Best Parent Trap Since Parent Trap

New Girl, S02E08

Jess' parents joined her and her friends for Thanksgiving, and she tried one last time to get them back together.  Schmidt fought with his cousin in a manly competition made by Winston for the right to be the true "Schmidt."

Um, I feel like this episode just kept getting better and better.  I had an easy time ignoring what Schmidt and cousin were doing for the most part because Jess' scheme and Nick's role in it was just so wonderfully funny.  I didn't expect that I was going to love the story of Jess' parents making their first appearance but Jamie Lee Curtis and Rob Reiner completely drew me in and had me wishing they could be around for every holiday.  My favorite moment with her parents was when there was a flashback of one of Jess' many attempts to parent trap her parents.  She made them think she was in danger so she could lock them in a room with romantic music.  I loved Bob's response:

Oh, damn it, Jess, that’s the second time today.

I cannot believe that she tried that many times to get her parents back together and was still trying to do so as a grown woman.  It was adorably naive, but not at all out of character for Jess.  It's amazing that her parents haven't given up listening to anything she says when she's been scheming for so long.  I would have always assumed that Jess was doing another parent trap any time both of her parents were involved in anything.

Probably my favorite thing in this story was that Nick revealed that he was a younger version of Jess' dad.  I laughed when she hinted that they would get along:

Nick, you’re gonna love my dad so much.  He’s so unhappy.

But I had no idea that when Bob and Nick were sitting on the couch talking sports that it would be like looking at Nick's future.  Their similarity wasn't just funny, but it also sort of gave another reason why Jess probably likes Nick in the first place.  It's not uncommon for girls to sort of like a man that reminds them of their father a little bit, and Nick certainly fits that category.

There was another indication that Nick probably likes Jess more than he even knows because Nick was getting crazily attracted to Joan within just a few minutes of pretending to flirt with her.  When Nick couldn't stop himself from sort of hitting on Jess' mother, I was laughing so hard.  It was definitely my second favorite part of the story.  It was a little weird, but I easily got past it thinking that Nick likes that kind of woman, which is roughly the same kind of woman that Jess is.  Plus, it was just cute to see him sort of falling for an older lady.  If I didn't like Jess the best, I would have said that Nick should have gone for Joan.

Lastly, I like that they poked a little fun at Twilight.  I mean, Nick basically created the same story without having any idea that it had already been made with vampires.  So to me, that doesn't say much about the complexity of Twilight if a moron like Nick can write the same thing.  I just love that Bob was there to tell him that his story had already been done (and it's so like Nick to not have heard of Twilight at all, but weird that he would enjoy writing such a romantic story).

The Schmidt versus Schmidt story was kind of dumb, but it had its good moments.  All of those were about Winston.  It was kinda funny that the last battle came down to kissing Winston, but I liked best when Winston had them doing a wheelbarrow:

[Cousin] All day. I can do this all day, Winston.
[Schmidt] I got all day, too!
[Winston] Hey, how long can you do this for?
[Cousin] I can do this all day!
[Schmidt] Yeah, I got all day, too!
[Cousin] Winston!
[Winston] Why are you yelling at me?

I don't know why but when they were yelling his name is was really funny.  Later, I liked how when emotions were bubbling over with Jess thinking her parent trap had finally worked when it hadn't and all the other issues at the table, Winston was the only one concentrating on the untouched dinner:

When can we start eating?

And somehow that was just as funny as when he very softly called out:

Turkey.

I just liked that he was so calmly, but sadly calling out to the food that Jess was angrily tossing into the sink.  It was kinda cute.


I don't think I would have changed anything in this episode--it's definitely in my list of favorites of all time.  It's certainly one of the best Thanksgiving stories that I've seen on TV lately.  I like that there was some hints of why Jess and Nick would make a great couple as well as plenty of laughs.  There was little food shown, but I don't mind that at all.  Seeing this sort of makes me hate the holidays a little less.