New Girl: “Keaton” – Recap

This week’s episode of “New Girl” was all about Schmidt, and seemed to put to bed once and for all his wound-licking after being, well, Schmidt.

Jess has plans to throw a Halloween party in the loft, but is reluctant to have the cold cut binge-eating Schmidt ruin the festive mood. Schmidt insists on attending the party in his depressing state, so Nick and Winston wonder if it’s time for Schmidt to get a letter from an old friend–Michael Keaton.

Of course, it’s not the real Michael Keaton–Mrs. Schmidt began wrote a fake letter to seven-year-old Schmidt, pretending to be Keaton, to help Schmidt cope with his parents’ divorce. Schmidt wrote back, describing more of his problems. Mrs. Schmidt’s ruse continued until college, when she passed the Keaton-writing mantle onto Nick. As far as Schmidt knows, he’s getting motivation to deal with his deepest problems from the “Batman” actor for years. While Nick feels bad for lying to Schmidt and vows not to pretend to be Keaton again, Jess gets an idea.

Later, Jess goes over to find a completely disheveled Cece surrounded by bottles and cans–Cece’s been partying and hitting the bottle a lot lately, likely due to her heartbreak over Schmidt’s betrayal. Jess begs Cece to come to the party, saying “What if I could promise you that Schmidt wouldn’t be there?”

A gleeful Schmidt changes his mind about attending the Halloween party after hearing from “a very special friend,” and Jess confesses to Nick and Winston that she’s convinced Schmidt to leave the house by pretending to be Keaton, and Winston hilariously exclaims “Jessica Damn Day!” Nick warns Jess that the fragile Schmidt will figure out his whole life is a lie, and so Jess panics, e-mailing that Keaton’s gone on vacation. “Keaton’s” abandonment send Schmidt back into a spiral, where he believes he’ll “always just be the fat boy who eats fat boy cheese.”