Exclusive

New Girl Romance Bombshell: Boss Liz Meriwether Spills Scoop on What's Next For Nick and Jess!

Exclusive! The Fox sitcom's creator says fans can expect for things the fan favorite couple to "keep messing up in new and unique ways"

By Tierney Bricker May 01, 2013 4:30 AMTags
New GirlJennifer Clasen/FOX

Warning: Do not read the following article if you have yet to watch tonight's seriously ah-mah-zing episode of New Girl Seriously, if you choose to read on and then complain about spoilers in the comments, you are the opposite of Batman.

Season two has been the season of firsts for New Girl's Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess (Zooey Deschanel).

Not only have the fan favorite pair shared their (extremely hot) first kiss, but the duo also slept together (Huzzah!) for the first time in the Fox hit sitcom's "Virgins" episode, which revealed how each member of the gang lost their virginity. Yes, that's right: Nick and Jess finally had sex, and yes, it was just as hot as their first kiss. But things are only going to get messier from here!

We chatted with New Girl mastermind Liz Meriwether, who wrote the episode, about the decision to have the pair sleep together and what comes next! Plus, which flashback was the most fun for her to write?

OK, first: How much fun did you guys have coming up with each of the characters virginity stories?
It was really fun.  A lot of the stories unfortunately came from semi-real places that the writers were pitching. I don't think anybody has a really great losing their virginity story. [Laughs.] We chose to do it they reveal something about who you are and who you become. It's a great way of learning about a person, I think, to ask them that question. It was really fun for us to do with our characters because we felt like we were getting to know the characters even better by deciding how they lost their virginity. It was just really fun and I'm really glad we ended up doing it. I mean, all of our writers are pretty broken, funny, damaged people, so some of them had good stories!

Which backstory was the most fun to write?
I mean, I love writing College Nick and Fat Schmidt (Max Greenfield). They're so funny and that was definitely really easy and really fun. That scene where Schmidt is asking Nick for sex advice was so fun for me. I loved writing that.

And which one was the hardest?
The one with the prostitutes, I guess. I was definitely nervous that we were going a little too far. I don't know, I had never really written a prostitute in anything that I've ever written, so I was struggling to find the right voices for those women. I think it turned out really funny and hopefully they feel sort of real and kind of funny.

FOX

Did you guys reach to Mick Jagger to possibly make a quick cameo in Cece's (Hannah Simone) flashback?
We definitely didn't. We didn't go for Mick Jagger. We felt like Mick Jagger has better things to do with his time. [Laughs.]

Of course, we have to ask about Nick and Jess finally sleeping together. When did you guys decide when and how it would go down?
Like everything with their relationship, we didn't plan it out. We knew we wanted it to happen around this time, but we, sort of, at the last second, got an extra episode, so we had to re-break the end of the season. It fell that this episode was going to be the one where we wanted to have them have sex. We were all a little bit worried about having this virginity flashback episode be the first time they have sex, but it actually turned out really well. It turned out to make the sex feel really important and emotional for them after having seen where they were in the past and where they are now. It actually ended up really working and being better than any of us thought it would.

The episode's final scene was really great and reminded us of the final scene in The Graduate where it's two people having no idea what comes next.
I was really excited. I think one of our writers pitched it like, ‘What if they're just lying there for 30 seconds and there's no dialogue.' It felt really risky and fun, but also really real. I thought it was a really cool way of ending it because you can see all of those emotions go across their faces. It felt like that horrible moment that happens in real life where you suddenly realize what you've done and what is it going to mean.

So what's next for Nick and Jess?
Going forward, we were just interested in what does the sex mean to both of them and how does it deepen and complicate the issues that they have between them. I think that's what the end of the season is about.

The fan response to Nick and Jess' relationship has been overwhelmingly positive. What's it been like for you and the writers to see the audience's reaction to their dynamic as you're developing it?
It's been so positive and just really exciting. People seem to be really enjoying them together and more importantly seeing that there's a lot of comic potential there. Of course, we were worried, like, we should hold out and wait for them to get together in a later season, but it just felt right. It felt like it we waited any longer we would just be playing games with the audience and we found that it really helped us focus the show and come up with better stories. I know the actors are really excited to kind of get there and have something that they can play with each other. I mean, in my experience, these kind of things just keep getting messier, so we're hoping they keep messing up in new and unique ways together. They just have such an amazing chemistry and we just want it to feel honest and the way two semi-idiotic people would come together.

And finally: People .gifed the crap out of Nick and Jess' first kiss, when he just grabbed her and went for it. Do you think Nick picking up Jess and carrying her from the elevator will out-.gif that moment?
[Laughs.] I mean, I hope so! I don't know. I know it's a little bit like wish fulfillment, but I would love to have a fireman pick me up and, like, take me back!

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What did you think of Nick and Jess' first time? What would you like to see happen next? Sound off in the comments!

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