The Twitter-verse has been clamoring about Schmidt and Cece’s little girl Ruth over the past few weeks, and “Lilypads” gave us exactly what we all wanted – MORE Ruth.
Right out of the gate you knew that the little girl (played by both Danielle and Rhiannon Rockoff) was, “Toats adorbs” but she also fits in perfectly with the rest of the cast. The kid is hilarious!
As we see Schmidt and Jess help Ruth try to get into the fancy pants pre-school “Lilypads,” the three year old completely steals the show.
In the short three episode span that we’ve known her, Ruth has had some brilliant one-liners … particularly in this episode. Cece saying she doesn’t know why Ruth likes to watch local news bloopers, and Ruth replying, “They’re blowing their big shot!” was great. Ruth running into walls with a shirt on her head going, “I’m okay” was also perfect.
I did really enjoy the conflict between Jess and Schmidt here in educating Ruth. Schmidt’s methods being more conventional whereas Jess being more “hippy-dippy” as Schmidt described, was a great dynamic. The two of them arguing about how to raise her while Cece goes, “Excuse me, she lived inside of me ya jerks,” was great.
Elsewhere, we find Nick struggling to write a new novel based on his life, while Winston struggles to testify as the working detective on a case. Of course the bro-mance is always strong with this show and the fellas help each other out. There’s a nice moment here when Nick explains to Winston that he is a married man now, with a great job, and a kid on the way. Nick uses what he calls a “truth punch in the face” to essentially tell Winston that it’s time for him to finally get over his insecurities. Although subtle, this was the real heart of the episode.
Ultimately, Nick and Winston overcome their own self-doubt, while Ruth incites a pre-school riot at Lilypads. (Hilarious!) Schmidt’s former friend gets stabbed in the face by kid scissors and we learn that he will be permanently smiling much like The Joker. After all the chaos Schmidt and Cece find that the much less formal pre-school Triangles is more Ruth appropriate. Schmidt even makes friends with the chickens on the playground.
Interesting side note here as well – we really don’t know what happened with Jess’ previous teaching job, but it is addressed by a joke. “You know I can’t discuss that until one of four civil lawsuits is settled. No further questions,” Jess states. Funny stuff, but these are the very things that annoy me about flash-forward seasons/episodes. You get some very quick, silly storytelling. Other than that, the flash forward really IS working brilliantly for this series. I’m excited to see what’s next for the gang.
New Girl, ‘Lillypads’ Rating: 7.5 out of 10
-Rob Crowther IV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Iox8jg5Bw
