New Girl S1 E9 – The 23rd

Last updated on November 10, 2020

This podcast covers New Girl Season 1, Episode 9, The 23rd, which originally aired on December 13, 2011 and was written by Donick Cary and directed by Jason Winer. 

Episode Recap

It’s almost Christmas and the whole gang is ready to go home to spend it with their families but their last hurrah before they go is always Schmidt’s office holiday party. Paul tells Jess he loves her and she struggles to deal with what that means for their relationship and opens up to Nick about it. Meanwhile Schmidt is subjected to being the “Sexy Santa” at his Christmas party because he’s the only man.

Episode Notes

We discuss Pop Culture References such as:

• She & Him – The song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by She & Him plays near the end of the episode while the gang is visiting Candy Cane Lane. She & Him is a band composed of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. 
• Cecelia No. 5, play on Chanel No. 5 – Schmidt called the perfume he made for Cece “Cecelia No. 5”, which is a riff on the famous perfume “Chanel No. 5”.

Additional Pop Culture References such as:

• Salzburg Festival – Paul gets Jess tickets to the Salzburg Festival for Christmas in Vienna. This is a festival of music and drama that especially highlights works by Mozart.
• Lebron [James] – Winston befriends Schmidt’s boss’ son, Elvin, who calls Winston “Lebron”. Lebron James is an American professional basketball player and is considered one of the greatest of all time.
• The Temptations – Nick asks Winston if he’s in the Temptations because he’s dressed nicely going to the office party. The Temptations were a well-dressed group from the 1960s and 1970s who released Motown style music.

We also cover “Schmidtisms” when Schmidt is talking to Winston about getting a job and when he explains the makeup of his perfume for Cece, Cecilia #5. For “Not in 2020” we discuss Schmidt’s mother pulling him out of figure skating after she “realized he was a boy” and Schmidt being forced into playing Sexy Santa at work. We also take a look into Stephen Amell, the Guest Star we feature in this episode. 

This episode got a 8.5/10 Rating from Kritika whose favorite character is Nick (and Cece) and Kelly rated this episode a 9.5/10 and her favorite character was Nick!

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for Episode 10!

Music: “Hotshot” by scottholmesmusic.com