Nick Moves...To The Desert

New Girl, S01E24

In the finale, Nick seemed set on moving out, despite Jess' attempts to make him stay.  However, when he was driving to Caroline's apartment, he passed it and drove out to the desert and got himself and his friends stranded there after throwing away his keys.  Jess later came with Cece and also seemed to throw away her keys.  They all spent the night there where Jess and Nick were cornered by a coyote, Schmidt broke off things with Cece, and Winston freaked out about the darkness and werewolf attacks.  By the morning, Jess had accepted Nick's choice to move out and stopped pretending that she lost her keys.  Nick finally made it to Caroline's, but he moved back to the loft with the others before the day was through.

I was happy to see Jess fighting for Nick to stay in a pretty aggressive way.  It was great when she was trying to intimidate the guy who would take Nick's place (played by Thomas Lennon), but Winston and Schmidt weren't about to let her get her way.  She tried her best to chip away at the confidence that Nick had that he was doing the right thing until the very last second that he had packed up all his stuff.  I thought she hadn't gotten to him at all until Nick flipped his manic switch on and drove the moving van into the middle of nowhere and tossed away his keys.

The best thing that happened while the gang was stuck out in the desert was easily Winston's freakout.  I had no idea he was so afraid of the dark and vicious animals.  I was laughing so hard when Jess came to rescue them to only "throw" away her keys just like Nick had and Winston lost it:

No!! Come on!! People, just...please listen to me. Stop throwing your damn keys! The werewolves come out at night, man... I don't want nobody to eat me! I got thick thighs, I got a fat ass!

He really was acting like they were going to die out there.  For someone who could walk around with a hideous piercing like it wasn't anything, it's amazing how being trapped out in wilderness with his friends (and enough shelter from Nick's stuff) that he would simply lose it.  I would have probably wanted to hurt both Nick and Jess, but I wouldn't have started talking about werewolves killing them.  Winston is so unexpectedly funny when he loses his cool (especially when I couldn't stand him at first).

Another great moment was when Nick and Jess were confronted by a coyote.   It wasn't just good because the two of them handled meeting a wild animal very badly (they kept shouting and making unnecessary roadrunner noises), but Jess and Nick had an opportunity to speak earnestly with each other about him leaving.  Jess was dead set against it until she listened to Schmidt wanting to let Cece go for her own good.  I really loved when she told him to do what made him happy and that she would be fine without him because she had met him already.  I also just loved how they were looking at each other.  Made me wish that they would have hugged, at least, with all that emotion going on.  Instead, Jess started to act like a coyote herself and scared off the real one.  Really?  Is that what scares coyotes?  Ridiculous.

The last best part was unquestionably when Nick returned home with nothing but his boombox and one of his mix tapes.  Everyone started dancing (pretty badly, but in a funny way) in their own rooms once they heard Nick's music.  Everyone except Winston who banged on the wall for Nick to turn it off.  I was really satisfied with this ending because it seemed to fit.  The balance of the loft was restored and Nick and Jess may not have become a couple yet, but you could still see a future for them.  I just wonder if they can get rid of that new roommate they let move in for a few hours so quickly.  Will we see him again or was he just a random appearance?

I'm also satisfied with Cece and Schmidt splitting up.  They both just need to do a little more growing.  Schmidt needs to be more confident that Cece actually cares for him and no one else and that their relationship is meant to be.  And maybe he can't do that on his own and needs Cece to make a grander gesture before he can stop saying things about not trusting her "taste in men" because she slept with him.  But I don't know why she would try to win him back after he said something like that and read a text on her phone.  They might just be one of those couples destined to break up and make up a million times.  Can't say that I'm eager to watch their journey to a real relationship.

I'm sad to see New Girl end its first season already.  I think they made a really good start and there was enough progress made by the characters that they have seemed to have grown from the first episode.  It would be cruel if FOX didn't pick it up for another season so we could see what else might happen to these crazy people who live together (and Cece).  Most of all, I gotta see if Jess and Nick ever get any closer to admitting how much they love each other.  We've watched their feelings for each other grow practically in every episode while they distracted themselves with other doomed relationships.  Next fall, I'll be ready to see how the gang can make me laugh again and how Nick and Jess will finally find a way to get together.

MM Needs That Memory Wipe Potion For David

Once Upon A Time, S01E16

Last Sunday, we returned to the story about Snow and Charming after Snow had taken the potion to make her forget her love.   I had forgotten for a moment about that story since we had taken a little detour with the other stories, but I see how they tie in a little to that story seeing as Grumpy and Red are friends of Snow that help her, but we didn't know much about them before.  While the love story between Charming and Snow is gaining momentum, it's a different story in Storybrooke where I'm wondering what it's going to take for MM to send David to the curb for real.  If I thought I didn't like David before, I had no idea how much I'd wish that it had been his heart in that box and not Kathyrn's (as much as I didn't care for her).

I'll start off with the story in the other world.  It was great to see Snow almost act like a stereotypical Disney-esq princess, complete with blue bird to sing with, until she started attacking it with a broom.  That was really unexpected.  I like her transformation from a sweet girl into an angry back-talking bitch.  Better than her attacking the bird was when she attacked all her dwarf friends during Jiminy Cricket's intervention.  I forget which of them complained that she broke his mug, but her response to that ("you're lucky it's not that mug you call a face"--damn) was so funny!  The only thing that lame intervention achieved besides laughter from me was Snow's determination to get deadly revenge against the Queen.

Overlooking that the Queen deserves to be killed, I like a version of Snow White where Snow is not just hiding all the time while taking care of little men in a house.  Why not have her take the preemptive strike and take care of the Queen herself before that witch tries to poison her with an apple??  I mean, the Queen did kill her father and drive her out of her home.  I say go get that bitch!  

However, Grumpy (who might need to be renamed "All Up In Others' Business") stops her reign of terror against unsuspecting knights in the woods and takes her to Rumpelstiltskin.  Oh, yeah, Ol' Rumple will be sure to cure her.  Not only can he not do anything to change her back to her old self, the goblin gives her a bow and arrow and a map so that she can murder the Queen while she's traveling.  Sweet.  He doesn't ask for anything because he is "invested in her future."  Um, I wonder if Snow would be more curious to know the details of that if she wasn't so blinded by her revenge.

It gets even better when Rumple has another guest later.  Charming nearly takes off his head to get information about Snow's wheareabouts.  Rumple gives him the information upon the condition that he give him his cloak.  Before he had taken a string of Snow's hair, so it was safe to assume that he wanted Charming's hair too.  Why, this wasn't clear until later he put the two hairs together and seemed to have created the potion for true love.  Huh.  What the hell is going to do with that?  He surely isn't going to use it on himself since he already booted his love out of his life and out of hers ultimately.  The thing that was really good about Charming showing up wasn't the mystery of Rumple collecting hairs, it was the sort of scolding he gave Charming for hurting Snow in the first place and forcing her to drink the potion.  As underhanded as the little man is (he's pretty short), he's damn right.  You can't blame Rumple too much for Snow wanting  end her pain over losing Charming.

It was pretty hilarious that Charming thought that he could simply just grab Snow and kiss her without even making her remember him and think that would break the spell.  I wouldn't have expected anything less of Snow when she punched him out.  However, it didn't really take very much (if you consider a serious wound nothing) for Charming to win her over.  He simply had to jump in the way of her arrow aimed at the Queen and declare that he would die for her.  Snow stupidly asks, "You would die for me?"  The man had a freaking arrow sticking out of his arm.  If he had leaped in a different way that damn arrow could have easily pierced an organ that would have killed him.  Come on now, Snow.  I also find it funny that they were having a makeout session after their true love kiss broke the spell (I was little more happy to see them reconnect than I had thought) while that arrow was still sticking out of him.  I wondered when the hell his wound was going to be important enough to take care of.

I didn't get to find this out since King George's men showed up (I thought they were the Queen's men at first) and took Charming away.  But I liked that it turned the tables and now Snow has to go save him.  Of course, now that she's not a bitch anymore, her dwarf friends are more than happy to help her out.  Thank goodness.  Snow is pretty brave, but I doubt she could do it on her own.

Now back to Storybrooke where MM is sinking deeper and deeper into the case of Kathryn's disappearance.  Through some questioning by Emma, which is observed by Mayor Bitch, we find out that the box with the heart in it is MM's jewelry box.  That's just too convenient for it not to be a setup.  And how dare the mayor suggest that the dark place she was sent to when the old sheriff humiliated her was the same as MM and David's situation.  Lady, please!  She further urged Emma to accept MM was a killer by saying such heartbreak and betrayal can make someone do unspeakable things.  Yeah, you would know, Mayor Bitch--you crushed a man's heart and killed him because he dumped you!  Ridiculous.  She was basically on a role of pointing the fingers at herself for setting up MM; she later tells Emma that MM had to have taken the jewelry box out to the bridge herself because there were no signs of a break-in.  Bitch, we all know you have a key to every damn thing in the whole town.

However, Emma had no idea about this and her investigation of their apartment only ended up revealing another item that could incriminate MM.  I just now realized that the mayor intentionally brought up the idea of a break-in to Emma so that she would purposely find that knife in the heating vent!  I can't believe I didn't notice that before.  That bitch is slick.  Thankfully, Henry steals Mayor Bitch's many keys and finds that one of them can indeed open their apartment.  I'm just worried that she'll notice the keys are missing before Henry can put them back, letting her know that Emma is on to her.

One of my favorite scenes in the Storybrooke world is when Mr. Gold appears out of nowhere to offer his lawyer services to MM.  Well, he is the devil, but with him handling her case, MM should get off with little problem.  The only problem will be her having to pay off the debt she owes to him.  However, I'm pretty sure that Mr. Gold is only concerned with knocking the Queen off her throne and establishing himself as the dominant power.  So perhaps he will be true to his word about only being "invested in her future."  If they have to have both him and his fairy tale counterpart say that, it's gotta be important.

You would think MM went through enough with all the evidence piling up against her and having to take help from the most suspicious and crooked man in town, but David came to the "rescue."  He thought he could help her by finding evidence of his own guilt in Kathyrn's death (which slightly redeemed him in my eyes a moment) by clearing up some of the blackouts he had recently.  Instead of being helpful, he only remembers a bit from his life as Charming when Snow declares she will kill the Queen.  He doesn't even take much time to consider if the memory is real or not and visits MM, not with hope, but with an obvious accusation that she murdered Kathryn.  David, are you really in love with MM or are you finding pleasure in betraying her at every opportunity?  For real.  What the hell??  MM has really gone beyond what any sane woman would for someone like him, defending his innocence, while he can't even manage to have a fraction of reciprocal faith.  You asshole!  You could have at least pretended you found out you were the killer and protected her!  Why not just take the blame when it's all your damn fault anyway??  Snow may have not needed that potion Rumple gave her, but MM sure as hell does.  I hope something happens that she hits her head or something and his face is wiped clean from her brain.

I'm worried, though, about MM flying off the handle now that David has seemed to give up on her.  Emma sure hasn't, but I feel like MM wasn't honest that she had faith in her, not just because she used that key she found to escape from her cell.  That key looks an awful lot like one of Mayor Bitch's, so I hope it's not another setup to show that she's fleeing out of guilt of her crime.  I wonder how Emma will react when she finds out that MM is gone?

In the next episode, I hope things will be a little better for MM even though it's not looking good for her at all.  David sure as hell better get his ass kicked or something of equal unpleasantness to punish him for his lack of faith.  I don't feel great about Emma aligning herself with Mr. Gold either, but at least it's better than her facing Mayor Bitch on her own.  She might have a chance to get that whore before she gets MM in line to be executed or something.  Also, since MM is free from the jail she best be out to get the mayor like Snow was out to get the Queen.  MM is way past due to take a vacation from her sweet and loving personality and be a vengeful warrior taking numbers as she kicks ass.