Linda Cardellini Rocked 'New Girl' Tonight

"Hey Outside Dave, have you seen a girl who looks like me but with chaos in her eyes?" Enter Linda Cardellini, AKA the former Lindsey Weir, AKA the most recent Mad Men mistress. Also, as of this week, the current sister of Jessica Day. Her name? Abby. Her entrance? She gets arrested and Jess is charged with delivering her from the jail and back to Portland into their mother's loving arms. Things, of course, do not go as planned.

Cardellini's Abby is, in a wonderful way, the exact opposite of Jess. We've of course seen Jess' opposites before on the show, most notably in Lizzy Caplan's desert-hating, polka-dot distrusting Julia. But this particular brand of opposite plays on Jess' goody two-shoes nature — she's a wild card and described by her family as a disaster, and she does things like cover Jess' eyes while she's driving to try and get her little sister to do something against the rules for once. I also like her immediately.

All of the above seems to point to something that wasn't said in this episode but that could very well be explored soon if Cardellini sticks around (and it seems like she is, though that might just be because this happens to be a two-parter): Jess' sister and her various wreckless, wild, immature habits may just have something to do with what makes Jess so relatively comfortable around Nick's disfunction.

It should be noted that the Nick Miller we've seen this season is a far cry from that of the past two seasons — and I mean that purely in reference to the dysfunctional side of his personality. He was a human trainwreck, and it was fantastic to watch, and I think it's that exact kind of spark we were getting off of Abby Day this episode. And hey, much as we'd like to deny it, family often has a huge influence over romantic lives, so it would make complete sense if part of Jess' understanding of Nick came from growing up with someone like Abby.

Overall, it was great to see Linda Cardellini in this episode, and by episode's end I found myself craving more of her character, which is why I was psyched when Jess invited her to stay in the loft — even though that loft and this show is stuffed to its cracking point as it is with characters they don't have room for.

Still, Cardellini was great, and the dynamics she could bring are great, even if it's just for one more whirlwind of an episode (which is the likely case).

Other things worth mentioning:

• Nick made out with an old lady. She had crazy eyes. It was nice.
• Schmidt hit on a rabbi's (Jon Lovett) daughter, who turned out to be less stereotypical perfect Jewish daughter and more horned-up and ready to go, which was beautiful by which I mean hilarious. "DADDY, I REALLY LIKE SEX. THIS MAN WANTS TO HAVE SEX WITH ME. LET HIM."

Image: Fox