New Girl Season 1-05 ‘Cece Crashes’ Recap

Cece (Hannah Simone) has had a fight with her boyfriend, DJ Diabetes, and comes to stay with Jess (Zooey Deschanel) and the guys for a few days. That’s the inciting incident of “Cece Crashes” the fifth episode of the hit series New Girl.

Cece’s visit sets off a pair of competing stories. First, Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Winston (Lamorne Morris) begin competing for Cece’s attention with Schmidt continuously humiliating himself with his classic moves, including his go to move, taking off his shirt and leaving it off. For his part, Winston can’t decide if he’s more interested in humbling Schmidt or actually making a play for Cece.

The other more important story involves Cece planting the idea in Jess’s mind that Nick (Jake M. Johnson) is falling for her. Jess knows that if this is true it will mess up the entire living situation. That said, Cece has no other evidence than the way Nick says Jess’s name and a ridiculous notion about the way a man points his feet toward a woman he’s attracted to.

Both stories are a little weak but Jess’s attempt to keep Nick’s feet from pointing at her was a delightful bit of awkward physical humor. Just as good was Jess’s freak out in the car and her walk back to the apartment. It’s clear that sitcom convention calls for Jess and Nick to fall for each other eventually. The key to making it work is making sure the journey is fun and “Cece Crashes” indicates good things.

Random notes:

• I said it last week about Winston and I will say it again this week; he needs more time with Jess. The two have had so little story time together that Winston feels like he’s wandered in from a different show.
• Schmidt is growing a little too broad. New Girl writers need to reign him in just a little, bring back his good guy side a bit and remind us why we liked him in the first two episodes.
• Jake M. Johnson continues to deliver one of the most unique sitcom performances currently on TV. Johnson’s extremely laid back style is very anti-sitcom. The stories are just happening to him as opposed to him driving the story. It’s a very natural style and I find Nick to be as interesting and funny as Jess is quirky and cute.
• For the record, a cat raised by birds is uniquely terrifying.