THE MINDY PROJECT: “The Lahiris and the Castellanos” recap

It’s a total family affair this week with the Lahiris and Castellanos meeting for the first time. With Danny finally returning, things are back on track for our heroine right? If only it were that simple… Sit tight, because we have a lot of ground to cover from the latest episode of The Mindy Project.

I am Beyoncé Pad Thai: It’s reunions all round this week for Mindy, with Danny back at home and her family in town to celebrate the engagement and help plan the wedding. As expected, both the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom each have their own ideas on how the wedding should be, but that’s not all Mindy has to deal with – Danny doesn’t know that Jody is now a Later Baby partner and has been helping Mindy expand the business by travelling to colleges and pitching to female students that they should freeze their eggs. Let’s just say that when Danny finds out, he’s not exactly jumping for joy. We may have known for a while that Mindy loves being a working mom, but even before he left for California, Danny was under the impression that Mindy was content with being a stay-at-home mom. While I can understand Danny’s confusion, along with Mindy I am not impressed with how he reacted – more on that later – but I applaud Mindy for standing her ground and not letting Danny bully her into a decision and going on the business trip with Jody anyway. On that note, shout-out to Mindy Kaling for portraying Mindy Lahiri as strong yet vulnerable. Kaling is an awesome comedian but she also slays the more serious and emotional scenes too and in my opinion, does not get the credit she deserves for it.

Mischief With Morgan: With the focus being on Danny and Mindy this week, Morgan helps act as a decoy to separate Mindy’s mom, Sonu, and Danny’s mom, Annette, at the engagement party. He takes this to mean asking Annette for advice on his wound, which has healed but has a rash around it and is making a hiss sound. Oh Morgan! The lovable nurse also wants to bring Neil the Dog to the party but Danny vetoed the idea, even after Morgan offered to put Neil in a sweater.

The Gang’s All Here: Danny asks the Schulman and Associates team (which includes some nurse I swear I have never seen before) for a favour – to attend his and Mindy’s engagement party that night. For the most part (that we can see), the gang behave themselves, and Mindy’s brother, Rishi, even tries to pick up Tamra, which she shuts down. The friendship between Mindy and Jody also seems to be blossoming too – he pushes her to go on the business trip with him to further their business and afterwards on the flight back home, it is Jody who realises that Mindy is not completely happy and acts as the voice of reason, giving her valuable advice.

The Ballad of Mindy and Danny: Now that Danny is back, everything was meant to be right in the world again. Yet if anything, there appeared to be more drama. Everything seems fine when the episode opens with Mindy waking up and Danny presents her a jewellery box, which actually has a date inside much to Mindy’s horror. It’s Danny’s way of saying he wants to set a date for their wedding! That night at dinner at Annette’s along with Dot, Richie and Rishi, wedding plan discussions begin where Annette basically guilt trips Mindy into doing what she wants, including going to Gretchen’s Wedding Pile and Beeper Store to find a wedding dress. After rejecting eight wedding dresses, it’s safe to say that this store is not Mindy’s style, yet she agrees to buy one after Annette guilt trips her yet again and tells her of how Danny’s first wife Christina and her mom shut Annette out of the wedding planning process. Don’t worry, Mindy doesn’t actually plan on wearing that dress.

That same week, Mindy and Danny arrive home to be greeted  by Mindy’s parents – Surprise, they are staying with them to help plan the wedding! Yes having both sets of in-laws in town who have different opinions and tastes is as much of a recipe for disaster as it sounds, and after a lot of competitiveness, it all comes to a head at the engagement party. Also coming to a head at the same time is Danny discovering Mindy’s desire to be a working mom. Now that he’s back, she’s not supposed to be working because they had a deal. Mindy tells him that when he left she had to be a mom and go to work and it was the hardest thing she had to do but she did it and loves it, more importantly she wants to keep doing it. However, Danny shuts her down saying that his childhood was terrible because he and Richie had to take care of themselves while their mother worked in order to provide for them, and Danny doesn’t want that for Leo. He wants Leo to be loved and surrounded by family. Mindy tries to reassure Danny that Leo will be fine, but Danny is not convinced. At this point, Mindy accuses Danny of bullying her into a decision (you go, girl!) and suggests that he gives up his career and stay at home then, leading Danny to declare that he doesn’t even recognise their relationship anymore before storming out.

In the aftermath of this fight, Mindy apologises to Annette about lying about the dress and for the drama with Sonu. Annette admits that she has come to think of Mindy as her daughter is jealous of Mindy going after her dreams and encourages her to keep doing what she’s doing. In a touching moment, Mindy says that Sonu may be her mother but Annette is her ma. Aww! With Mindy on her business trip, Danny ends up having a chat with her dad, who tells Danny a cautionary tale, revealing that Sonu put her career on hold for their family and has always resented him for it. Could this be the reality check that Danny needs? He flies to Georgia where Mindy and Jody are doing their presentation and hides in the audience, only to reveal himself during the Q&A. After the presentation, Danny tells Mindy how impressed he is with the work she is doing and just when you think he’s come around, he calls it a hobby and thinks it’s great because she can stay at home with Leo and then do this on the weekend. He elaborates that they’ll be having another kid soon (which is news to Mindy since she hasn’t thought about it since Leo was born) so it’ll be a great distraction when she needs to get out of the house, and that is the reason why he pushed up the wedding. (Oh hell no, he did not! Sadly yes he did.) Stunned by the turn in this conversation, Mindy somewhat agrees and Danny doesn’t seem to notice that her heart’s not in it. On the flight back home Danny is sleeping while Mindy looks pensive. Jody is also with them and notices that Mindy is not her usual self and warns her not to lose sight of what she wants because of Danny. Aeroplanes were once a sacred thing for Mindy and Danny, so I’m a little annoyed that this has tainted it for them a bit. We’ll need a grand old gesture to rectify this!

Say It Again!:

• “Oh my god, fruit! You know I hate fruit! What’s wrong with you?…It’s my living nightmare!” – Mindy does not react well when she opens the jewellery box that Danny presents to her.
• “Here comes the bride, here comes the cash, the church is going cray ‘cos it’s all about the ass.” – Rishi gives us a taste of what we can expect when he DJs their wedding.
• “Oh really Danny? I can choose any dress I want for my wedding? That’s so nice. But your mom is going to come on the honeymoon with us so she can tuck you in at night, right?” – Something tells us that Mindy’s feeling a bit resentful over Annette’s interference with the wedding planning.
• “Wealth? What wealth? My allowance is still crap!” – Mindy still gets an allowance from her parents?!
• “Look, Ma only likes people who are the same as her culturally, but still slightly worse off so she can feel comfortable but superior.” – Danny explaining why he doesn’t want the two in-laws meeting.
• “I already returned the ticket and I spent the money on a weights trainer from Taiwan that made me barf.” – Mindy trying to excuse herself from going on the trip with Jody.
• “I do. They made racism of the South seem quaint.” – Colette chiming in after Annette declares that no one would want to go to Boston for Mindy and Danny’s wedding.
• “My family has been here for two days and you’ve threatened to throw yourself out of the window 14 times.” – Mindy’s comeback to Danny when he asks her if she wants Leo to be surrounded by family as he grows up.
• “You know what I do. I love seeing every wrinkly inch of it. Because that’s life. That’s what family is.” – Danny seems to have a warped perception of what family is after Mindy asks him if he actually likes having her family around and having to see Mr Lahiri’s penis while her family stays with them.
• “Please, two screaming mother-in-laws does not ruin a party. In India it’s rude if you don’t fight.” – Mindy to Annette after Annette apologises for causing a scene at the engagement party.
• “Guess what Princess Jasmine? Your daughter just called me Ma.”- Annette can’t wait to gloat to Sonu.
• “Once a week she screams ‘you ruined my dreams’ and throws a scalding tea bag at my face.” – Mindy’s dad wasn’t kidding when he said that his wife resents him.
• “Guys, Spring Break is a joke. The drinks are crazy expensive, you make out with a girl to get into a video and then they edit you out…if you still want to bring shame to your family, you can stay in New York and take improve classes.” – Mindy tries to relate to the college girls while pitching to them to let Later Baby freeze their eggs.

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