Since everyone seemed to have their own storyline this week without a ton of overlap, I decided to follow suit and break up this week's review by character.
Jess and Nick
Since these two had an overlapping storyline this week they get an overlap review. So far, I am enjoying how Nick and Jess’s relationship is being handled. This week’s escapades were entirely a storyline I could have seen played out in the pre-relationship days. Nick would have gone after Jess, relationship or not, just because he cares about her. And probably a little bit because he knows he didn’t give her the best advice to begin with. But that’s the Nick Miller School of Advice for you: sometimes decent, sometimes terrible. I enjoyed the glimpse of responsible Nick as he was trying to keep both Jess and Winston from going through with their respective crazy schemes. I love Nick’s insistence that he would have noticed Jess in high school. Romantic as it was, I really don’t believe him knowing what we know about college Nick.
The only real issue I had with the episode was Jess’s storyline. We’ve seen the “quirky Jess tries to fit in” plot a couple of times and it feels a little repetitive at this point. Although I did love seeing Angela Kinsey and Dreama Walker (I still miss Don’t Trust the B…) and the bit about the grading on ecstasy line was hilarious (mainly because grading papers makes me want to drink heavily nine times out of ten).
Schmidt
So Schmidt’s storyline was pretty tied into his continued inability to choose between CeCe and Elizabeth. The attempted meddling of his coworker Bethany only served to make Schmidt’s dilemma worse. Not only is Schmidt in love with both women, both women are in love with Schmidt. We all know this is going to come to a head, more than likely very soon. And because of the feelings involved, no one is going to come out of the situation unscathed. And the longer it continues, the more and more likely it becomes that Schmidt will lose both of them.
On a completely random tangent: what is up with Schmidt’s nipples that cats are so attracted to them? That was just disturbingly weird.
Winston:
Oh, Winston. You know I love you imaginary-BFF, but you have no swag. None whatsoever. We again got some crazy Winston, but in a more subdued, understandable way. I felt for Winston this week. He finally got back some of the self-confidence he seemed to lose after his break-up with Shelby and decided to ask Daisy to be exclusive. While she had another guy in her shower. Ouch. And she still had sex with the guy after that conversation. So he decides to get revenge by offing Ferguson (side note: was that not the ugliest cute cat you’ve ever seen?). My favorite part of this episode was Winston holding the cat noose and Ferguson just batting it around. In the end, he tells Daisy he deserves better (you go Winston) but keeps Ferguson as a parting gift.
Side notes:
Man I loved Schmidt’s 2/3 replica of Don Draper’s office. Knowing me, I’d probably do something like that; although, it wouldn’t be Mad Men themed.
The “Did you kill Jess” bit was another one of my favorite parts of the episode. The resultant use of “I Believe I Can Fly” as a wake-up method was brilliant.
This episode was definitely more of a return to form for the show, so I think that should please the masses that felt the premiere was a bit off.
And to wrap things up this week, mainly because I can't get enough of him, I present this little guy:
