Mindy is sad. Can you blame her? She broke up with her fiance last week, and for someone like Mindy, who pretty much only wants to get married, that’s a big blow. She’s in mourning, and in typical Mindy fashion, she is going to let everyone know it. The question is: how far is she going to go in her grief, and how many people will be affected by her narcissistic actions?
Mindy is clearly not in a good place. Despite her insistence that she looks like “Keira Knightley running errands”, Mindy is dressed… well, take a look.
In addition to dressing like a disheveled celebrity, Mindy is taking out her grief on the rest of the office. She insists that she should be allowed to stay home from work, telling Jeremy that she wants to take a “heartbreak day” and go home — he doesn’t let her. Jerk.
Morgan tries to help Mindy get through this. After he gets his initial reaction out of the way (“Did he leave you for a white woman?”), Morgan shares some of his own experiences with her, thinking she might take heart. Apparently, Morgan has been dumped thirty-six times in his life. He’s been left at the altar three times. Two different women tried to fake their own deaths to get away from him. And the worst part? After dating him, every woman found the man of her dreams.
Mindy gets an idea.
If Morgan’s curse is real (and after thirty-six women, it has to be), then maybe after being with Morgan for a night, Mindy will find the man that’s right for her.
The following sequence of events occurs.
Eventually, Morgan takes pity on her, and assents to the assignation, giving Mindy consent to use his body as she wishes.
Yeah, Mindy clearly has some second thoughts about doing this.
After she kicks him out of her apartment, Mindy thinks she couldn’t have hit a lower low. But apparently, there’s a sublevel basement to her misery, because things are about to get a whole lot worse.
That’s right, Morgan is suing Mindy for sexual harassment. Mindy and the partners have to fork over two hundred grand unless — and this is so typically Morgan — Mindy takes Morgan out on a nice date, and fixes the damage done to Morgan’s self-esteem. Mindy wants to just pay the money, but Danny and Jeremy force her to take Morgan out and treat him to the date of a lifetime.
She eventually puts the phone away, and they have a semi-nice time together. Morgan takes Mindy to the quarry, his favorite place, and they talk it out. At the end, Mindy even gives Morgan a kiss. Morgan misinterprets, asks if Mindy is carrying protection. Oh Morgan! *cue laughter*
The b-plot of the episode was carried entirely by Danny, who’s fast becoming my favorite character. Chris Messina is an underutilized comedic talent, and he had some of the best lines of the episode. (“He surfs, and I fear the ocean… out of respect.”) Peter, the new doctor, gets on Danny’s nerves by condescending to him, and generally treating him like a newbie pledge at a fraternity. Peter insists on calling Danny “little buddy”, and while telling a story, Peter grabs Danny’s junk, causing Danny to completely freak out. “That’s MY penis! Mine!” Danny and Jeremy decide to fire Peter for that particular infraction, but they change their mind because… of something. I wasn’t really paying attention? Sorry, I’m still thinking about Danny’s penis.
Other things I liked in this episode:
1. Mindy’s interaction with the episode’s guest star, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and writer Glenn Howerton, was spot on.
Howerton plays a handsome lawyer with a stick up his ass, who inevitably clashes with Mindy, who works in the same building as he does. Mindy first meets him when she storms into his office after tripping over mail that belongs to him that was placed in the hallway. She’s enraged. She yells at him. It’s the funniest thing to happen to in this episode, leading to the first of what will be (I hope) many recurring jokes about Mindy’s weight-loss sneakers, FatSteps.
You can tell that Mindy Kaling and Glenn Howerton had a lot of fun filming that scene — there was a special energy to it. It reminded me why I love this show so much; at it’s best, TMP gives space to its comedians to be as funny as they can be. The focus of this show is on humor, not on character (like it is on Parks and Recreation), and that’s what gives it it’s special edge.
2. I enjoyed the fact that Mindy actually wore pink pajamas to work one day.
Not even trying to pretend that her shit’s together.
Things I didn’t like about this episode:
I had a problem with Peter’s joke about Mindy wearing the pink g-string on her date with Morgan. It wasn’t funny, it was just crass.
The joke is sort of indicative of my problems with this character. What exactly is his purpose, other than to be a gross frat boy who makes dirty jokes? Given how short this show is on character development, is it really wise to add yet another flat character to the practice? How do you tell stories when your characters are mere caricatures? Plot isn’t as important to this show as it is on other shows, but it’s still important. I see TMP wearing this character out very soon, the way they did with Jeremy.
See you next week, guys!
Jaya Sundaresh lives in Hartford, Connecticut. She grew up in various parts of the Northeast before deciding to study political science at McGill University. Follow her on Twitter at @anedumacation and read her thoughts on her personal blog.
