New Girl 1x15: Injured

Original Air Date: 6 March 2012

Storyline: When Nick is hurt playing a game of touch football and Jess discovers he doesn't have insurance, she brings him to her doctor friend - an OB-GYN. The gang rallies together and Nick evaluates his life when his seemingly innocuous back injury may prove to be more serious than thought.Best Quote:

Nick: I'm the guy who just can't jump into something if I don't know what's gonna happen. I've just never been that guy. I'm the guy that if I don't know what's gonna happen, I don't do something. Ever. I don't care how badly I want to do it. Like, if everyone went down to the beach and jumped into the water, I'm the guy guarding the wallets.

She's Adorkable!: Are you sure you're okay? You're walking like a Disney witch.Review: New Girl gets real this week and touches a sensitive subject that continues Nick's lack of money arc. When you combine a banal injury with three paranoid friends, the "C" word gets thrown around way too easily, but at least it makes for a great combination of comedy and heart. Which, ultimately, is what I expect from a sitcom. 

On one hand, I sort of identify myself with Nick in that I'm not one to waste money on a doctor unless it's something really bad. On another hand, coming from a family of doctors, I've almost never been in a situation where I had to pay a doctor, so maybe that's why I am always reluctant to allocate a part of my budget for something like this.
But let's go back to this show finally touching a serious subject. You can't get more serious than talking about mortality but somehow the story allowed for some really hilarious moments in between the gang freaking out about Nick's possible cancer. From Sadie's reoccurrence to Nick's skinny dipping, "Injured" went all out on the comedy, without sacrificing anything from the emotional implications of such a diagnosis. My favorite moment, by far, was the drunk rapping. "Nick Miller, Nick Miller's a stone-cold killer". It doesn't get any weirder - or funnier - than that.
This arc gives us the opportunity to see how the gang gets together in moments of need. It shows how much the group has grown, and how much the show has matured. Even Cece is becoming part of the gang and takes on the job of keeping everyone in line.
Speaking of maturity, this week's installment proved that Jess can be mature as well. She's not all rainbows and unicorns; she can get pretty real when she has to, even though she may squeeze in a Daffy Duck impression if she thinks it's the only way she can make her friend smile. 
One of the good things about "Injured" is that it kept the plot simple and didn't insist on trying to fit in multiple storylines. Yes, there was a secondary plot, that of Winston's car, but in the end it was so minor that it didn't take anything away from the main arc.
And, in the end, we got to learn a little bit more about the characters we learned to love in these past months: Nick is not the "do things" type, Cece's dad passed away when she was 12 and Schmidt may have more for her than he gives away. It's enough to observe how he looks at her perfect butt print in the sand.
I may be wrong when I say this was the best episode so far, but you at least have to agree with me that the beach scenes were the most powerful ones this show has brought us. It's the kind of television I would like to see every day.
New Girl 1x14: BullyBack to Season 1