New Girl's Injured | when shows break the mould and what it means
New Girl is a sitcom which initially aired in 2011. It centred the story around Jessica Day, a teacher, who is trying to navigate her life in her late twenties and early thirties after moving into a loft with three male roommates: Nick, Winston and Schmidt. A true ensemble sitcom, the show features not only the loft roommates, but previous roommate Coach, and Jess’s best friend Cece.
Like all long running television shows, there are seasons considered the best and some considered the worst. There are episodes where things feel off, and ones which really hit the stride. And, also like most long-running shows, there’s an episode in which the typical structure of the show falls away. Most of the time, these kinds of episodes show up once the show has been going for awhile, as some new way to breathe life into a show which has grown stale with its consistency.
One example of an episode which changes the format is Brooklyn 99’s episode called “The Box”. The Box is season 5, episode 14. In it, Peralta has arrested a man he believes murdered his business partner, but can’t prove it. Captain Holt also decides to hang back to help. The entire episode centres on these two and their dynamic as they attempt to get a confession, looking for holes in the man’s story.
This episode helps in several ways. The first is that it breathes life into a long running structure. By breaking the mould for a single episode, it puts some new energy into the show. The second thing, is it continues to complicate the relationship between Holt and Peralta, the actually true will they/won’t they for the show. Not in a romantic way, but in a respectful and parental way. These two rub off on each other, and their relationship betters both of them. However, there are moments which set them back again in their progression. Their perp, played by Sterling K. Brown, pits their complicated relationship against each other to buy himself time, knowing he only has a certain amount of time to be held for questioning.
The thing is, these kinds of structure bending episodes are best when placed later on in the show’s run. New Girl, however, did not do this. New Girl’s structure altering episode came in its very first season.
“Injured”, which was the fifteenth episode of the first season, centres on a medical concern for Nick, found out after Jess injures his back during a game of football. Jess takes Nick to her OB/GYN friend to get looked over off the record because Nick doesn’t have health insurance, but Jess’s friend notices a lump on his thyroid to get looked at. After realising just how serious a lump could be, the group of friends become despondent and concerned. The episode follows them struggling with the emotional weight of the unknown for their friend.
Injured is different than the other episodes of New Girl because it’s darker, more focused simply on the characters’ emotions rather than on consequences of actions. Similar to Brooklyn 99’s The Box, Injured also has no B plot. In ensemble sitcoms, episodes typically have at least two different plot lines, and sometimes three. The beginning of Injured sets it up like there will be a B plot, with Winston’s concern over his incredibly unreliable and dying car. But this is removed the moment Nick’s health is in question. The entire episode becomes about him.
Where The Box’s job was to revitalise the show in its different format, Injured is different because it doesn’t revitalise, it, rather, sets up the primary aspects and themes of the show. There are two primary themes of the show, important dimensions that are held close to all the characters. Every plot and worry and concern is centered around two primary concerns and themes: the idea of being there, and the importance of timing. Both of these are highlighted in Injured. With the focus being so intensely centred on the character and their emotions, there is time for the audience to sit with these themes, and really take them in, meaning that the show’s development of them over the following six and half seasons hits harder because we had time to truly understand these dimensions.
Let’s start with timing.
New Girl has two romances which ground the show: the one between Schmidt and Cece, and the one between Nick and Jess. The importance of the theme of timing could be argued to be applied to both of these, but is definitely present in the story of Nick and Jess.
Nick and Jess are initially established with the classic sitcom will they/won’t they. There is some kind of romantic attention given to them, a tension which is played on in Injured as well. Unlike other will they/won’t theys, Nick and Jess actually do in season three, and then don’t by the end of the same season. It seems to write out the whole idea of them getting together at all.
Timing comes up frequently between the two of them. Even in early seasons, the two return to previous relationships - Caroline for Nick and Paul for Jess - and they openly discuss the nature of timing. Nick pushes that sometimes timing just isn’t right for people, that it’s not the fact they aren’t meant to be, but rather that the timing wasn’t perfect for it. This helps to lay out the groundwork for how Jess and Nick will come back to each other once the timing is better.
In fact, this is exactly how a lot of the progression of the show works - through a mirroring between Jess and Nick. They often reflect one another in their approaches, experiences, and actions. When Jess first shows up, Nick is a mess after a breakup, unsure where his life is heading, and no longer very confident in himself. As the show progresses, Nick gains more assurances, learns what he wants and is skilled at, and begins to find himself in life. Jess begins after a breakup with some confidence issues, but is still rather solid in who she is as a person. She knows what she wants to do, and how, and is progressing toward it, just without a partner. But throughout the show, she loses this confidence, and struggles to find whether what she is doing is the right thing to be doing.
They also mirror each other at different points in the show, mimicking similar positions they have found themselves in. In the second season, Jess ends up using Nick as her “emotional fluffer”, as Schmidt puts it. Nick ends up fulfilling the role of boyfriend through his actions of being there (more on that in a second) for Jess. In later seasons, its Jess who ends up playing this role for Nick, while he’s dating more emotionally unavailable Reagan. Jess finds she’s frequently fulfilling the role of girlfriend, and even does so for both of them, not just Nick.
At different points in the show, this mirroring between Jess and Nick works to show the importance of timing. It paints how at different moments in a person’s life, when given a particular set of circumstances, the requirements for a relationship are different. When Jess and Nick initially break up at the end of season three, its because Jess is looking ahead, wanting to know where their relationship is going and if they agree. Nick, on the other hand, seems to want to go with the flow. He’s not necessarily against the idea of marriage and kids and settling down with Jess, but simply hasn’t thought about it as a serious possibility. When he’s dating Reagan, however, he finds he’s suddenly the Jess. He wants to know things are progressing toward something. He wants to talk like two people in a relationship talk. He wants to grow together, and finds it’s not happening - not because Reagan is necessarily against doing this with Nick, but rather because she just hasn’t thought about it.
Injured also has a strange aspect of timing when it comes to its actual place in the show. As I said before, these kinds of episodes usually come far later in the series, when something needs to be moved. But, here, the timing is strange, landing right in the middle of the first season. Typically, an episode in which a character is faced with a potential life altering or destroying moment, it helps to create a major character development. But, Injured doesn’t come with these. But we’ll talk about that in a second.
Before that, we should look at the other main theme of the show: being there.
The importance of “being there” is a constant theme for Nick Miller, particularly. He constantly speaks about the importance of being there, the relevance of it, and how that goes to show just who is present.
It’s not only what’s important in general, but what’s necessary to fostering a good and solid relationship. Nick condemns Jess’s long-distance boyfriend Ryan for leaving her alone when she needs him there. Being there, being present, is what matters. Showing up is what makes good relationships. When Schmidt is worried about being a bad husband for Cece after being scared by street harassment, Nick points out that what matters is how Schmidt always shows up for her.
While Nick talks about this more openly in terms of romantic partnerships, it also stands for his other relationships. In that same moment with Schmidt on his bachelor party, Nick says Schmidt has been a husband to him through being there and taking care of things when it was needed. We really see the difference in being there for Nick’s found family in his loft-mates versus his biological family. We get a glimpse of Nick’s bio family when his father dies and he goes back home for the funeral. Immediately, the whole family dumps their needs and responsibilities on him. Nick is no longer the dysfunctional lazy unambitious man from the loft, he’s the one everyone turns to. For his bio family, he’s the one there, but they are not showing up for him.
In Injured, we see them all showing up and being there for Nick. Not just in their gathering at the bar to watch him and show their solidarity, but in how they gather together to share in the cost of Nick’s medical costs so he doesn’t have to worry about this in order to ensure he was healthy. The act was a wonderful one of solidarity and connection, but is also a way to show with their actions how Nick should prioritise his health no matter what - they’ll be there to help in whatever way they can. They show up. They’re there.
When episodes like Injured happen, it often comes with interesting commentary and developments for characters. This doesn’t happen. Instead of major character development, Injured comes with character explanation. We get to really see each of these characters in an intense spotlight on their own.
For Nick, we see his primary characterisations. He is an avoidant first and foremost, always putting his own personal health and requirements on the back-burner, either out of disinterest or inability. We see him insistent on not going to a doctor, because of him being without health insurance, and then resistant to get it checked more thoroughly. The more thorough check is not only outside of his ability because of health insurance, but also because he’s avoidant when scared. We see him frequently trying to get out of uncomfortable conversations, including moon-walking out of conversations when panicking.
When commiserating at the bar, Nick comments that Jess “doesn’t know how to be real”, which upsets her. This is also a reflection on Jess as a character. She frequently is faced with how others perceive her as being inherently different to what she is. Nick’s lawyer girlfriend, Julia, has a moment with Jess where she critiques Jess’s character as being too flirty and lighthearted and unserious. Jess has to explain that she simply likes the things she likes, and that she isn’t required to be one particular way as a woman.
Jess’s goofy, cringey and silly personality is frequently used as a way to condemn her as unserious. Jess, however, is perfectly capable of being both. So, when Nick folds into this perspective of her, it affects her to think he doesn’t see all of her. And, I think, at this point in the show it’s perfectly acceptable that Nick wouldn’t have seen all of her. It’s only season one. She’s still the new girl.
However, Jess doesn’t just take it - she pushes back. And in seeing an aspect of herself in Nick, she shows Nick an aspect of himself through her eyes: the fact he doesn’t do anything. Nick doesn’t exactly push back. He says exactly who he is as a character - he’s someone who doesn’t jump in to anything. He has to know everything and even then isn’t sure about whether or not to do it. As he says, he doesn’t just jump in the ocean, he’s the one sitting on the beach watching the wallets.
And so Jess and everyone else drives him to the beach and encourages him to do the one thing he doesn’t normally do: to jump in the ocean. But here’s the kicker - it doesn’t actually do anything. He strips as he runs into the ocean, but immediately pulls back, regretting it, shouting at how it doesn’t magically change anything.
And that’s because this isn’t the episode for massive character development and change. It’s not for new perspectives and new alterations. It’s for character understanding, for really getting to know the things that are holding back each of our main characters and why. And while Nick ends his day on the beach saying he knows he should start doing things, he still doesn’t do it. Because that’s not the kind of guy he is. Even in the face of a medical worry, he still doesn’t change.
As the rest of the show unfolds, it shows exactly how people actually change - not in some grand massive moment of jumping into an ocean. It’s in quiet slow moments, in growth over time, in realising aspects of yourself as time ticks on. People can change, but it’s slower, more methodical, more purposeful. It’s developed over seven years of a show, not in one sudden strange episode.
I think Injured is a fascinating episode, because it’s not only different from what is expected from the episode format, but also because it’s so different to what is expected from format changes in general. Instead of plot development, or alteration, or set backs, this is a moment of character reflection, of deep personal understandings. For a show which is all about characters, and how they feel and interact, how they love and how they grieve, this episode really highlights their characters in a unique and beautiful way.