New Girl
Episode 11: Santa
By: Carlos Uribe
New Girl is a show about Jess and her three best friends (Winston,
Nick, and Schmidt)
Spoilers
Ahoy!
It's
Christmas season which means going to Christmas parties. Since the
characters are going to be visiting their families for the holiday,
they decide to go as many parties as possible for just one night.
Jess is the one who suggests they do this because she doesn't want to
spend the night by herself with the urge to call Sam. It just so
happens that the first party they show up to is one where Sam is
currently attending. Jess tries her best to avoid him by fleeing the
party. It comes as a big surprise when he turns up at the second
party and Jess isn't able to escape him so easily. This is because
Sam believes he has made a mistake and he's trying to win her back.
He had attended the first party solely because he knew that Jess was
going to be there. He followed her to the second party to prove that
he has changed his mind about her. He's not able to convince her
because she doesn't believe him. She had opened her heart up to him
and he had crushed it. It isn't until after the third party they go
to that she gets pulled over by a cop that resembles a black Santa
Clause. When this cop tells her that sometimes people just tell the
truth, it gives Jess the ability to trust Sam that he's being honest
when he states that he's willing to be in a serious relationship with
her. Jess rushes back to the hospital and forces her way in. The two
are back together and it looks like they're going to be taking it
more seriously than last time. This is an interesting development for
the series to take. The main plot is good and it makes sense that
Jess wouldn't want to go back to a guy that had crushed her heart. It
manages to remain funny. The biggest strength of the episode is that
this plot was dominant throughout the episode but it was only allowed
to overshadow what was happening with the rest of the characters
until the very end.
One
of the two reasons this works is because of Nick's plot with Angie.
Angie is a stripper who isn't afraid of anything. Nick is a character
who is terrified of life. He's afraid of putting himself out there
and participating. It's become a character trait that this show has
been challenging throughout the season. It should come as no surprise
that the major conflict that comes up between them is their different
nature. Nick is trying to prove that he can handle Angie by
pretending that he's not bothered with doing risky behavior in
public. This all backfires on him when they try to have sex in the
sleigh and people catch them. Angie isn't ashamed as her first
response is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Nick's response is to
flee and scream about how this is his nightmare. They are both
attracting attention towards each other but for different reasons.
Angie because she's trying to make the situation better and Nick
because he's trying to make it disappear. That entire sequence does
lead to a fight scene but Nick is able to apologize when he admits
that he's simply afraid of her. He faces his fear by doing a public
“sexy” dance before failing at giving her a lap dance. The two
end up being on a good state where they are better able to understand
each other. This is all resolved before Jess gets pulled over in the
car and her problems take over the episode. Since the entire plot was
arced, without being rushed, before that happened then it allowed the
show to get away with it. The plot itself was nice as it highlighted
the differences between Angie and Nick while showing how much
character growth he has gone through in order to be with her. It's
hard to imagine him trying to give anyone a lap dance from when we
first met him. That's really Angie's purpose as a character: to draw
Nick out of his comfort zone and therefore making him grow further.
The
other reason is Cece and Schmidt. Schmidt has put himself out there
by telling Cece that he loved her and she turned him down. Schmidt
might have grown up enough to realize what love is but he hasn't
matured to the point where he takes this break-up as an adult. He
acts like he can barely stand to be around Cece. When Cece tries to
give him a gift, he goes as far as to give it to someone else without
opening it while she's still right there. This action goes a bit far
but he reveals at the end of the episode that he actually didn't give
it away. He's wearing the bracelet that she had given him. He's just
trying to punish her for breaking his heart. They do manage to
resolve their differences and the two go back to being friends. Once
again, this is all properly arced and resolved by the time that Jess
gets pulled over by the cop. This plot not only allows them to be
friendly for the sake of future episodes but it does so in a funny
way. It almost skirts the line into making Schmidt unlikeable when he
pretends to give away his present but they manage to pull it back at
the very end. Overall, the two might not be back together but at
least they're back to being friendly.
Santa
is a great Christmas episode of New Girl. It has a structure where it
follows the three parties they go to. The opening structure sets up
this dilemma but it also plants the idea for most of the plot arcs.
Jess references how she doesn't want to call Sam, Winston gets a
cranberry stuck in his ear, and Nick brings up his stripper
girlfriend and how he's cool with it. The first party is where the
plots are largely introduced: Jess sees Sam and Angie proposes to
have sex in the middle of the party with Nick. The second party is
where Sam tells Jess what he wants while Nick and Angie do try to
have sex but then have a fight as a result of it. Winston's plot is
resolved at this point. The third party is where Nick and Jess talk
about their issues before Nick resolves his. Schmidt's plot arc
likewise goes from the first party to the third party. This party
structure allows the plots of all characters to properly develop
without rushing them and it's what helps the episode completely focus
on Jess at the end. The episode is funny, it's sweet, and it ends
this year on a strong note.
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