This week’s episode picks up shortly after the last one left off — it appears that Schmidt and Cece’s one-night stand has turned into a series of hookups, much to Cece’s shock and Schmidt’s unending adoration (“You were like a canoe in that body river,” he says after their third night together). However, the pair have decided to keep their meet-ups a secret, even from best friend Jess — instead, Cece sneaks out of the loft every morning, each time promising that their hookups are over.
Meanwhile, we finally get a look into Jess’s middle school classroom, where her students are preparing for a science fair. After one student reveals that he’s being bullied in the cafeteria, Jess decides to fix the problem in the only way she knows how—through song. After she forces the boy to sing a duet with her (focusing on how smelly he is), one of her students uploads a parody video of the song to YouTube, but instead of mocking the student, the video relentlessly skewers Jess. She discovers that the perpetrator of this cyberbullying incident is one of her star students, a young girl who is making a robot arm for the upcoming fair.
One of the concepts that the show has continued to highlight is what happens when a person who despises confrontation is forced to do just that. Jess is continuously pushed into situations where she is forced to confront an adversary, and each situation ends the same: She starts out trying to open a dialogue and be diplomatic, but when that fails, she throws a temper tantrum and eventually gets her way. We’ve seen this with her ex, with Julia and now with this middle school girl. This time is no different. Jess snaps the girl’s robot arm in anger, calls on Winston who arrives to fix it with a pair of scissors (again, this is sorely-underutilized Winston’s only storyline, and it centers around a pair of scissors), the arm backfires during the science fair, and after a confrontation with the girl’s parents, she and Jess make up through — did you guess? — a song. While these situations are funny, it would be nice to see a little character development.
Meanwhile, Nick’s girlfriend Julia sends him a cactus from her business trip to China, which sends him into a completely out-of-the-blue tailspin. The cactus, he says, is her way of breaking up with him. He assumes she doesn’t trust him with a real plant, and therefore must not trust him with their relationship. In a moment of panic, he shatters the pot and cactus moments after getting it, prompting a freakout in which he first tries to tape the cactus back together and second leaves a series of drunken voicemails to Julia, culminating in him watering the cactus relentlessly — with beer. Upon returning from China, Julia informs Nick that while the cactus was never meant as a breakup gesture, but his obsessive voicemails have sufficiently scared her away and she wants out. While their relationship was obviously not going to be a permanent fixture on the show, I’ll miss the dry humor and sense of grounded-ness Lizzy Caplan brought to the ensemble.
After a bout of creepy positivity completely uncharacteristic of Nick (which is further observed at the science fair: “Hello, friends. I just discovered what’s inside a pumpkin — apparently a lot.”), he dissolves into a sobbing puddle on his bed, prompting Jess to deliver a “real” plant to him, declaring that even though they’re both weird and prone to freakouts, it’s okay — that’s who they are. With Julia gone, this leaves the door for Jess and Nick to act on the feelings that the show has been hinting that they have for each other all season long.
The episode ends with Cece finally appearing to meet Schmidt in a public place, where they agree to keep their fling going, but to keep it a secret from the people they know. It’s a little Monica and Chandler in Friends, but the two have such great chemistry together and such distinct characters that I’m left hoping the show goes the Friends route and sticks them together for good.
Highlights:
“Middle school girls will literally scalp you. I spent most of 6th grade with a bald spot.” — Jess on bullying.
“I’m like a sexual snowflake—each night with me is a unique experience.” — Schmidt on the experience he provides with the ladies.
“I’m going to live up there some day” — Winston in a fascinated reference to the moon, which Schmidt uses to distract him to sneak Cece into the loft.
“Who do I speak to re: getting something removed from the Internet?” — Jess attempting to get on the phone with YouTube in order to have her parody video deleted.