'New Girl' Recap: Season 5, Episode 20: 'Return to Sender'

It's Sam's birthday. Jess is having CeCe quiz her with notecards on all of Sam's friends, who she will meet at a party later, so they will be sure to like her. Sam gets a text that his friend from med school, Diane, is in town and also attending. Sam and Diane (is there a joke in there?) seem... close.

Schmidt's dad appears to do some wine tasting with his son and have an afternoon together, but Nick, who is suspicious of Gavin after having seen him blow off Schmidt too many times, warns Schmidt. Schmidt says he, and his dad, are different people now, and he won't get hurt. He asks Nick to please be nice to Gavin. They all drink some wine, and Nick even lets Gavin drink some of his homemade hooch.

Sam and Diane are laughing it up at the bar (which is strange, since Jess has never seen Sam laugh with his mouth open before). CeCe urges her to go and mark her territory, so she crawls into the booth with Sam and makes sure Diane notices how close they are. In triumphantly eating a grape, she manages to choke, and Diane saves her.

Jess invites her to the bathroom and apologizes for acting so weird and childish for assuming Diane is in love with Sam. Diane accepts her apology but declares she is definitely in love with Sam. She has been for ten years. She tried to confess once, by writing him a letter, but he never responded. She figured he didn't want to lose her as a friend or mortify her, so she never said anything again. Then, last week, the letter came back as a Return to Sender. Jess is rather touched by the story. Diane came to give the letter to Sam, but after meeting Jess, she can't. She gives it to Jess to decide what to do with it.

Jess is torn. While she doesn't want to lose Sam, she wonders if Sam is really meant to be with Diane. She hardens up and gives the letter to CeCe, but CeCe's time with Schmidt has made her more romantic, and now CeCe isn't sure what to do about the letter either. They decide to just give it to Sam, and if Jess loses him, it just means it's not her love story.

Schmidt gets excited when his dad invites him to dinner, and Nick catches Gavin at the elevator and tells him he needs to be there for dinner, and to show up for everything after, if he's going to do this. He can't keep jerking Schmidt around. Gavin understands. However, he doesn't show up for dinner. Nick catches Schmidt and apologizes for scaring Gavin away, but then Gavin appears, very late. He went to the warehouse and got Schmidt's deposit back after cleaning it and having his phone stolen. He wants to do the right thing by his son finally. He invites Schmidt to get married at his vineyard.

Jess brings Sam to Diane's hotel and, with him in the car, she tells Diane to give Sam the letter. She leaves them to talk it out. She goes home sad and worried, and has some wine. Sam comes back and tells her it was the most selfless thing anyone has ever done for him. Reading the letter was a reminder that any time for something to happen between himself and Diane had passed, and he loves Jess.