"Wedding Eve" is the 21st episode of New Girl's fifth season.
The night before Schmidt and Cece's wedding, Jess finds an engagement ring in Sam's jacket, realizes she is hesitant to marry him, and tries to get out of talking to him for the rest of the night. Meanwhile, Winston accidentally tells Aly she'd make a beautiful bride, and panics when she turns on her heel and leaves, and the flash drive Schmidt's vows are written on is broken.
Tropes in this episode:
- Accidental Proposal: Jess finds a ring and thinks Sam is proposing to her. It's the opposite — Sam wants to break up with her. The ring is for Louise proposing to Susan.
- The Bus Came Back: Coach is back in town for the wedding after leaving at the end of season 4.
- Call-Back: Sam and Jess's mutual breakup (behind the Iron Curtain during a game of True American) echoes a similar scene in "Cooler" between Jess and Nick.
- Cliffhanger: The final shot of the episode is of Schmidt, sneaking out of the apartment in the dead of night after leaving a note for Cece.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: Winston and Aly have been dating for a month, but make it even more official by sharing "I love you"s for the first time.
- Poor Communication Kills: Miscommunication hampers both Jess/Sam and Winston/Aly here.
- Jess assumes Sam is about to propose and rather than admit to herself that she doesn't want to marry him, instead weasels out of conversation for as long as she can. In fact, he's about to break up with her, and the ring she found was for Schmidt's mother Louise and her girlfriend Susan.
- Winston accidentally blurts out that his new girlfriend Aly would make a lovely bride, and she hightails it out of the apartment. In truth, she just had food poisoning and wanted to make it home quickly, and she even drops an "I love you" when he goes to confront her.
- Wham Line: Sam making Jess realise that she’s still in love with Nick.
