'New Girl' Season 5 Spoilers: One of Jess' Exes Is Back; Characters Need 'To Grow A Little Bit,' Showrunner Says
Dr. Sam Sweeney, a man from Jess' (Zooey Deschanel) past, pops back into her life in Season 5.
The character, played by "About a Boy" actor David Walton, first appeared in "New Girl" back in Season 2 when he mistakenly assumed that Jess was the blind date he was supposed to meet in a bar. Jess and Sam dated over the course of the season before breaking up after Jess and Nick (Jake Johnson) kissed.
According to TVLine, Sam is returning for a multiple-episode arc in the Fox comedy's fifth season. The episodes in which he appears will air sometime in March.
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Lucy Punch, who starred in the single-camera situation comedy "Ben and Kate," also joins the cast in Season 5. Punch plays the role of a school administrator who Jess will have to deal with.
Meanwhile, "New Girl" showrunner Liz Meriwether recently commented on Jess and her friends, saying, "It's time for the characters to grow a little bit."
"They're not good at being adults," she said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. As if to prove her point, the season premiere, which aired Jan. 5, showed Jess stealing a scooter, Nick mistakenly kidnapping a lady from the airport, and Winston (Lamorne Morris) performing a major prank.
As for Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Cece (Hannah Simone), the "New Girl" boss said, "This year, Schmidt and Cece are taking this big step forward and getting married and taking a step forward to being adults," adding, "And we wanted that feeling to be for everybody across the board, for all the characters to take a step forward as adults."
The fifth season of "New Girl" also features Peter Gallagher as Schmidt's father, Fred Armisen as a boarder, Anna George as Cece's mother, and Megan Fox, who is set to have an extended stay as Deschanel takes her maternity leave.
"New Girl" airs Tuesdays at its new time slot, 8/7c, on Fox.
