"And you had no idea that's how she felt. Like, no idea. You thought the door was closed. In fact, you thought that door was so closed that you went out to another door, but had I known that the first door was open, that's the door I wanted to walk through."
— Nick
"Quick-Hardening Caulk" is the 19th episode of New Girl's second season.
Jess finds herself attracted to Nick when he begins applying himself at the bar, unaware that he's cultivating a relationship with his new boss Shane. In a bid to get over Cece's upcoming marriage, Schmidt tries to get his hands on a lionfish.
Tropes in this episode:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Schmidt denies that he's down about Cece getting married by listing several things he claims are actually things to be down about.Schmidt: The air pollution in China. The deficit. The Hobbit wasn't very good...
- Fun with Flushing: Schmidt tries to flush the lionfish down the toilet to return it to the ocean. Winston has to tell him that toilets don't lead to the ocean.
- Gender-Blender Name: Shane, Nick's new boss. Jess lampshades it and finds it oddly comforting that she has a masculine name.
- Gold Digger: Nick accuses Jess of this when she reveals that him working hard and being ambitious made him more attractive to her. Jess responds that she'd be the world's worst gold digger by going after him.
- Hot Men at Work: There's an extended scene of Nick pulling on a chain that causes Jess and a nearby grandma to openly lust over him.Jess: Yeah. Yank that chain.
Old Woman: Yank it. - Innocent Innuendo: Nick's hardware store shopping list, which Jess finds surprisingly dirty.Jess: Long-shafted... drive drill? New nut wrench?
Nick: Our old nut wrench is bad.
Jess: Quick-hardening... caulk.
Nick: You don't want to wait forever for that caulk to harden.
Jess: Lube for... drill shaft. - In Vino Veritas: While high on painkillers, Jess freely admits that she wants to sleep with Nick. Nick later questions if this desire is sincere or brought about by the medicine.
- Replacement Goldfish: Schmidt tries to cope with losing Cece by getting a lionfish. The fact that he is treating it as a replacement for Cece is commented on by everyone.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: In this episode, Nick and Jess intersperse furious makeout sessions with physical and verbal sparring.
- Slapstick: Slapstick abounds for both Jess and Nick in this episode; Jess is hit by wood in the chin and passes out, later dragging Nick down with her in a physically awkward painkiller-induced seduction attempt where he falls off her bed and burns his hand on hot soup. Later when the two of them get physical, they wind up breaking Schmidt's new aquarium.
- Visual Innuendo: At the hardware store Nick is holding a long tube up by his crotch, which doesn't help the hot-and-bothered Jess.
