Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen Season 2, Episode 24 of Fox's "New Girl," titled "Winston's Birthday."
You gotta hand it to Nick and Jess -- as far as mornings after go, theirs is not so awkward. And that's saying something, given the awkward nature of their relationship (room friends!) and how awkward the two of them are about everything else. But then again, they haven't gotten out of bed yet.
Because as soon as they do -- or Nick does, rather, in an attempt to bring Jess breakfast in bed -- her father walks in. That's right: of all days, 'tis the morning after that Mr. Day, err, Bob, chooses to barge in unannounced on his daughter, seemingly for Cece's wedding the next day.
Just as a surprised (yet resourceful) Jess plans out their father-daughter day, she gets a call from a friend who wants to hook her up with a teaching job. Regrettably, she decides to head in for the interview and leave her dad alone with Nick.
Across town, Schmidt wakes up in Elizabeth's bed. He's all about his new body and forced feedback, but she insists that she likes him just the way he was in college. He tells her he admires her attitude, how she doesn't care what other people think. Before he leaves, they make plans for lunch.
At Cece's, wedding preps are full-on. She's exhausted with her entire extended family crammed into her place and all the last minute errands she has to run -- like picking up her wedding sari and getting her hands hennaed -- but Jess assures her she has it all covered and will be there to help out later. But when she arrives at the school she finds out it's no interview, it's actual subbing. Jess tries to take over the class but fails miserably, as the kids seem to take a page straight out of "Dangerous Minds."
Nick and Bob bond over beers on the roof. Bob inquires into Nick's love life and makes him very uncomfortable, so much so that Nick finds himself lying to him so he won't suspect a thing (the only thing Jess asked Nick before she left for school was for him to avoid telling her father about them). He resurrects tall, fat, bang-less Yolanda Winston for the scenario, and Bob is none the wiser.
Elizabeth shows up and surprises Schmidt at the office. She arrived early to their lunch date and decided to show herself upstairs. As one of Schmidt's hot co-workers stops by his cubicle and asks him who the girl with the frumpy shirt is (it's the T-shirt she wore the night they met in college), he pretends not to know Elizabeth. She storms out, understandably upset and tells him she doesn't need him in her life ("I'm not going to let you make me feel bad about myself") and doesn't care what he thinks.
Back at the school, Jess tries to make her way out to Cece's on her lunch break only to get caught up in boring chatter with the principal. Cece, meanwhile, wakes up from her post-henna nap only to discover the tattoo has transferred to her face. She calls up Jess, screaming, and Jess is torn between coming over to help out and heading over to the loft because her dad told her that he and Nick are talking about girls and she's scared Nick is going to spill the beans.
Beans indeed get spilled when, in the kitchen over sandwiches, Nick consults with Bob about Yolanda. Bob tells him he needs to figure out what he wants -- not just what she wants -- for their relationship to work. He tells Nick that any girl would be lucky to be with him and Nick, the dumb dud, reads it as a sign to come clean. He tells Bob the girl he slept with was Jess, and Bob freaks out.
Jess comes home just as Nick tries to face Bob. Her father tells her that he doesn't understand what she sees in Nick and adds that he's not good enough for his little girl ("a lazy, drunken cable thief"), just the way he wasn't good enough for her mother whom he's now divorced from. Nick takes offense and bolts. Jess, mid-wackiness, gets a text asking her to come back to school. In class, Jess uses all that frustration to overpower the kids. She tells them she's had a bad day and dispenses some valuable life advice: "Life's messy. It kicks you in the ass. [But] the messy parts are the best parts."
By dinnertime, Elizabeth keeps true to her word and goes out on a date. Schmidt shows up at the restaurant wearing an old sweatshirt she once got him ("Frogetaboutit") and asks her to dance. She's unwilling at first but he insists that he wants to be with her and isn't embarrassed by her anymore. They get their freak on.
At the loft, Bob insists on putting his air mattress in between Nick and Jess' rooms to keep them away from each other. As Jess is about to fall asleep, she gets a text from Nick that simply says "Roof." On the roof, she finds breakfast -- the same breakfast he meant to make her all those hours ago, before her father showed up and madness took over. She's touched by his gesture, but just then Schmidt and Elizabeth show up on the room with a telescope to watch the stars. As they jokingly argue who gets rooftop rights, Winston shows up.
With everyone wrapped up in their own business, they all forgot about Winston's birthday. He takes the gathering on the roof to be some sort of surprise party and the telescope to be a present, so it all ends up working out. Except for Nick's face as he looks at Jess, as if her dad has really gotten into his head.
Ruh roh.
"New Girl" airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Fox.
