‘The Mindy Project’ Recap, Episode 426: Danny Picks a Wedgie

Well, it’s been a long (26 episodes!), hilarious season 4 of The Mindy Project, but, alas, we have arrived at the season finale, “Homewrecker.” And as she has done all season long, Mindy goes out with a bang.
The episode opens with Danny (Chris Messina) bringing adorable Leo, and an invite to his upcoming wedding, to Mindy’s (Mindy Kaling) apartment. Dan the Man practices what he wants to say to her door, but of course once he gets inside, he totally chokes. Mindy was feeling vulnerable after she fell asleep on her keyboard and “bought everything on iTunes,” so all Danny could muster is that he’s “getting…fed up with this mess.” Mindy bursts into tears, explaining how she read the nutritional facts from a box of Bagel Bites (yum) to Leo when she couldn’t find his book, and claiming she’s an unfit mother. Danny calms her down and takes back his original finger-pointing, telling her the mess is only helping to strengthen Leo’s immune system. She buys it and he’s out the door, but not without dropping the invite in the mail chute first. Dun dun dun!

But there’s no time for drama now, because Mindy is too busy getting ready for her girls’ trip to Miami with Whitney (Cristin Milioti) and Chelsea (Eliza Coupe), where they will have “10 gallons of mojitos” and she can forget all about Jody (Garret Dillahunt). He continues to try and apologize for being a scumbag to her with 30-minute speeches and a barrage of apology gifts, including an old-fashioned gun (which, why, Jody, why would you ever?). Luckily, she’s not having any of that until after the trip when she is, “Tan, braided and engaged to Ricky Martin or his husband.” High five to that, Mindy.

Jeremy (Ed Weeks) thinks his biggest drama of the week is getting Tamra (Xosha Roquemore) to wear her regular scrubs, not the kind that she cut into a crop top, which, honestly, looks amazing on her, even if she is “20% nude.” Work what you got, girl! But as it turns out, it’s someone else’s clothes that will cause the biggest headache. See, Mindy’s been keeping her pretty wardrobe at work in the janitor’s closet because she doesn’t have space for all those nice dresses in her apartment, since she transformed her closet into Leo’s room. When they catch on fire next to a hot pipe in the room, Colette (Fortune Feimster) extinguishes it, Mindy believes Kelly Ripa did it, and Jeremy mutters, “Fashion is going to destroy this office.” Actually? It’s what keeps the office vibrant and lovely, Jer!
Just when Mindy thinks things can’t get worse, Tamra delivers the message that Leo has been suspended from his school. Mindy suspects, “He’s so hot he probably hooked up with one of the teachers,” and rushes to the school to see if her suspicions will be confirmed.
Jody refuses to give up on Mindy and asks Morgan (Ike Barinholtz) if he can borrow the key to her apartment to leave her a surprise while she’s away. Morgan rightfully declines, mostly because she almost took it away when he hosted a gay dog wedding there. Jody reveals his plans to build her a walk-in closet and Morgan only agrees because she’s keeping all her accessories on Brian the skeleton at work.

Mindy and Danny find out the real reason Leo is suspended is that he bit a girl, but hey, it’s not entirely his fault. The little girl was wearing a cupcake onesie and Mindy confesses that even she would’ve bitten her for looking so delicious. While they start as a united front, Mindy and Danny quickly begin arguing over who Leo inherited his biting problem from (answer: both of them), and the conversation quickly arrives at Mindy’s nipples, dragging baseball players, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio and pot-smoking teens in the process.
Mindy and Danny and his ironed jeans get in the elevator to leave the school, and…are stuck. The elevator traps them in there alone, with no cell service and no one to rescue them late on a Friday night. Mindy is sad because she’s already packed all her wet t-shirts for her sex vacation, but Danny doesn’t want to hear about it because it’s “TM Information.” She vows not to talk, but you can guess exactly how long that lasts. When she does start yapping again, the conversation turns to the people they’ve each been dating.

Speaking of that guy, Jody, Morgan and Colette arrive at Mindy’s apartment to survey the scene for her new walk-in closet. A process that should’ve just required a tape measure, soon turns into a giant hole in the ceiling, because: Morgan. Jody heads upstairs to smooth things over with the neighbor and returns…having purchased the entire upstairs apartment for Mindy. It’s ok, Morgan and Colette are as surprised about this as you are.
Back in the elevator over Sour Straws, Danny runs through the entire list of women he’s dated, including one he thought would poison him, and one who changed his desktop screensaver, but surprisingly, the woman he’s getting married to doesn’t come up in the convo, hmm. This could have to do with Mindy sharing her story about how she sweetly stalked him one day and watched him be himself: buying protein powder, yelling at skateboarders, picking a wedgie, and of course, helping an old lady cross the street. Danny does disclose that he got Jody’s letter to Mindy and told him to stay away from her, which, points for being honest about something, Dan the Man. Mindy tells him Jody is not a good match for her and that things never got serious between them, but when she asks Danny the same question, he responds by kissing her. Really kissing her. That’s nice and all, but he’s very much omitting the truth. The two hook up in the elevator to Zayn’s “Pillowtalk” and it is super hot.

A janitor finally rescues Mindy and Danny from the elevator in the next morning, so they collect their clothes and he walks her back to her place. They’re sweet together, exchanging I love yous and the kind of dreamy smiles that make you remember why you rooted for Mindy and Danny in the first place. Oh, but those smiles quickly turn to concerned frowns. For Danny, it’s the realization that his wedding invite is on its way to Mindy right that moment.
For Mindy, it’s the fact that Jody is in her apartment when she gets home. He lets down a ladder leading upstairs, but she asks, “Is that Narnia? I don’t want to go, it’s for nerds.” She’s talked into it, and Jody helps her imagine the new space as a gorgeous room for Leo, and also the return of her walk-in closet, until she snaps back to reality, realizing she can’t afford the additional space and needs to save for retirement since “Leo’s bitch wife” will hate her and not support her when she’s old. Jody reveals that he bought it for her and that he is, against his better judgment, in love with her. “Holy shit” is all that Mindy can muster, and rightfully so. What would you say if someone bought you an additional apartment for your son/clothes and you weren’t even officially dating them? They’re pretty much the only two acceptable words in that moment. Even “thank you” doesn’t come until later.

Or at all. Because waiting downstairs in Mindy’s apartment, in her stack of mail, is that dreaded wedding invitation.
Damn you, The Mindy Project for leaving us on such a cliffhanger. In fact, so many cliffhangers! Will Mindy open Danny’s invite? Will he change his mind about the wedding and make Morgan come over to Mindy’s place to retrieve the envelope? Will Mindy accept the second apartment from Jody? Will they continue to contemplate being in a relationship with each other? And will we find out what happened to Mindy’s wet t-shirts? It would be a travesty if those got moldy.
It’s one thing to have to wait for answers to questions, but it’s another thing to have to wait with all these confusing feelings brewing. Should Mindy and Danny get back together, a concept that was unfathomable for more than half of this past season? Is Jody actually a sweet guy that deserves a chance, a concept that was unfathomable for almost the entire season? All these emotions! Can season 5 just be Mindy and her gal pals on their sexcation? Because despite being such a sweet and romantic finale, that’s really the only no-brainer this episode presented.
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