So I’ve got bad news and good news. The bad news…. Mindy’s on hiatus until April 1. The good news?
The good news.
I don’t know how to quite say this.
They kissed.
I have literally been waiting for this moment for a year and a half. I read Anna Karenina, waiting for them to kiss. I graduated college, waiting for them to kiss. I moved to India, waiting for them to kiss. They kissed. And maaaaan, was it worth the wait.
Mindy and Danny are still in LA, and each has their own personal crisis to work through. Cliff has dumped Mindy, and Mindy is dealing by drinking wine she bought from a gas station and listening to sad music.
In a fit of denial and desperation, (and after drastically misinterpreting the ending of Gone With The Wind) Mindy has refused to accept the reality that Cliff dumped her. She made a technical mistake, and Cliff is a complete idiot if he doesn’t realize it. (And to be fair, she really does have a point. Cliff was being way too harsh, last episode.)
Danny is freaking out, because he called up his Dad and now he’s gotta go meet him, which is sure to be an emotionally volatile event. Danny wants Mindy to go with him, for emotional support, and Mindy wants to go, she really does (“I would love to be there for you, I really would. You’ve never been this interesting!”), but she’s booked a flight back to New York the first thing this morning. She needs to win Cliff back more than anything.
Danny schemes a plan.
Instead of driving Mindy to the airport, like he said he would, he…. doesn’t. He very cleverly drives to his Dad’s house instead. It’s one of those things where if a real-life friend actually did that to you, you’d probably never speak to them again (because that is seriously messed up) but on TV, it’s a cutesy joke. Whatever.
Turns out, Danny doesn’t need Mindy for emotional support. He needs her to set his hand after he breaks it, punching his Dad in the face. Yes, Danny. Much manly. Very muscle. Wow.
But when Danny opens the door, he’s greeted with a surprise. It’s Dani Castellano, his younger sister that he just found out about, and his father, now straightened out. He’s got a good job, he’s got a great marriage, and he’s always there for Dani’s soccer games — just as much as he wasn’t there for Danny’s dance recitals Little League games.
Danny and Mindy leave the house, and Danny’s acting a little bit like he’s been clobbered. (Which I guess he has been, in a way.) Even though he’s had three beers at the house and is working on a fourth, he insists that he’s fine, that Mindy can leave him, that she should go to the airport without him. He’s gonna take a walk. Mindy leaves, but has her reservations.
Two hours later, she gets a call from Danny — he’s lost in the desert, and he’s drunk. Who couldn’t see that one coming? She turns the car around and goes back to get him — missing another flight home. That’s two, thanks to this jerk. She finds him after nightfall in the desert. Why doesn’t he just call his dad and get him to find him? “I’m not calling that son of a bitch, I’d rather die!”
When Mindy accuses him of being just a tad bit dramatic, Danny proves how not dramatic he’s being by kicking the crap out of a cactus.
Hours later, Mindy finds his drunk ass in the desert, and she’s pissed at him. Who wouldn’t be? Because of him, it’ll be that much longer before she’ll be able to reunite with Cliff. Danny explodes. Cliff doesn’t want her anymore, he tells her. “Guys don’t just break up with girls they secretly want to be with.” Jerk. Mindy doesn’t take it lying down. You’re mean, she tells him. Mean and selfish. Just like his dad. No, worse than his dad, because at least that guy changed.
They eventually stumble onto an Army base and get processed as trespassers. All charges are dropped when Danny reveals his relation to Allen Castellano, the hairdresser on base. Danny’s dad comes to get them, and they touchingly make up. It’s all pretty clichéd, to be honest, but it’s Chris Messina. I could watch him emote at a pile of rocks for two solid hours. So it worked, for me.
Danny and Mindy are finally on their flight home. Mindy apologizes, Danny apologizes, they’re friends again. Danny helps Mindy write a letter to Cliff, telling her to write things down that I’m pretty sure were meant to describe how Danny feels about Mindy, not about how Mindy feels about Cliff.
Mindy goes to get Danny a tonic water, and Danny, left alone in his seat, freaks out when the plane starts to shake due to turbulence. He automatically looks at Mindy’s empty seat, looking for support in the one place he thinks he can always find it, and then he makes a split-second decision.
I have now watched this scene maybe 40 times and I’m still not done with it. I’m just… this has become my new everything.
And they’re making us wait until April 1st to find out what happens next. Cruel.
Things I liked about this episode:
1. The return of Danny’s grandma glasses!!
Things I didn’t like about this episode:
1. Seriously, Morgan isn’t getting health insurance? Weak, you guys. Seriously. He’s a stellar nurse. (“My name is Nurse Morgan and I’m here to name your babies.”) He deserves to find out why his pee smells so bad.
2. Cliff and Morgan and Peter’s sideplot? Yawn. Yeah, wasn’t that interesting. Maybe I just don’t like Cliff that much? I see shades of Dennis in him. I especially want him to go away now that it looks like Cliff and Mindy are going to reunite, even though that explosive kiss between Danny and Mindy happened on the plane. But writers live to torture, so I expect we’ll have to deal with him just a little bit longer. (There’s just no chemistry between Cliff and Mindy! Urghh.)
3. This is a serious one. Mindy asking the soldiers where Osama was, is funny. Funny since Osama is long dead, and it shows how uninformed/frivolous Mindy is. Mindy telling the soldiers that she thinks she sees him everyday in New York? Less funny. I don’t think brown immigrants need to be piled on at this moment in history, especially not by the nation’s most prominent South Asian celebrity. Do better, Mindy.
4. “I know that my ID says that I am 5’10 with blonde hair, 110 lbs and crystal blue eyes. My philosophy is that an ID should be aspirational.” Was anyone else just massively turned off by this joke? Like… really? My favorite thing about Mindy Lahiri is that she’s a relatively confident, secure woman — even though she has the occasional freak-out over her weight. Since when does she want to be tall, blonde and blue eyed? Eurocentric standards of beauty, much? I’m just going to pray Mindy wasn’t the one who wrote that joke.
See you in April, guys!
Jaya Sundaresh lives in Chandigarh, India. She grew up in the US 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.
Find The Aerogram on Twitter @theaerogram and follow it on Facebook.
Liking this season, but yeah that “aspirational” joke was so off-key. A few more of those and I might have to quit watching.
You forgot one of the best lines Peter’s ever delivered once he and Morgan figure out that Mindy and Cliff broke up — “Does she think she can do better than Cliff? No man wants a woman that successful.” Died. I hope that TMP gets another season. It and Parks and Rec (another sorely underwatched show) are my spirit animals.