Monday, May 20, 2013

New Girl

New Girl
Episode 25: Elaine's Big Day
The Season Finale
By: Carlos Uribe

New Girl is a show about Jess and her three best friends (Winston, Nick, and Schmidt)

Spoilers Ahoy!

There are three recurring plot threads that basically converge in this episode to end the season. The first is Winston's love of pranks. It's been a nice running gag that Winston loves to pull a good prank but he's pretty bad at coming up with them. This culminates this week when it's decided that the guys are going to prank Cece's wedding because she's not committed to spending the rest of her life with Shivrang. Winston is a bit resistant to join in on the pranking because he's not very good at it but Schmidt convinces him to join. The two of them basically come up with three phases. The first is when Schmidt uses an airhorn to make the white horse that Shivrang rides into the wedding run away. The second is when Shchmit and Winston hijack the wedding's music with inappropriate music to the event. They even hijack the controls to make it impossible to go back to the original music. These two phases are Schmidt's plan but the third goes to Winston. Winston is a bit surprised that the guys actually went along with his plan but that's largely because Nick isn't aware of it. The two go into the airducts when Nick finds out that the prank is to throw an angry badger into a priest. Once again, Winston goes too far in his pranking ideas. Nick tries to salvage the plan but they accidentally let the badger lose while they're in the air ducts. This is until Jess goes in to the air ducts to apologize to Nick and most of the characters cause the ceiling to collapse right on top of where the wedding ceremony is being performed. Nobody gets hurt and the wedding is ruined but Cece is actually happy because she finally admits that she's in love with someone else. Shivrand is relieved because he's been in love with an American girl this whole time and this pronouncement entitles him to finally be with her. It was a great way to use Winston's recurring pranking running gag to create the hilarious comedic climax for the finale.


A major plot thread this season for Schmidt is his feelings for Cece. He had been in love with her and it took him a while to accept she was going to marry someone else. He's now dating Elizabeth but he still has feelings for Cece. He might claim that he tried to ruin Cece's weddings because he realized she didn't want to go through with it but there's no doubt that it's really because he has yet to get over her. Elizabeth is a nice foil for Schmidt as she forces him to be a better human being but it's hard to believe he's actually in love with her even if he doesn't realize it himself. He succeeds in his plan in stopping the marriage from going forward but he finds himself in an impossible situation. Cece admits that the other person she was talking about is Schmidt. The big problem is that Elizabeth knows this but she's still with Schmidt. The two confront him and demand that he picks one of them. He freaks out because he doesn't know what to do. He's in love with Cece and he's been trying to win her back but he's currently in a relationship that he's happy with. He might be in love with Elizabeth but he still has feelings for his girlfriend. He finally gets Cece but he's not in a position to immediately accept her. His solution isn't to pick one of them but to run away. It makes sense that he would flee from this tough choice as it helps the show drag out who he's going to pick into the next season. Winston is terrible at pranking but it doesn't leave the viewers with any dangling plot threads. Schmidt having to chose between Cece and Elizabeth definably does and would have been enough to make me want to tune in for the next season. Making matters more complicated is I'm not sure who I want him to pick. I think Schmidt and Cece simply belong together but I've found myself really liking Schmidt and Elizabeth almost as much.

Schmidt might not know who he's going to be with but Nick and Jess know that they're going to give each other a shot. It basically begins with Jess trying to assure Nick that she doesn't see him in the same way as her father does. This makes sense but Schmidt brings up a great point. In rejecting that Nick is an immature bartender who has yet to have his life figured out, she's not really loving Nick for who he is. When she finds out that his CD is being used to hijack the wedding's music, Jess automatically assumes that Nick is helping the guys prank the wedding. He hadn't been as he's actually been trying to stop them. That is until Jess basically thinks he hasn't changed at all and that he's childish. Nick changes his tune by joining in on the pranking. When Jess finds out the truth, she tries to apologize to Nick and the two try to talk about their feelings. It's rough going and the two actually split up for a little bit. The two are scared and Jess' fear that being with him might be a mistake seems like it might keep them apart. That is until the two get the courage to admit that it might be a mistake but it's one their willing to make. The two kiss and basically drive into the sunset. It's a pretty great way to end the second half of this season as their sexual attraction has basically dominated this show's recent episodes. This is actually a good thing as it has allowed New Girl to reach new heights comedic and otherwise. It'll be interesting to see how their relationship develops over the next season especially since doubts that this is going to work linger.

Elaine's Big Day is a pretty good season finale of New Girl. It takes all of the recurring plot threads of each character (Winston's pranks, Schmidt's relationship drama, Nick and Jess sexual attraction) and uses each of them to create a cohesive and tight narrative. The episode is simply hilarious and was basically the perfect finale to a really great second season. New Girl is quickly solidifying itself as one of television's best comedies.

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