THE MINDY PROJECT: “Later Baby” Recap

Although a comedy, in this week’s episode of The Mindy Project we see how hard single parenthood can be, even if it is temporary in our heroine’s case. Things aren’t helped when a familiar face pops back into town either. Nonetheless, it does make for great laughs…

I am Beyoncé Pad Thai: Remember when we all thought Leo was the perfect baby ‘cos he was adorable and barely made a noise? This week, baby Castellano clearly makes up for lost time. We open this week’s episode on the subway where Mindy is travelling home after fruit shopping and Leo is crying. It’s a struggle for poor Mindy and she drops her groceries not once, but twice and no one bothers to help her. Poor Mindy can’t complain to Danny because he’s having a hard enough time as it is but she doesn’t want to add to his stresses. Mindy’s stress levels aren’t helped when she realises that she has to do Danny’s share of the chores while he’s away (ie all of them) and Annette decides that sweatshirt decorating classes are more important than looking after her grandson, and also later falls prey to the flu. Having an unexpected house guest in the form of Peter Prentice, who is basically an overgrown child, is not the best thing for Mindy either. With so much happening this week (read on to find out what else could Mindy possibly add to her plate!), our heroine neglects to take proper care of herself and realizes at the end of the episode that it’s okay to admit when you’re struggling and need help.

Mischief with Morgan: At Mindy’s fertility practice, she and Morgan are meeting with her financial adviser, who informs them that they are in the negative numbers when it comes to profits. It turns out they spent most of their revenue on the Later Baby launch party, which no one attended thanks to a mistake by Morgan. Basically they need more new clients otherwise Later Baby will be saying see you later permanently. In an attempt to attract new clients, Morgan spends a grand on one of those spinning signs (which also makes me wonder where he got the funds – he’s on less than minimum wage apparently!) Morgan is also adamant that Mindy nails her presentation at NYU (more on that later) and instructs her to keep at it and even advises her against going to get Leo after Annette falls sick. (Mindy does not listen to him of course.)

The Gang’s All Here: Ex Schulman and Associates doctor, Peter Prentice comes back to town on a whim and decides to stay with Mindy. What he doesn’t realise is that having a baby changes things and Mindy can’t just go out and get drunk with him anymore (even if he spikes her water with caffeine pills). It isn’t long before she tries to pawn him off to someone else and Jeremy steps up to the plate. Tired of being set up by Jody after his break up with Whitney, Jer is eager for a gentlemen catch-up dinner, but he’s about to be disappointed. In an attempt to settle the tension between nurses Tamra and Colette (Colette keeps pranking Tamra and Tamra ain’t impressed.), Peter invites them to his dinner with Jeremy. At dinner, Peter tries to fix things between the girls by telling them that things weren’t always great between him and Jeremy, but now they’re best buds. Fed up, Jer explodes and tells Peter he’s a terrible friend, having neglected Jeremy when he went to visit Peter in Texas last month. Jeremy storms out and as a result, Tamra and Colette make up after becoming allies and agreeing Peter is a bad friend. (It turns out Colette keeps pranking Tamra to get her attention and be her friend.)

Meanwhile, Jody notices that Mindy is not her usual bright self and asks what he can do to help, she says unless he can bring back her fiancé from California, bring in new clients to her clinic or take out her epistemology stitches, then nothing! Lo’ and behold, he shows up at the clinic with the idea of giving talks at universities to attract new clients. As much as she secretly likes his idea, Mindy rejects Jody, his idea and request to be a partner in the business. Instead, she steals his idea (or tries to ‘cos he finds out), but when she oversleeps (thanks to Peter) Jody ends up covering up her and delivering the presentation at NYU. Mindy catches the tail end of it, which also includes the revelation that Jody’s erotic encounters have (at least) included the NYU female campus! Quickly taking him off stage to salvage her business’s reputation, Min finds out that the reason why Jody sleeps with the girls, and also the reason why he moved from Georgia to New York is because he fell in love with his brother’s wife and slept with her and his brother can never know. As Mindy is talking to Jody, Morgan is distracting the crowd by attempting to do his backflip. After he finally nails it, Mindy shoos him off stage to salvage her reputation and it turns out speaking from the heart is the best way to connect with an audience and get them on your side. It’s looking promising for Mindy’s Later Baby fertitily clinic. Yay! It also looks like there’s a new partner – Mindy agrees to go 50-40 with Jody and lets Morgan be that extra 10%. She also has Jody take out her epistemology stitches and asks him to be her OB/GYN. This looks like the start of a beautiful friendship.

Speaking of beautiful friendships, Peter shows up at Jeremy’s apartment and tries to get their friendship back on track by serenading him with their song “Cowboy Take Me Away” by the Dixie Chicks. Peter explains that the reason why he was so distracted during Jeremy’s visit was because he was embarrassed by how uncool he himself has become – no longer a fun loving party boy, Pete’s now a whipped husband who is not allowed to talk sports in the house and gets kicked out to the porch when the in-laws come to visit. The friends make up and Peter invites himself to stay at Jeremy’s place for the rest of his trip (because some things never change, haha).

The Ballad of Mindy and Danny: Okay, how much longer is Mindy going to be doing the single parent thing? It’s putting some serious strain on her (there’s only so many fake sunglass wearing smiley face emojis and pep talk texts she can send to Danny!) and frankly we miss him. It is nice to see Mindy be there for Danny every time he feels down when his dad takes a turn for the worst, even though they’re so far apart. However, it was even better that she finally admitted that she was having a tough time too and he immediately called her so she could tell him all about it. Now please bring back Danny next week – I can’t take this separation anymore! (Besides we all need hope that there’s “one diamond in the crap heap of American men” and you can’t have that hope if your favourite couple is never seen on screen together!)

Say It Again!:

• “Anyway God, all that I’m asking is that you let me have this one bath with no interruptions. And if you don’t, I’m seriously switching religions to Kabahla and then Madonna can be my god.” – Poor Mindy needs a break
• “Nobody came because someone wrote Riker’s Island on the invitation. That someone was me.” – Morgan messed up the Later Baby launch party invites big time.
• “With respect, you started a office drama club but then didn’t put on a play because there was too much behind the scenes drama.” – Jeremy can see right through Tamra
• “Is the rapture here? Thank god ‘cos this business is going under.” – Morgan is grateful when Jody arrives to save Later Baby.
• “Ooh Rumpelstiltskin promotion. We get you pregnant for free, we keep the first baby.” – Oh Morgan, you do realise that’s illegal right?
• “You can’t steal an idea Morgan. It’s like stuff in the drug store that can fit in your pocket, it’s up for grabs.” – The logic of Mindy Lahiri, ladies and gentlemen!
• “Like we went to dinner and you just stared at your phone the whole time!” “I was live tweeting how mad at me you were.” – We’re starting to see why things are so tense between Jeremy and Peter.
• “You know what Leo? We all gave Precious’ mom a hard time, but I get it now. The single mom stuff sucks.” – Don’t worry Mindy, it’s not permanent!
• “You don’t leave a delicate British man alone in Texas, he carries a parasol in the sun.” – Even Tamra knows what’s wrong, Peter.
• “Southern people are complicated. The two things we’re known for is being friendly and slavery.” – Yeah, probably don’t say that out loud again Colette.
• “I didn’t see it. It probably sucked. Just get off the stage. Thank you.” – Poor Morgan, Mindy doesn’t appreciate your distraction efforts.
• “Being an adult is messy and hard. It’s not just smiley face emojis wearing sunglasses.” – Mindy

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