THE MINDY PROJECT: “Stay At Home MILF” Recap

Mindy seems to be coping well with her decision to become a stay at home mom after last week’s episode of The Mindy Project. (“It’s the greatest scam on earth,” according to our heroine.) That is until Danny gives her a reality check about what he perceives the job to entail (“cooking, cleaning, laundry, paying the bills, waxing the floor, keeping the piano in tune, stocking the pantry, raising our son and maintaining a positive attitude that sets a tone for the rest of the household.”) and so begins the shenanigans of this week’s episode.

I am Beyoncé Pad Thai: Before we start with what our heroine did this week, I’ve got to give a shout-out to the Baby’s First Enemies chart she “and Leo” came up with – Baby Cumberbatch, Princess Charlotte, Baby Shakira, Silas Timberlake, Brooklyn Lachey, Edie Knightley, Garbage Truck, and Louis Tomlinson’s Future Child. I always love seeing what pop culture references the show will out! Anyway, Mindy goes from not wearing pants to being immaculately dressed to impressed thanks to the advice of mommy blog, Modern Mominista. Mindy realises that she just needs to apply the focus that she uses as an OB/GYN to her new role and soon enough with some advice from the Internet, she’s flourishing – rising before Danny in order to send him off to work with a beverage, hand cleaning the house using organic products, and looking after Leo. When a fight with Danny results in her temporarily returning to work, it reminds Mindy that she is good at her job as a doctor and that she doesn’t want to give that up. And after a heart to heart with Colette (I am totally loving their friendship by the way – it’s nice to see Mindy have a girl pal once again!), Mindy realises that she has to tell Danny. I’ve got to say Mindy sure lived up to her Beyoncé Pad Thai warrior woman persona during that last scene of this week’s episode with the way she stayed calm and took charge, but more on that later!

Mischief With Morgan: When Jody asks the Schulman and Associates gang to help him find a male suitor to be Colette’s partner at their grandfather’s wedding, Colette asks Morgan to be her fake boyfriend so that her brother doesn’t realise the truth about her sexuality. This is Morgan’s first ask out, so naturally he’s like a 13-year-old girl and is delighted and takes his new role very seriously. Soon enough he is bonding with Jody and it’s like he is part of the family. Even after Colette admits the truth to her brother, Morgan still thinks he is in with a chance. Bless! Oh and this week we also learnt that Morgan was in prison with Carson Cressley of Queer Eye For the Straight Guy fame and Carson changed Morgan’s sense of fashion.

The Gang’s All Here: Jeremy installs an officewide intercom because his morning meetings are always interrupted before he can even finish a sentence. Too bad for Jeremy that the team has figured out how to hijack it. (In fact, Colette ends up using it to confess the truth to her brother.) Also in typical Jeremy fashion, there is a 40 digit password for the office Wi-Fi. Apart from the team wondering if Jody will ever realise the truth about his sister and Morgan pretending to be her boyfriend, shenanigans are a bit quieter in the office this week.

The Ballad of Mindy and Danny: The topic of conversation between these two this week is the duties of being a stay at home mom, sorry Mindy – MILF (which according to Danny, stands for Mother I’d Like to French.) At first Mindy takes it all in her stride and works hard to perfect her new role, but when Danny suggests that she should try to branch outside of cooking grilled cheese and tomato soup, she gets riled up, which then turns into beyond riled up when Danny suggests she cools off while he goes to the gym since he needs a break from working all day. Mindy is not impressed when Danny insinuates that her job is to “hang out all day”. The next thing you know, the two decide to switch jobs the following week. Come Monday morning, it seems like being a stay at home dad is a piece of cake for Danny – he’s already managed to go for a morning run and whip up a restaurant quality breakfast. By 11am, Danny seems to be going well with his to-do list for the day (which includes baking not one but two apple pies) – sure the cable guy is five minutes late, but Danny is confident there will still be time to run some Italian flashcards with Leo. Jump to 2pm and Danny is a hot mess because the cable guy still hasn’t come. Literally a hot mess – he’s spilt Leo’s warm milk all over the floor, along with the second apple pie. Not so easy after all is it Danny? Yet when Mindy arrives home from work that night, she finds Danny painting, the house spotless and a glazed duck ready for dinner. Poor Min ends up having a heart-to-heart with Leo, confessing that unlike his dad who excels at everything he does, she’s only good at her job and wants Leo to be proud of her and wants to go back to work. It’s during this confession time that Mindy notices that something is off and realises that Danny called his mother for help. Mindy confronts him about it and the pair make up (which includes cute impressions of Leo’s silent cry!) and just as Mindy prepares to share her true feelings with Danny, he gets a phone call from his half sister in California – their dad has had a heart attack. While Danny freaks out and debates between flying over there or not, it is Mindy who is the strong and rational one – she tells him that it’s all going to be okay. He will fly out there and she’ll go back to work while he’s away and his mom can look after Leo. Beyoncé Pad Thai, hear her roar!

Say It Again!

• “They say being a stay at home mom is the noblest and hardest profession a woman can have. But they’re all lying. It’s the greatest scam on earth. I never have to put on pants, my boobs magically make baby food and I get to spend all day with my best buddy Leo.” – The truth according to Mindy Lahiri.
• “Danny, I can’t clean! I was born in this country and I’m too lazy.” – Mindy is entitled and she knows it.
• “Oh you have a crush on me, you’re too old. I’m sorry.” – Beverly thinks Jody is into her.
• “Colette’s gay right? Because if not, then I’m taking back the walking stick I got her for her birthday.” – Tamra
• “I mean your Pintrest is all pictures of steaks you wanna cook.” – Morgan reassures Colette he knows she is gay.
• “Sure, I’ll go take cooking classes at the Manhattan Institute for Women with Infinite Time!” – Mindy is not impressed with Danny’s suggestion.
• ” Why don’t you stay here and look after Leo and I go out for awhile? I haven’t been outside since I took our trash to the river!” – Mindy’s getting cabin fever.
• “What am I doing here? That’s like asking Rihanna what she’s doing at the Met Ball. I’m the queen of this ish.” – Mindy’s back at Schulman and Associates
• “He took me on his boat. Nobody has ever done that and brought me back.” – Morgan is enjoying bro time with Jody.
• “You cannot use a Southern Family’s gay secret for personal gain. What are you, in a Tennessee Williams play?” – Mindy is not impressed with Morgan’s duplicity.
• “If you’re not your authentic self, what was even the point of Glee?” – Mindy sharing wisdom with Colette.
• “It’s hard. It’s really hard. I wasn’t lying like my allergy to vegetables.” – Mindy is telling Danny the truth about parenthood.

New episodes of The Mindy Project are released on Hulu every Tuesday.