‘The Mindy Project’ Recap, Episode 424: Well, It Finally Happened

Mindy was thisclose to making her son Leo a star on the latest episode of The Mindy Project, “My Kid Stays in the Picture.” You can take one guess of what, *cough*, who got in the way. Plus there were break ups, hook ups and switch ups — you’re gonna want to put some Jager on your gums and buckle in for this one.

Mindy (Mindy Kaling), number one CBS superfan, finds out that her favorite soap opera, Tides of Tomorrow, is casting for a biracial baby and she becomes as excited as she would be if you told her Michael Fassbender was waiting for her in her office. She brings her son Leo to audition, and while she’s picking up tips from a fellow stage mom, Leo uses his mom’s “hot genes” and gets picked to come back.

Back at the office, Morgan (Ike Barinholtz) and Colette (Fortune Feimster) have switched the doctors they assist while Colette avoids her brother Jody (Garret Dillahunt) because she can’t stand his girlfriend Courtney, who will be referred to as “Barfney” and “Fartney” in this episode. Mindy instructs Colette to pick up a celebratory cake with Leo’s face on the frosting… as well as her breast growth cream ASAP because she could “already feel them shrinking.” Hurry, Colette!

Jeremy (Ed Weeks) is predictably peeing his pants over the news that Leo will be on Tides of Tomorrow and offers to give him acting lessons because it turns out putting “Jager on his gums before they say action” is not quite the way to go. Did you know Jeremy is one of the stars of Law & Order: SVU? It’s true! “Fondled Man” recites his lines back to the office staff at the delight of Tamra (Xosha Roquemore), Beverly (Beth Grant) and Mindy. Later at Mindy’s apartment, Jeremy explains how important it is for Mindy to not fangirl out or cause drama on set and just fade into the background, a skill she has come to perfect “at nightclubs all the time.”

Mindy’s boyfriend Drew (Jay R. Ferguson) is still around, kind of. Even after sending him a sext that was “just gross enough,” he bails on their plans that night, and they agree to see each other in a few days. The next day, Mindy takes Leo to his big day on set where other famous things such as “Boston Market commercials and Sex and the City 2 reshoots” have been filmed. They run into her new stage mom friend, Kathy (Tracie Thoms) and her son Noah, and everything is fine until… Leo gets the role! He’s going to be the main baby! Mindy squeals with joy and Kathy seethes with anger.

Hold your horses there, Kathy. This is Mindy Lahiri we’re dealing with. Just be patient. And sure enough, once Mindy tells her the show already used a boat crash as a storyline recently, Kathy encourages her to go alert a producer. Mindy wants all the glory of pointing that out, walks up to the head writer to show off her knowledge of the show, and strolls away from her conversation pleased as a peach, positive that she saved the show. She even briefly considers a career directing, but decides, “Nah, that’s a man’s job.”

Back at her actual job, Colette brings her drama with her brother to Jeremy, who encourages her to talk to her brother Forbes, but finally allows her to switch duties with Tamra. LOL do you think that even remotely flies with Tamra? Because it does not. She’s back in Jeremy’s office, bossing him around, before anyone could even bat an eye.

Mindy plans a viewing party for Leo’s big debut, assigning Colette to read her mind and bring baked brie to the event. Unable to read Mindy’s mind is, well, Colette, but also Mindy’s boyfriend, Drew, who blows her off yet again. She’s disappointed but bounces back quickly because her son is going to be a celebrity, and tells Drew to be sure to watch the episode. The viewing party is not quite up to Mindy’s standards, causing Colette to blow up at her. Mindy tells her to go back to working with Jody because his new girlfriend is better than his past conquests, including their sister-in-law, a fact Colette definitely knew. For sure. Not new information for her.

Except that it 100% was. She confronts Jody about it, and who should happen to intervene, but their mysterious brother Forbes (Aaron Hendry)! He tries to talk some sense into them and reconcile the drama until he learns what the latest fight is all about. Forbes remains calm for approx. 5 seconds before punching Jody in the face.

You think that’s shocking? Well, during the viewing party, Mindy finds out Leo wasn’t going to be making his big debut after all — Noah slipped into his spot! Jeremy scolds Mindy for not listening to his rules about stage moms and writers on set, but it doesn’t hurt as much as what goes down with Drew. When he comes over for dinner that night he lies to her about watching the episode and due to his other blow offs and avoiding spending time with Leo all week, they break up.

But the next day, Jody takes his busted face into Mindy’s office to tell her that he was bummed Leo was cut from the show (and that he learned what streaming is, congrats bro!) and that’s enough to make the inevitable occur: Mindy and Jody kiss. We’ve been building all season to this moment, and fine. It makes sense, and it’s kind of nice. Is it sad to see Drew go? Yes. Will this hopefully provide some hilarity when Jody has to kick Courtney to the curb? Indeed. But most importantly, will we miss the lineup of hotties The Mindy Project has provided us this season? Big yes! Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves — could a Mindy-Jody relationship really happen, or even remotely work? With just two episodes left in the season, we can’t wait to find out.

[Watch The Mindy Project on Hulu]