After a premiere episode charting the character arcs of the major players, episode two of New Girl‘s sixth season returned to basics. Schmidt and Cece’s new house dominated the first episode yet fails to appear in episode two. Meanwhile, both Winston and Nick are attempting long distance relationships, Schmidt continues being Schmidt, and the dynamic duo of Jess and Cece decide to hit the streets to campaign for Hillary Clinton.
Jess and Cece are talking politics. While Jess assumes Schmidt is voting for Trump and expresses her concern, Schmidt assures them that he is not voting for Trump and that his political motto is now “Paul Ryan 2020”. Jess and Cece inform Schmidt that they intend on getting people registered to vote. Schmidt, frustrated with the political climate, agrees that if they could get five people registered he would vote for Hillary. If they couldn’t, however, they had to vote for Winston for president.
Jess and Cece head to the local Hillary headquarters and meet the headquarter chairwoman Mary Ellen (Kate Flannery). After failed attempts to hit their stride as campaign workers, they decide to steal the unregistered voter list and go door to door looking to get the vote out.
Back at the loft, Winston talks to Nick about long distance relationships which he refers to as “The Long D”. Winston believes an active and adventurous phone sex life is the key. They journey into a special closet Winston has set up for that occasion. Hence, Nick talks to Reagan about this and they decide to try it.
Meanwhile, Schmidt has found a potential acceptance letter for college. He heads to the campaign headquarters to share the news. Unfortunately, Cece and Jess have left, so Schmidt sits deep inside enemy territory. As he runs for the exit, he first passes some pens not sorted properly, so he fixes them. A little father down, he sees envelopes not sorted properly, so he sorts them. Finally, Mary Ellen observes his abilities and recruits him to help. Schmidt sets aside his political affiliation for the greater good of his obsessive personality. He works well until forced to read a phone script endorsing Hillary. Unable to promote such a cause, he exits the building spouting his political motto “Paul Ryan 2020”.
The streets have not been kind to Jess and Cece. No new voters registered and they encounter lots of negativity. Their only remaining option is to crash a sorority party and register drunk college girls. To do this, they must join them in their drinking. Both of them get plastered, Jess evens garners the name “Booze Girl”, feeling it is worth if they get the girls signed up. However, when they look at their list, no one signed up with their real name. Rather, they used joke names such as “Ivanna Getsome” and “Diarrhea Jones”.
Nick is prepared to attempt phone sex with Reagan and enters Winston’s closet dressed as a space man. He calls Reagan and exposes himself on the Skype session. In an easy to predict twist, Winston’s girlfriend Ally was actually called. She sees his goods and is horrified. Nick agrees that basic, old-fashioned phone sex seems more his speed.
Jess embarks on a political oration encouraging the sorority girls to take pride in themselves and register to vote. As a result, the girls agree to register their real names. They have run out of voter forms and decide to lead a march down to the campaign headquarters. While on the march, they learn that the vast majority of the girls are in favor of Trump. Consequently, they abandon the mission.
In the end, Cece tells Jess that she doesn’t want to go to college, they register no voters and Jess, against her will, dresses up like Donald Trump and stands on a street corner telling people to vote.
Highlights
- Schmidt’s inability to say “Hillary Clinton”
- Winston seriously considering becoming president now that Jess has to vote for him
- Schmidt working at Hillary headquarters
New Girl airs Tuesday nights at 8:30 EST/PST on FOX. They are working towards a crossover episode airing in October with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. A full recap of this week’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode can be found here.
