"Control" is the 16th episode of New Girl.
Jess attempts to get Schmidt to loosen up about the apartment while Winston and Nick try to settle debts.
Tropes in this episode:
- Gone Horribly Right: Jess wanted Schmidt to relax a bit. It works so well that Schmidt abandons the loft and joins a hippie commune.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Efforts to get Schmidt to loosen up are abandoned and he's back to being the dominant force in the house. No one learns how to pick up the slack and take care of themselves in his absence, and anything Schmidt might've learned is unlearned. Also, Nick never does pay Winston back his hundreds of dollars, but Winston stops pressuring him about it.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Jess gets Schmidt to finally stop being so uptight and nitpicky and to finally relax. Unfortunately, he becomes a little too relaxed, and joins some sort of hippie commune on the beach, stops going to work, and spends the whole day playing a bongo drum. And it turns out that without Schmidt there to nag the other roommates, the apartment falls into chaos, as Winston and Nick have no idea how to shop on a budget (they are in awe at the fact that Schmidt, thanks to his finickiness and obsession with detail, is able to get the groceries with less than $100), all three of them apparently can't dress without Schmidt's fashion advice, and the apartment starts becoming dirty. At the end of the episode, they coax him back to the apartment, partially by offering him Calvin Klein slacks. By the end, he's obsessively cleaning the apartment, tells Nick "Your hair is doing that thing that I just HATE," and in general is back to his usual self...and the roomies couldn't be happier about it.
