In this episode of New Girl, Jess and Nick continue to be extremely happy in their relationship (and their sex life) – almost disgustingly so. Winston immerses himself in getting Fergison the cat a date. Nick has a breakthrough, revealing for the first time a wave of his emotions and feelings. And Schmidt is miserable.
Schmidt knew what he was doing with Cece and Elizabeth was wrong, but he chose to do it anyways. Now, he needs to live with his decisions. Coping with a wrong decision isn't easy. There are several steps a person can take to get out of the swirl of regret that stems from that bad choice, and all of them are easier to give than take. However, if Schmidt's going to make it, he needs to follow at least a few of them.
First of all, you need to take full responsibility for your actions. You have no one to blame but yourself, so don't take out your grief on others. Schmidt does the complete opposite of this advice during this episode when he does everything he can think of to try and break Jess and Nick up. He doesn't want them to be happy if he can't be. Schmidt gets in the couple's heads and plays dirty. He wants them to break up because they are making him feel uncomfortable in the apartment – but he never admits that he is the only one to blame for his unhappiness.
One way to get closure from the situation is to apologize and explain to the person you hurt. Although we don't really know what Schmidt wrote in the letter he left for Cece, it does appear that he attempted to make amends with her. However, she rejects it harshly. In this case, it may not have worked, but in order to get real closure, even though it is extremely difficult, this kind of thing needs to be done in person.
Another important thing to remember is that even though you may have made a terrible decision, you never have to go through anything alone. Instead of keeping all your issues to yourself, tell a friend exactly what you're going through and how you feel about it. Nick and Jess may be mad at Schmidt for what he put Cece through, but they would still be there for him if he stopped being such a jerk and showed them his vulnerable, hurting side. Towards the end of the episode, Jess gives Schmidt a piece of harsh reality, saying, “You did a bad thing...deal with it.”
We will have to see in the next episode how Schmidt actually copes with his poor choices, especially after Cece crushed his heart. He needs to accept his faults, learn from his mistake and work proactively at fixing things in his life so he can move on.
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