"Chicago" was such an off episode of this show, partly because it dealt with the death of a character we only met once, but mostly because it wasn't funny. Sitcoms can certainly deal with dead people -- look at the legendary "Chuckles Bites the Dust" episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a prime example -- but this just seemed like it was desperately trying hard to be funny and failed almost entirely (some of the Schmidt mortality stuff was amusing). It's a shame because it had the makings of good stuff, what with Margo Martindale and Nick Kroll cast as Nick's mom and brother. But the thing that gave the whole thing an air of weirdness was the unacknowledged elephant in the room of Nick and Jess (he introduces her to his mom as "my new roommate"). Sure, Nick's brother and his insinuating eyebrows made some comments about them sleeping together, but aside from that, it was hard to tell if this episode even took place after the fish-tank-breaking-make-out session, or if this episode was meant to air earlier. It felt like this death of a con man episode existed in this own little bubble, or alternate reality. Maybe the gang should stay out of Chicago for a while.

Balloons
The open was about Jess bringing home random balloons, which actually didn't seem so out of character, and then the gang huffing on one that had "Me So Horny" printed on it. It might have been cute to see them use their munchkin voices to comfort Nick, but I couldn't get past the idea that the helium would have worn off long before then. Unless that guy on the street was dealing in some premium balloon inflation product.

Nick's Family
It's an interesting idea that Nick is somehow the responsible one in his family, when he's clearly so anti-responsibility in his own personal life, but you had to wonder how Jamie and Nick's mom get by during the day-to-day without Nick's help as you watched them shift all of the funeral responsibilities (including the Elvis playlist) onto Nick's shoulders. It seems like if he was so integral to their lives, we'd see them more, or he'd maybe have to send them money or we'd hear her calling all the time. Jamie (Kroll) is obnoxious and looks about ten years older than Nick, even though he's his younger brother. He spent most of the time doing really broad comedy and pulling faces (see in particular his expression when Nick tells him that brothers don't have to get married in order). Martindale as Bonnie had some potential, but mostly because of the way she had zero tolerance for Jess ("Are you tapping me on the shoulder, girly?") and for calling the roommates "Winny and Fat Schmidt" to their faces. Could have done without Aunt Ruthie offering everyone weed, which felt like a cheap way to get a laugh.

Schmidt and Walt
Schmidt was afraid of death, more specifically the open casket filled with the dead body. He gets Winston to help him with a role-playing scenario, complete with his own eulogy for his friend ("You left us too soon, you beautiful black butterfly"), but ends up with his face in the casket when he tries to stop Nick's cousin from stealing a chain off Walt's corpse. He looked like one of those little plastic birds bobbing his face in the box over and over. And he ended up empowered by getting over his fear of death: "My face touched the mustache of a carcass today, Bobby. I'm not afraid of you." A solid and amusing outing for Schmidt.

Winston
If we had to pick someone to actually be friends with, Winston would probably be the one. He was honest to a fault as he bluntly told Nick how much he cared for his father ("He loved me more than he loved you. He told me that"). And he will gamely play dead to help a friend, within reason ("Schmidt, I need to breathe. Because I'm coaching you and also just for regular life reasons.") But I still didn't care for his over-the-top reaction to seeing Walt's body at the funeral. It just felt too cartoonish, but his button/hat/chair leg stealing was mostly redemptive.

Nick and Jess
He taps her to do the eulogy for his father because he's overwhelmed by the process and is clearly not doing well with grieving. My coworker Rachel pointed out that this isn't the first time Deschanel has been asked to do this, as she was in Eulogy a few years back. Was this a strange shout-out? There were glimmers of adorableness between them, when she started tearing up at his speech and gently grabbed his hand, or when she kindly tried to sober him up after his "one dozen beers". But then she dressed up as Elvis and randomly sang "In the Ghetto" (the first Elvis song I think of when I think of a funeral) in a costume that didn't look like it should fit both her and the large drunk dude named Brandon that Nick had found at the bar. It was like the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants of blingy jumpsuits.

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