'New Girl' 'Cooler' recap: Did Nick and Jess kiss?

The moment that "New Girl" has been building up to finally happened in the Tuesday, Jan. 29 episode, "Cooler." The roommates once again played the fun game True American, and it was the game that brought up even just the possibility of Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess (Zooey Deschanel) kissing.

This "New Girl" episode saw the guys head out to a bar and leave Jess, the "cooler" (hint: if you're trying to be a wing-woman, don't tell a girl she should be with her ex), alone in the loft. In the bar, after Winston (Lamorne Morris) failed to pick up Holly (Brooklyn Decker), he met Daisy (Brenda Song), who told him she was taken, making it possible for him to talk to her. After she helped him out throughout the episode, she revealed she was really single and used the ring to keep guys from hitting on her, and they kissed. Meanwhile, after Nick and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) spent the episode trying to be seen as the sadder one in Holly's eyes—she was turned on by that, but not depressed guys—Schmidt won when he told the Cece (Hannah Simone) story (only saying she was still in love with him and it was hard to move on) and got her to tell him in front of Holly she loved him.

'New Girl' - The Kiss'New Girl' - The Kiss

As for Jess, she spent her time alone in the loft cleaning out her closet (with a Nick doll to watch her) and running around until she heard a scratching at the door; she left messages for Cece and Sam (David Walton) and reached Nick, telling him she needed him, which led to everyone showing up at the loft. And so began the craziness that is True American (with a sexy new twist: Clinton rules, pick your intern!), with Holly wondering if there was a printout of the rules (no). And the game led to two of the players having to go behind the door and kiss with "a clear and present threat of tongue." Those two ended up being Nick and Jess, and the protests couldn't stop the chants of "kiss kiss kiss," which Sam even joined in on when he showed up to help Jess after getting her message.

And while Nick and Jess being behind that door had its moments (such as Jess suggesting they just "suck it up and French a little" and the conversations that followed while they did try to go in for the kiss), everything changed when, after Jess said to just kiss her already, Nick told her, "Not like this." And then Nick being Nick, he climbed out onto the window ledge and inched his way along to the living room window. But that wasn't it. After Nick handed over the coat to its rightful owner—the scratching returned, and he and Jess found the woman who should've received that coat and her dog at the door—he said he liked trench coat Nick. He had guts. But Nick didn't need the coat for what he did next as Jess turned to her room: he grabbed her arm and kissed her. "I meant something like that," he told her before going into his room. And was there anything sadder than the end of the episode with poor melon Nick's head broken on the floor after Sam removed him from Jess' room?

"New Girl" season 2 airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on FOX. What did you think of "Cooler" and the Nick/Jess kiss?

© Meredith Jacobs 2013

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