The next morning, there’s an excellent moment where Nick, Schmidt, and Winston rouse a severely hungover Jess with a poor rendition of “I Believe I Can Fly.” In one of Schmidt’s rare common sense moments, he questions Nick’s efforts to protect her “by making her you.” The idea of this gives Nick pause as to his “cool kid” advice, but Jess has already been lured to the dark side with access to the cool teachers’ fun mug cabinet (“You will never have to drink out of a paper cup again.”)
Jess decides to help the cliquey teachers break into Principal Fosters’ backyard and sticking their butts in his jacuzzi. Although Nick unsuccessfully tries to stop Jess from breaking and entering, he ends up “rescuing” (i.e., getting caught with) her at the break-in: “I’m your old man, and if you’re gonna do something that’s obviously very stupid I’m gonna do it with you,” That’s as romantic and responsible as Nick Miller gets.
Winston: Winston decides to ask Daisy to be his girlfriend, assuming they’ve reached an important stage in their relationship since she’s asked Winston to take care of her cat, Ferguson. Daisy readily agrees, but Winston finds tell-tale signs (notably a size fourteen sneaker) that someone else is in her apartment.
Winston’s trademark extreme absurdity kicks in while he agonizes over Daisy’s two-timing. When Nick (in a turn of un-Nick-like advice, which adds to a pattern of the guys giving good advice while screwing up their own lives) tells him to break up with Daisy, Winston absurdly decides that the best course of action is to kill off Ferguson in revenge, which results in my favorite exchange of the episode.
Winston: “An eye for an eye, a cat for a cat.”
Nick: “What’s the other cat, Winston?”
Winston (tearing up): “My heart.”
In the end, Winston decides that he and Ferguson deserve more, so he breaks up with Daisy and keeps the cat.
Overall, this episode was a plus in showing a bit more of Winston’s love life–he doesn’t get as many moments to show humanity within his absurdity as the other characters do. And while things between Nick and Jess seem steadier, I’m still not convinced they should stay together. (So shoot me.)
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