from the bushes and apologised for trespassing on his property. He didn't seem to mind very much, as he assumed that she was lured by his meeting the other day about his jacuzzi. No really left with any other alternative, Nick and Jess took the yolo approach and agreed to use the hot tub with him.
Back at the loft, Winston is seen answering the door to Daisy, who has arrived to collect her cat. He has finally built up the courage to confront her, and asks if there was a man in her shower the other day. Finally telling the truth, she says that there was, but that it was before they officially became a couple. However, when he asked if she had seen anyone else since then, she also said yes. Finally standing up for himself, Winston said that they were officially breaking up because he deserved better. And apparently, so does Ferguson the cat. With one final goodbye, he takes the cat back and slams the door.
The office party is just about over, and Beth comes over and congratulates Schmidt with a 'you win'. Yet, it is now that his guilt decides to seep in (took him long enough).
At school the next day, Jess is met with cheers all round from her new group of friends, as she tells them all about having to endure the jacuzzi. When she is invited to grade papers with them while taking a new form of liquid ecstasy (keep that in mind fellow students when you receive your next grade), Jess politely declines, and opts for staying in with Nick instead. With a 'that's weird', it seems as if her new friends are willing to accept her slight insanity (for the mean time anyway). Looking out the window, she sees Nick leaning against his car with his old hacky sack (although he seems to have become far less skilled at actually manoeuvring it). She's goes out to meet him, and he says 'I would've noticed you', in reference to their previous conversation. It's all couply and whatnot, and quite romantic for the little comedy it is.
Then, as usual, the episode ends with a small, funny skit type thing. We see Schmidt being licked intimately by Ferguson the cat, as everyone in the loft grossly watches. And bam, that's it for this week.
Overall, I think it was a really awesome episode. A hundred times better than the season premiere last week. I can't wait till next week's episode, although unfortunately, I'm gonna have to. But it's okay, us fans can just watch the promo over and over again until Wednesday (which isn't that far away thanks to my super delayed recap). Hope you enjoyed it! Til' next time . . .
Annabel xx
