His appearance also allows the series to return to the
well-worn fighting between Nick and Jess (who care about eachother deeply but whose
world views don’t really mesh well together). Jess and Nick are polar
opposites. Nick is cynical, grouchy, and quick to judge. Jess is hopeful,
wide-eyed, and optimistic: she tries to see the best in people. When put
together, the clashing of their world views often brings out the best in New Girl. Nick is mistrustful of his dad
with a conman past, but Jess wants to give him the benefit of the doubt. Well,
Nick’s not wrong; his dad sees how easy it will be to swindle Jess who is just
a tad too trusting of people. We saw this before in “The Landlord” where Jess
kept denying Nick’s claims that their landlord was hitting on Jess and doing
favors so she’d sleep with him. Nick was right then and he’s right now. And as
where last time that led dangerously close to an awkward threeway, Nick is
pushed to make a trade where he’s attempting to sell a horse to mobsters
(apparently horse semen is big over in India – Um, yea, don’t ask). In a great
callback, his inability to not sweat when he lies blows the whole deal. Jess is
left deeply unnerved by the whole situation. She put her trust in this guy, and
he let her down. She (and we) finally get a sense of why Nick is as damaged and
mistrusting as he is. It’s surprising he’s not any worse than he is.
While Nick and Jess are clashing over Nick’s dad, Schmidt and
Robbie (Cece’s most recent ex-boyfriend) are teaming up to find a way to break
up Cece’s date arranged by her mother. They both want her back, and they scheme
to find a way to ruin the whole thing. When they show up at her apartment,
finding her family and her suitor’s family, they embarrass her and themselves.
Even worse when Robbie unintentionally racistly yells, “White guy power!”
Schmidt and Cece seem destined to end up together (so do Nick and Jess – which makes
the paralleling of these stories interesting), and this sort of thing does not
bode well for Schmidt getting back with her. It’s totally in character though;
Schmidt would do something idiotic like this to try to win her back, and it
probably would end miserably.
Nick’s dad and Cece really aren’t what the stories are about
though. They’re there as conversation starters between our
characters. The shared feelings of Schmidt and Robbie creates an unexpected
bond, while the arrival of Nick’s dad serves to test Nick and Jess’s relationship (while also highlighting who Nick is).
While its fairly obvious from the start that Nick’s dad is every bit as bad as
he makes him out to be and Schmidt’s plans are of course going to end poorly,
it’s still charming and heartfelt and very funny, and the show gets more out of it than most series do.
Stray Observations:
-A new game from New Girl: “What’s in the Cup?” – Nick can’t
figure it out while his dad can.
-“Who’s going to mess with a guy wearing a hat that says ‘girls
go bills’? … Everyone... Everyone did” – Winston is underutilized once again,
but gets off some of the episodes funniest lines.
-“…That’s why they called him ‘little penis’”
-“He looks like Hilary Swank mixed with a small wet puppy”
-“Do you think she saw me?” “Well, you weren't wearing a hat”
-“How do you eat an elephant?” “With chopsticks” “No” “In a
taco” “…One bite at a time”
-“There’s more to A Father’s Love than semen”
-“I’d be Brad Pitt … You’d be the crafty Asian fellow who
did the crazy flips”
-“This is my first late nigh parking lot horse deal”
-“If you’re going to work on my sink, at least put goggles on.
Your eyes are twice the size of normal eyes”
-Many hilarious jokes in Schmidt and Robbie’s ideas to win
back Cece. My favorite: “We could get a Trojan Horse” “In this economy?”
Grade: B
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