“New Girl” Season 4: Recap and Review

4×16, “Oregon.”

     Jess’s dad (Rob Reiner) is getting married (to Julie Berkman’s older sister, Ashley) in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. It would be all merriment and cheer and a lovely nuptial, if only Jess hadn’t been ignored by Ryan for over a week. Matters are made worse when he fails to show up for the wedding, leaving Jess heartbroken after having planned a tour of the city ending at her childhood home, which she decorated in Union-Jack style. Jess sobs into her mother’s arms (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Nick says what we all were thinking: “Ryan bailed and that’s a dick move and that’s the truth.”

     Cece is having an equally difficult time, as she’s made aware her childhood crush Jake Apex is set to attend the wedding. She’s all fumbled words and sweaty palms when she sees him, having a “full kid stroke” as she struggles to hold a conversation with him. When Jake reveals that he’s always had a crush on her, Cece reveals a secret of her own: she’s in love with someone who has a girlfriend. (Wonder who that could be …)

     After a fire-alarm altercation and a situation of lost rings, the wedding ends with a slow dance between Ashley and Mr. Day and a group reflection at “Crush Pond,” where Jess states that she ended her relationship with Ryan.

     Rating: 9/10

4×17, “Spiderhunt.”

     The unthinkable is happening: Fawn Moscato is visiting the loft. The not surprising is also happening: Nick only knows how to cook one thing, a mix-and-match blend of odd ingredients that he fondly calls “The Sauce,” and he decides whipping up a batch will help Schmidt impress Fawn. On the girls’ side, Cece reveals that she is hiding away from the loft so she can avoid Schmidt and mask her feelings for him, but Jess is beginning to think Cece is angry with her. That misunderstanding is heightened when Cece, after persuasion from Winston, agrees to attend the dinner party.

     While Nick is adding increasingly weird ingredients to an over-sized pot, Jess brushes a spider off of Schmidt, sending him into a fit of childlike terror. Thus commences the Spiderhunt! The gang is paired off into groups of two, one member being the “Jar Man” to capture the spider and the other being the “Smoosher” to, well, smoosh the spider. During such a hunt, Nick offhandedly mentions Cece’s relentless discussion about purchasing a popcorn machine and Cece is pressured into admitting  that she likes someone (but doesn’t name names) in the loft. One giant, tangled web – not unlike a spider’s – of miscommunication later and Jess is convinced that Nick and Cece are star-crossed lovers, forbidden to show their true feelings. The spider is finally spotted and Schmidt makes a valiant (but unsuccessful) effort to destroy it, but instead hits Coach’s laptop, sending every email draft he’d written to May. Unlikely hero Fawn Moscato eventually vanquishes the eight-legged fiend, enjoys Nick’s sauce, and even admits to liking Schmidt.

     Rating: 10/10

4×18, “Walk of Shame.”

     After one good hair-do and one raucous night at a guy named Bearclaw’s party, Cece and Jess endure a walk of shame from their worst nightmare involving a run-in with an ex-boyfriend (who turns out to be a party clown), crashing a child’s birthday party, drinking hose water, and one very inspirational pep talk.

     Back at the loft, Nick and Winston do their best to convince Coach to allow them to tag along to watch May’s cello performance at an art exhibit. Coach’s world and May’s world don’t seem to align just right, until the end of the episode when she learns the ESPN theme tune on her cello.

     Rating: 8/10

4×19, “The Right Thing.”

     Breaking news: Jessica Christopher Day has sent her first sext. Admittedly, it’s not all that risque, as she’s fully clothed with a bra on the outside of her top. High off the adrenaline of doing something so “daring,” Jess primps for her date with the man in question, a guy named Pete whom she met at the guy, but he never shows. Things go from iffy to awful when Jess learns Pete died after falling on a showroom floor. She does “the right thing” and attends Pete’s memorial with Coach and Winston who fawn over athlete JJ Watt, Pete’s supposed best friend. It quickly turns ugly when Pete’s girlfriend finds Jess’s sext on his cell phone. Yiiikes.

     Meanwhile, Schmidt is sweating it as he prepares for his mother’s visit, knowing he needs to ask her his bar mitzvah money, a total of $10,000, to invest in the purchase of 10% of the bar. The boys’ day is spent sending personalized thank-you cards to those who attended Schmidt’s bar mitzvah. After a trip to the nail salon and a meaningful conversation with Cece, whom she does not know (she refers to her as a “Mexican woman” who gave her an epiphany), Schmidt’s mother hopes to be less demanding of her son and agrees to give him the money he needs. At the bar during the episode’s end, plus Winston’s partner Ally joins the gang for a drink to celebrate the new investment.

     Rating: 9.5/10