New Girl: Thanksgiving III, Review
The direction New Girl's heading in isn’t clear, but Meriwether reminds us why we fell in love in the first place.
Coach ridicules Nick because of the lame Thanksgiving e-card invite he sent out. Coach remarks that Nick has gotten a bit effeminate due to spending so much time with Jess. Nick refuses to agree, until he stands up to reveal he’s actually wearing a pair of Jess’s pajamas.
In response to his rapidly fading masculinity, Nick plans an outdoor Thanksgiving—which Schmidt and Winston are less than enthusiastic about. Nick tries to remind them how splendidly our ancestors and the Native Americans got along. Schmidt retorts, “Sure, yeah, the first chapter in a proud history of cooperation.”
The Gang drives out to the wilderness and Cece pulls up moments later: cue the Coach and Schmidt awkwardness. Their banter was actually funny this week, so bravo to Greenfield and Wayans Jr. for righting the ship.
Nick soon reveals that he has brought no food and instead planned to catch and forage for sustenance because we’ve “gone soft” as a society.
Nick, Schmidt and Coach go hunting, Nick leading the way with a knife taped to the end of a broomstick. Winston, Jess, and Cece bond over the ridiculousness of Nick’s plan, and instead purchase food from a local supermarket. When Nick returns from hunting—with an already-dead fish he caught in hand—he realizes that the “foraged” food is purchased and freaks out, cooking his rancid fish over a flickering flame.
Jess consoles Nick, who admits that he feels he’s losing a bit of himself with all of the girly things they do, and she takes a bite of his fish to support him. Jess subsequently begins to hallucinate and ends up at the bottom of a bear trap Nick dug. The Gang bands together to save Jess (and Nick, who jumped in after her) while Schmidt and Coach bond after Coach admits that Cece hasn’t answered any texts or calls.
Jess wakes up in a hospital with Nick at her side, who coos that she only has Legionnaires’ disease. It was the only time in the episode where I was genuinely confused; why give your main character such a serious, and potentially fatal, illness? That seems like something that will need to be addressed in future episodes, no?
Other than that one, tiny issue, “Thanksgiving III” was a wonderful New Girl episode and a classic within the series.
Den of Geek Rating: 4.5 Out of 5 Stars
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Dan Hajducky has worked at the Connecticut Post, New Haven Register, Our Game Magazine, San Francisco Book Review, and Moffly Media. He is currently a Senior Researcher at ESPN The Magazine. Dan received his MFA…