Nick Miller had a lot. An extra pillowcase. A frisbee stored on his neighbor's roof. A Mr. Miyagi-signed Karate Kid II poster. But, after the conclusion of New Girl's seven seasons, there's one thing our beleaguered 50-year-old man in a 30-year-old's body didn't have: the right match. Because while Nick and Jess' sitcom-friendly will-they-won't-they ending could have been predicted all the way back when Rachel got off the plane on that other similar sitcom, the roommates should not have been the series' OTP. Because Nick and Kai should have ended up together on New Girl.

Here at The Dipp, we've already established that Nick — and not Jess — is actually the protagonist of New Girl. He's the character who actually experiences the most change throughout the run of the series; the character that justifies the existence of a series in the first place. It's true that Jess might have helped accelerate that change one argument about money at a time, but Nick didn't grow in the vacuum of that relationship. This is a man, after all, that was just as influenced by a zebra named Gavin at the zoo as by his romantic connections.

So it always felt odd that the series rewarded all of Nick's growth by... placing him back right where he started, in the arms of a character that experienced little to no change between Episode 1 and Episode 146. For every step forward Nick took, Jess stayed in the exact same quirky place, just one blow of the wind away from ukulele-twanged musical about woodland critters. To return to the past — particularly a past established all the way back in Season 3 — would be a regression for Nick. As a teacher, Jess knows how to play with kids, yes, but the problem is — by Season 7, Nick isn't one anymore.