'New Girl' Continues To Wade Through Complex Relationships In Season Premiere

Raina Deerwater ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Season 3 of New Girl ended in a place of heightened uncertainty in romantic relationships. The fourth season picks up in that same place, with “The Last Wedding.” Jess (Zooey Deschanel) and Nick (Jake M. Johnson) are exes and roommates who still clearly share affection for each other, while Schmidt has an intense longing for Cece. These are most definitely imperfect relationships, as we are all well aware.
However, the relationship that this season presents its viewers is not a crush or a couple. It is six friends who do not have their lives together, but have each other. As cheesy as it sounds, it cuts to the core of what New Girl has always been about. There may be unfortunate complications between Jess, Nick, Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Winston (Lamorne Morris), Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.) and Cece (Hannah Simone) but at the end of the day, they have each other.

At the start of the episode when the gang has a goal to each find a hook up at the last wedding of the summer, Jess dubs herself, Schmidt, Coach, Winston and Nick “The Sex Fist.” It’s a terrible name for five people trying to get laid, as everyone points out. The sentiment behind the double entendre holds true though. They are all in it together. This is proved throughout the episode, mostly by fan favorite Nick Miller. Nick even volunteers to be in a foursome with Schmidt and two girls, simply because that is what Schmidt needs at that moment. (Unfortunately for everyone else, they didn’t go through with it.)
One of the more touching moments of the episode is when Jess is discouraged when going after the cutie best man at the wedding (Veep’s Reid Scott) and she is trapped in a bathroom. Nick comes in and sits next to her on the toilet telling her to be herself and that any guy would be lucky to have her. It’s a sweet moment that makes us question if the show will or won’t do a will-they or won’t-they plot with Nick and Jess. Fans did not take their break-up last season very well, so the option of getting the two back together may be precariously in the works.

One of the major flaws of this episode, and of the series at large, is that there was just not enough Winston. He has a couple good physical gags, seeing as the police academy left him injured. Also the few lines he got throughout the episode were some of the biggest laughs. However New Girl can only improve with adding more usage of Winston.
As stated earlier, the strength of the episode was the ensemble element. The episode concluded with the six main characters ripping apart wedding invitations. It’s basically them reveling in the fact that they don’t have their lives together, but they have each other. New Girl has always thrived on the ragtag team of misfits element, and that is being brought back in full force here. Additionally, this episode was straight laugh-out-loud funny. When dealing with complex relationship issues, we often forget that New Girl is a comedy. “The Last Wedding” made sure that we did not forget this.