With Schmidt There Is Only Down, No Up

New Girl, S01E16

This week Jess decides to use her magical wand to fix Schmidt who is too high-strung, but mostly because he refuses to let her keep a hatch she found on the street. Unfortunately, not only does he become way too relaxed, their home becomes a pigsty instantly without Schmidt's care.  Winston and Nick also squabble over money owed between them (though the scales seem more tipped toward Nick).

If only Jess didn't bring in that hatch, Schmidt wouldn't have been set off, and Jess wouldn't have felt like she needed to change him (Nick and Winston later tell her that Schmidt only gets worse the more you try to repair his bad habits).  However, that random piece of furniture did allow Schmidt to have a good line:

Pine has no place in this loft.  It's the wood of poor people and outhouses.

Again, we see that Jess' good intentions bring about disaster.  I do like that any time she aims to make the world a little better, things are almost guaranteed to go to shit.  I guess I never noticed how nice their place was for a three-man loft until Schmidt became a sort of bongo-playing beach hippie.  Not only does he keep their place looking good, he apparently provides over services for his friends that are revealed in this episode.  Nick lists one of best services Schmidt provides:

I need you to make fun of me when I call a panini a "hot sandwich."  How am I ever gonna learn?

This scene and others in this episode in particular remind me that Nick is such a hopeless guy.  If he didn't have friends like Schmidt and Winston, he would probably be even more socially awkward than he already is.  And he is quite there already.  He seems normal until you take a good look at him (like how he doesn't carry a wallet--just a plastic bag).

 Nick also had some good lines when he was talking to Jess about her desire to become part of their family:

What family?  These clowns?

After he officially makes her a member, Jess says "aww" and Nick responds:

Yeah, we don't "aww" in this family.

 Concerning the fight between Nick and Winston, I thought their tension wasn't too bad until they went grocery shopping.  That was a great scene.  It seems that Schmidt buys all their food too (Nick was later seen in the apartment starving and unable to cook anything beyond frozen food).  I loved that when they realized that they would not be able to afford everything they wanted, they would not get out of the checkout line and just threw the extra items in places like the magazine rack and beverage cooler.  How ghetto are they??  And of course, Nick and Winston start slapping each other, to add to the hilarity.  I was kind of worried they might get more violent (since they both look like the type that could beat the crap out of someone), but I guess deep down they still realized they were friends and held back.

I liked that this episode uncovered a little of why Schmidt is crazy and also why he needs to stay the way he is.  I guess if you were looking for a moral, you might learn that you should accept your friends for who they are and appreciate their good qualities.  Schmidt may be kind of gross (when it comes to sexual things) and OCD, but no one can say he doesn't take care of his friends.  It was interesting to see a different, easy-going side of him, but overall the original Schmidt is the best of all.