If a New Girl fan watched the early episodes of the series immediately followed by the ending, they would be struck by just how far the characters come in those seven seasons. Each of the main characters grows up in different ways and finds themselves with new perspectives on the relationships in their life. What's interesting, however, is that by the end of the show, most of the characters have exactly what they wanted all along.
When Jess moves in with Coach, Schmidt, and Nick, it seems like there's no way the living arrangements are going to work out. Though Coach doesn't stick around, the group of friends certainly become a family, and they all help one another achieve their goals.
Jess Wanted Nick To Open Up
When the series begins, Jess is all about getting her new roommates to talk through their feelings. She's an advocate of open and honest communication, no matter how awkward it gets. Her roommates, specifically Nick, don't feel the same way.
Nick, in fact, goes out of his way to avoid talking things out with her, allowing his anger to build up. That makes for a lot of early confrontations between the two. Jess just wants him to open up to her. That's something she gets long before the series ends, as Jess becomes the one person that Nick genuinely wants to talk to about everything. Even when the two aren't dating, she's the one person he appears most comfortable sharing his thoughts with.
Nick Didn't Want To Feel Alone
Nick "backslides" to his ex Caroline more than once in the first season of the show. It's not because he's so in love with Caroline that he wants her back specifically. Instead, it's because their relationship is comfortable, and he's afraid of being alone.
He its as much to Jess when she tries to talk to him about it, though he doesn't when Schmidt attempts the same. Nick explains there's a voice in his head that sounds like Tom Waits that reminds him that he's alone. Jess promises to be there for him, and she is, though probably not in the way she expects since the two become the show's endgame couple.
Schmidt Wanted To Be With Cece
Schmidt is the one person living in the loft in the first season of New Girl who seems to have it all together. He's got a steady job that he excels at, though he might not love it. He's living with two of his best friends. He's even hooking up with women on a regular basis when he thinks he's not ready to settle down. His interactions with Cece change that.
Eventually revealed in a season four flashback, Schmidt tells Cece not long after meeting her that he's going to marry her one day. He's a little obsessive (and even creepy) at times, but it's clear that the two of them truly care about one another early on. Cece is the one person Schmidt sees a future with, and he gets it.
Cece Wanted Control Over Her Life
When the audience first meets Cece, she's a working model, mostly posing for print campaigns and showing up at Los Angeles parties. While she seems happy with her job, there's one thing the audience is reminded of in the first season: she wants to be in charge.
Cece controls every aspect of her early hook-ups with Schmidt. She holds back from sharing things with Jess that will earn her friend's judgment. She backs out of an arranged marriage because she's in love with someone else. Cece is someone who very much wants to be in control. By the end of the show, she's not only become a modeling manager, but opened her own agency, and then merged with a larger one to be on the board. She's a successful businesswoman with a husband and a daughter. She might not always be able to control her toddler, but she's got the control she craved early in the show.
Winston Wanted A Job He Loved
When Winston moves into the loft in the second episode, he's just ended his professional basketball career in Europe. He spends a long time in temp jobs and trying to figure out what it is he really wants to do.
It takes him a few years after being stuck in the mindset that he has to do something basketball-adjacent, but he finds something that he's good at and is important to him. Winston becomes a police officer.
Coach Didn't Want To Live With Jess
This particular want from Coach might seem a little mean spirited, but it's not really. In the pilot episode, Coach isn't sold on the idea of living with a new girl because he wants to be free to be himself in his home. He doesn't think he'll have that freedom with Jess.
Even when he moves back in during the third season, he initially sees Jess as his "buddy's girl," and not a friend or roommate. Coach is the first to truly leave the loft behind, moving to New York with May, and apparently finding his happy ending.
Schmidt Wanted To Live Somewhere With Working Plumbing
Apartment 4D seems to be in a permanent state of falling apart. There are light switches that don't work right. The garbage disposal has a mind of its own. Plumbing issues repeatedly plague the roommates. Nick tries his best to find creative solutions to all of these problems, and he absolutely hates it when Schmidt calls in a plumber.
Schmidt desperately wants to have pipes that don't back up, a sink that doesn't have to be running in order for a toilet to flush, and of course, the willingness of the people he lives with to have those things fixed by a professional. When Schmidt and Cece buy their house, they make the decisions to fix it up themselves, and the audience definitely never sees any plumbing issues arise.
Winston Wanted To Be Happy In A Relationship
Winston doesn't just have a hard time finding a job he loves when he returns to the United States. He also has a hard time finding a relationship. Winston starts his search for a happy relationship with Shelby, but they pretty quickly stagnate.
The trouble is that Winston clearly doesn't just want to find someone to be just his girlfriend. Part of what he enjoys with Shelby is getting to be there for her as a friend first. He wants the friendship and the romance, and it's not until he meets Aly that he finds the perfect balance of both.
Nick Wanted To Be Taken Seriously
If there's one thing that's abundantly clear in the first season, it's that no one in the loft takes Nick seriously until they absolutely have to. Schmidt doesn't trust Nick to do anything for himself. Jess tends to tease him about topics he doesn't want to talk about. Winston is too busy figuring his own adjustments out to worry about Nick.
Nick, despite not wanting responsibilities and not wanting to open up about his feelings, still wants people to take him seriously. When Jess, for example, accidentally sees him naked, her embarrassed laugh at the situation gets in his head and makes him lose confidence in his dating abilities. Winston makes fun of his aims to write a novel as well. By the end of the series, however, Nick is a successful novelist going on book tours whose friends have to it that he found a way to grow up on his own .
Jess Wanted Her Loft-Mates To Be Family
There's one thing that Jess is pretty clear about even right after moving into the loft: she loves her roommates. Jess forms an emotional attachment to her new friends much faster than they do to her, and she wants it to be mutual.
Jess wants these guys to be family, not just strangers she moved in with. It's a little rough for her at first because they're all so different, but it's clear that this group is a family by the time the show ends.