*Disclaimer: Yes, yes I know Halloween was last week but this episode only just aired in Australia and being a sucker for costumes and well, New Girl, I had to review this*
Poor sweet Jess!
What an episode she had.
Dressed up as zombie – which actually is kinda cool and totally in so we shouldn’t feel too sorry for her on that count – she is punched (accidentally) by Nick in the depths of the haunted house she is working in, agonises over telling her sex buddy Sam she has feelings for him (bought to the fore by her discovery that he is a paediatrician), only to have him walk off into the sunset – well figuratively; it was dark after all – when she levels with him that it’s not purely physical for her anymore.
Tough as it was for Jess, who is delighted when she tracks down Sam at his workplace and finds out what he actually does for a living – “I didn’t know you were a caring person” – triggering all sorts of feelings she had manically repressed up to this point, it was the sort of thing that needed to happen sooner or later since Jess, as we all know, is a gal who emotionally invests herself in pretty much everything.
While she lied to Sam in his office assuring him that “I feel nothing”, you knew finding out he was involved in a very caring-and-sharing profession simply unleashed the sorts of emotions that she had wanted to let out but felt she couldn’t if she wanted to hang onto Sam.
Sam though didn’t want her finding out, didn’t want anything to do with any of those feelings and very respectfully and sweetly walked away, leaving a sad but I’d like to think philosophical Jess standing there outside the haunted house.
One good thing about this breakup is that showcased the maturity of the writing that underpins this show.
It would have been enormously easy to paint Sam as some sort of heartless bastard, and have Nick come running to the rescue (which actually he did try to do at one point before freaking out inside the haunted house and accidentally punching the object of his chivalrous dash).
But they didn’t and I am glad.
Truth is though Sam made it very clear at the outset that he didn’t want a relationship, never sent Jess any signals to the contrary, and while I can totally understand why she would want to sublimate her feelings if it meant keeping him in her life, she walked into her “relationship” with Sam with her eyes wide open and Sam can’t be blamed for the fallout when she changes her mind.
And when he breaks up with her, it is done very tenderly and sweetly with Sam simply reconfirming the grounds on which they entered into whatever it was they had and his reluctance to move beyond that.
Jess for her part, though sad, handles it like any mature person would and accepts the answer she most likely knew was coming anyway.
Well done scriptwriters of New Girl. I am mightily impressed with your restraint and respect for the characters you have nurtured.
You also managed to give poor old Winston (Lamorne Morris) something to do beyond the odd quirky remark which is quite a feat since of the four main characters in the ensemble, he is the most problematic with no clear story arc in play at the moment.
Yes he has been dating the gorgeous Shelby (Kali Hawk) but let’s be honest it was hardly a relationship that was lighting up the screen, or causing us to invest too much in its future.
Thankfully creator and showrunner Elizabeth Merewether and gang agreed and the relationship was given its marching orders.
But not before some very funny scenes, most notably Shelby’s frustration at no one quite getting her costume. She was decked out as a regal monarch with all sorts of cat and dog plush toys attached to it.
What was she? “Reigning cats and dogs”! Get it? I am sure, like me, you did, but many of the people at the Halloween party didn’t and it was amusing watching Shelby trying to explain time and again what she was.
Winston was a key part of this chorus of naysayers, and it was when they were halfway through the haunted house, in a blood splattered operating theatre with a “nurse” ready to frighten with gore, but ill-equipped to say anything helpful to a bickering couple, that this issue became the straw that broke the relationship’s back.
But again rather than sensationalise the break up for cheap comic effect, the writers wisely erred on a simple sad mutual acknowledgement that the relationship wasn’t working and that it was best they go their separate ways.
It was beautifully handled and hopefully frees Winston up for some character arc that will use him to full effect. I think he has a lot of potential and I am keen to see him take more of a major role in the show.
Of course that’s not a problem for Schmidt (Max Greenfield), the douchebag with a heart of gold, who eats up just about every scene he is in.
That is in large part because Max Greenfield is such a talented actor.
He is able to take a character who in lesser hands would be unlikeable to the point of viewers wanting to throw hard pointy objects at the television screen, and renders him as a somewhat likeable if misguided soul.
In this episode, dressed as Abraham Lincoln, before handing across that costume to Robby to use and becoming a Magic Mike stripper (he has the moves for it, trust me!) in order to restore the peace between he and Cece, his ongoing pursuit of Cece, despite their end of season 1 break up is gleefully exploited to glorious comic effect.
While he knows in his head that Cece isn’t his girlfriend anymore – you could argue she never really was with the gulf between them just too wide for a long term relationship to go the distance – his heart keeps telling him otherwise.
All of which leads him to make a complete goose of himself through the night, never leaving Robby and Cece alone and even trying to head butt Robby at one point which is easily thwarted by the bigger, beefier new boyfriend.
Thankfully Robby calls him on his idiotic behaviour, and Cece and he have a much needed heart to heart, he backs off and leaves them be, a much needed injection of emotional maturity in a character who otherwise would simply be the clown prince of cartoon-like behaviour.
But New Girl doesn’t rely on those sorts of clumsy comic tropes, and Schmidt is handed back some sort of emotional dignity and allowed to act like a normal person would, which is mighty refreshing.
And what of poor old Nick?
Well he initially seems to be doing rather nicely thank you.
Old college object of love/lust, Amelia comes to town, gets in touch and Nick, who freely admits that he fell in love with her the moment he saw her, but was too afraid to make a move back in the day, quickly falls into bed with her, and then unexpectedly ends up in a relationship of sorts with the slightly batty Amelia.
It’s all very fast.
Too fast in fact for Nick, who suddenly realises that he had held on to a projected image of Amelia that simply wasn’t accurate and now he has her, he doesn’t want her.
It doesn’t help matters of course that Amelia springs a few screws loose and starts acting like she and Nick are but a few floral bouquets from the altar.
Of course, in the end it all goes nowhere but not before Nick acts like a bit of prat and hurts Amelia who it turns out isn’t quite as nutty as she seemed.
So really not much of a night for anyone really.
While everyone emerged relatively unscathed, there was still heartbreak and not a little indignity handed out to just about everyone, embarrassing costumes or no.
It nicely sets everyone up though for a whole lot of change to come their way and my money is on Schmidt to take up stripping as a profession before the middle of the season.
Nah, not really, but hey wouldn’t that be fun?