First off, I can sympathize with Winston and Schmidt. When you have friends that are lucky in love and you are coming off some bad luck, it’s completely natural to be jealous of their good fortune. It seems irrational, but on some basic level we all just want to be loved. I loved the survival kit that Winston developed to deal with the honeymoon phase, and I really wanna see what else he has in there. Knowing Winston, going through that would be my entertainment for the week.
While Winston has taken to accessorizing with ear muffs, Schmidt was sticking with his plan to break up Nessy as revenge. Nick was predictably easy to crack. As much as Nick has started to grow, he still has very evident insecurities. And Schmidt was easily able to capitalize on those, knowing that the result of messing with Nick would lead Jess right to him. I’m still a little surprised that Jess fell for Schmidt’s advice THAT easily, knowing that he was going to try and break them up. Ultimately, Schmidt thought he could exploit what should have been their greatest weakness: lack of communication. It’s brought many a couple down before, and Nessy doesn’t exactly do a lot of it at this point in the game, and Nick isn't great at it period.
Ultimately, things blew up in Schmidt’s face again. When Nick realized that his inability to voice his feelings whatsoever could lead him to lose Jess, he manned up and started sharing (and oversharing to the point that JESS told him to shut up). For all his meddling, Schmidt only served to make Nessy stronger in the long run. So he decided to do everything he could to take away their options to have sex. I loved the aftermath of Schmidt taking the birth control pills. He would think that little dosage would affect him that much immediately after taking it.
My buddy Winston ended up being the voice of reason in the loft this week (which is very surprising). After trying to get Ferguson laid – you have to love how single-minded Winston can be that he doesn’t recognize flirting – he mediated an intervention for all the issues in the loft. It resulted in Nick taping a bunch of egg cartons to his walls in an attempt to soundproof his wall and Schmidt starting to accept responsibility for his actions by leaving an apology note for CeCe - one that was quickly thrown away.
What I love so much about New Girl is that it still manages to ground itself in reality. Yes the characters are completely crazy are weird, and it is a sitcom so the situations can be exaggerated at times. But at its heart, the basic sentiments and problems are rooted in reality, which make it something that you or I, as viewers, can still relate to. And when we live in a time where the goals of TV shows is to go more and more extreme and spectacular, finding that balance is a lot harder to come by.
Notes:
--- Seriously, what is it with guys and Smurfette? Can someone PLEASE explain that one to me?
--- Are we to assume that since Schmidt didn't leave Elizabeth a note he would have picked CeCe? Or should we assume that they didn't show Merritt Weaver since they couldn't steal her from Nurse Jackie anymore?
--- Is anyone else curious what exactly The Captain entailed?
