"Not true. Everything has meaning. Everything is connected to something else."
— Nick
"Clean Break" is the 22nd and final episode of New Girl's fourth season.
As Coach prepares to leave for New York with May, the rest of the group grapples with relationships. Jess and Winston convince Coach to keep mementos of his stay with them, Schmidt tries get rid of his mementos of Cece, and Nick and Jess talk about their breakup.
Tropes in this episode:
- And Here He Comes Now: Schmidt is about to leave the apartment to go find Cece and declare his love for her, only to open the door and see her standing there.
- Book Ends: The season began with the group's fridge being overladen with wedding invitations. It ends with Jess adding a slapdash save-the-date for Schmidt and Cece to the fridge.
- Call-Back: Schmidt's proposal parallels his first meeting with Cece, when he declared he would marry her. Cece realizes this and reacts the same way: "Oh God, you're about to say something stupid, aren't you?"
- Internal Reveal: Jess reveals to Schmidt that Cece is in love with him, which the audience has known for some time. He capitalizes on this knowledge nigh-instantly.
- Relationship Upgrade: After four seasons of on-and-off, Schmidt and Cece admit their mutual feelings. Schmidt proposes and Cece says yes.
- Ship Tease: More than a season after their breakup, Nick and Jess get teased again. They admit to still being attracted to each other, and although they agree to throw away a memento of their relationship (symbolizing their desire for a 'clean break'), both later try and keep it.
- Which pushes their Will They or Won't They? story forward.
- That Came Out Wrong: Nick when asked to declutter: "I’m going to get hard and fix myself." He immediately acknowledges it came out wrong.
- Title Drop: "Clean break" refers to Coach's moving philosophy: he takes only the essentials to avoid attachments.
