New Girl: 10 Best Episodes To Binge For Schmidt And Cece Fans

Though New Girl is all about the found family of roommates living in a Los Angeles loft, there is the inevitable pairing up of some characters. Much of the emotional stories driving the show center around the couples of Nick and Jess or Schmidt and Cece. Fans might have their favorites, but there’s no denying that Schmidt and Cece make a surprisingly perfect pair from very early in the series.

They face a lot of ups and downs in their friendship – and their romantic relationship – over the course of the show. Schmidt and Cece have a lot of episodes, both funny and emotional, that center on their bond, but these episodes are a great set to binge if a New Girl fan misses their dynamic.

10 S1E05 Cece Crashes

While Schmidt and Cece do interact in the first few episodes of the series, this is where we get to see them expose their insecurities to one another a little bit. Though much of the focus is on Jess worried that Nick is interested in her, the B-plot of the episode is Cece messing with Schmidt.

Cece teases Schmidt plenty while he tries to impress her, and she ends up leaving him on the roof for hours to get sunburned. Though Cece doesn’t come across great in this episode, the audience does get to see that part of her soaking up the attention offered from Schmidt is due to her hating being alone. Both she and Schmidt admit to one another as the episode ends that they hate sleeping alone, and they even hold hands. It’s the first step in their friendship.

9 S1E09 The 23rd

During their first holiday season as friends, Schmidt invites Cece and his roommates to the Associated Strategies’ party. Schmidt, unfortunately, spends most of the episode as “sexy Santa” as part of his job, but the episode provides the audience with a peek into how Cece is going to grow over the course of the series.

Cece might tease Schmidt mercilessly, but it’s evident even nine episodes in that she cares about him and considers him a close friend. She wears the horrible perfume he has made for her, but she also says something when she witnesses how his boss treats him. It’s Cece who encourages him to stand up for himself at work, which gets him out of having to play Santa for the rest of the series.

8 S1E13 Valentine’s Day

The holiday-themed episodes of New Girl are full of great character bonding scenes, which is part of the reason this one makes it into a Schmidt and Cece binge. Cece, after all, is content to spend her Valentine’s Day hanging out with Schmidt and helping him coach Jess on finding a suitable one-night stand. She only leaves when her boyfriend decides to do mushrooms.

Schmidt and Cece bonding while coaching Jess aside, this episode makes the list for another reason: it’s the first time the two hook up. After a pretty terrible time with her boyfriend Kyle, Cece ends up at Schmidt’s door in the middle of the night, and the storyline of them keeping their physical relationship a secret is born.

7 S1E23 Backslide

The title of this season one episode is a reference to Nick and Jess’ activities: they both “backslide” to their exes. Schmidt and Cece, however, take a step forward in their relationship instead.

Because Schmidt can’t get physical due to some broken body parts, he and Cece are forced to find other activities to do. One of those involves Cece taking Schmidt to an assisted living facility to meet her grandmother. While there, they make the discovery that emotional intimacy might be more important to them than physical intimacy. It marks a turning point in their relationship but doesn’t sacrifice the comedy either.

6 S2E16 Table 34 Or S2E25 Elaine’s Big Day

Season two sees Schmidt and Cece spend most of their time apart after their breakup as Cece starts to get serious about her future. She wants to have a wedding as soon as possible to start a family, and her journey is about figuring out she doesn’t have to do that with someone she doesn’t love. That’s why either of these episodes is the best representation of their season two dynamic.

“Table 34” features Schmidt and friends following Cece to an Indian singles event. Though he still wants Cece, he talks her up to the entire room to make her happy. “Elaine’s Big Day” has Cece make it down the aisle, but only after a whole lot of Schmidt attempting to stall her wedding because he’s the only one who sees that she doesn’t want to get married.

5 S3E03 Double Date

Though fans might love Cece and Schmidt together, they don’t consistently stay together during the series. That is entirely Schmidt’s fault. In this season three episode, Cece discovers that Schmidt has been seeing both her and Elizabeth behind their backs.

It’s one of the first truly heartbreaking moments in the show when Cece makes the discovery, even though everything leading up to their break up is pretty much non stop comedy as Schmidt and Jess both race to talk to Cece first.

4 S4E17 Spiderhunt

A bottle episode of the show, “Spiderhunt” places the focus squarely on the six main characters of season four as they search for a spider in the loft to assuage Schmidt’s fears. When Jess learns that Cece has feelings for someone, and she hasn’t told her best friend about them, Winston allows Jess to believe it’s because Cece has developed a crush on Nick.

Jess tries to get the two of them together since she hasn’t realized she still has feelings for Nick herself just yet. Cece doesn’t want Jess to know that she really still loves Schmidt, Nick spends the episode talking about a popcorn machine while Jess thinks he’s talking about Cece, and Schmidt just wants the spider dead. It’s hilarious, and a nice change of pace since so many episodes are devoted to how Schmidt feels about Cece.

3 S4E22 Clean Break

Most of the fourth season has Schmit and Cece settle into friendship despite Cece still harboring feelings for him. It’s not until the fourth season finale’s emotional chapter that the audience understands the magnitude of their feelings for each other.

Schmidt tries to make a “clean break” from Cece while Coach is moving out of the loft, and he just can’t do it. He even still has the money he had to put in the douchebag jar from the first moment he met her. Cece tries to get Schmidt out of her head by going mountain climbing. In the end, she comes back to the loft just as he plans on seeking her out. It’s then that the audience finds out why he put money in the jar the first time he met her – and he proposes.

2 S5E22 Landing Gear

After a full season of preparing, Schmidt and Cece are finally getting married in season five – except for the fact that Schmidt tries to fly out to Portland to convince Cece’s mother to attend their wedding the morning of the big day.

He ends up stuck on the plane when there are difficulties, and he’s forced to participate in his own reception via a video call as he encourages Cece to go ahead with the party. When Schmidt is finally able to get back to the loft, the two get married there, and it’s even more meaningful for the audience that way.

1 S7E05 Godparents

Schmidt and Cece don’t spend a lot of time on screen together in this episode, but for fans who wanted to see where they ended up after the season six finale, this episode is a great example of their day-to-day lives with their daughter Ruth. It’s also got a lot of great comedy for the Nick fans.

Schmidt spends the day stressed because it’s his first time back to work since being a stay-at-home dad, and Cece spends the day stressed because everything she tries to do for Ruth goes wrong. Nick decides he should take more responsibility for Ruth since he believes he’s her godfather. Cece and Nick actually spend a lot of time together and Schmidt realizes he wants to be at home full time.

About The Author