Tonight’s episode of “The Mindy Project” really plays up the differences between men and women—or at least between Mindy and the guys in her office. She finds them in the midst of a bout of “wings and stings,” running around the office with toy dart guns while a plate of chicken wings cools on the counter. After causing Danny’s “death,” naturally, Mindy’s held up by Peter in a ridiculous but very funny standoff involving references to bacon.
We see a few more incidents of boy versus girl preferences as Mindy tries to get to know Peter better, proposing to build a gazebo in the practice’s open air terrace while ignoring his suggestions for a grill or a basketball hoop, and then taking him for lunch in her favorite, most girly restaurant. I’m not sure why she’s suddenly so concerned with liking Peter—or for that matter when Danny became such good friends with him. I thought he didn’t like Peter either.
The battle of the sexes culminates in Peter’s participation in an amateur MMA wrestling match, at which Danny, Jeremy, Morgan, and Mindy cheer him on. While trying to pump Peter up for the match, Mindy achieves the opposite effect, turning Peter into a puddle of tears by mentioning that his ex-girlfriend got engaged. Peter enters the ring a shell of the man he was before, and gets pummeled.
Mindy of course fixes it—or at least makes it a little better, by getting in the ring and helping Peter channel his anger so that he can at least fight his terrifying opponent, who as Mindy describes, probably “guards the gates to hell.” They also bond a little while she bandages him up and he’s high on painkillers.
Meanwhile, Morgan is suddenly interested in Tamra, who is disappointed in her until-tonight invisible boyfriend, Ray Ron (Josh Peck). He forgot their anniversary again, and she starts to wonder what many of us wonder: why is she with him? She helps Morgan build a gazebo on the terrace, which is torn down by the end of the episode—it’s always so easy to create and destroy things on television—but rejects his offer of dinner because she’s loyal to Ray Ron.
Ray Ron shows up at the MMA match looking for Morgan because he’s afraid of losing Tamra to him. They fight, but Morgan ends up helping Ray Ron, telling him what he needs to do to keep Tamra. The next day, Ray Ron goes to the practice and makes up with Tamra, promising to be a better boyfriend and to take her out to a “menu restaurant.”
While Mindy is distracted with the boys’ club’s adventures, her plans with new beau Jason get derailed. I knew that relationship would be short lived, but I thought it would last more than one episode. Ah well. He hints at Mindy’s attraction for Danny because she knows his favorite sushi order, even though Mindy and Danny are slowly burying any resemblance of attraction for each other, other than a developing friendship. Clearly they’re both repressing or hiding it, but I maintain that it’ll pick up by the end of the season.
Meanwhile, I would actually love to see Mindy at work on a medical case or dealing with a patient (we saw a little of this with Kendra Wilkinson’s round-card girl). It’s easy to forget that Mindy’s still a confident, smart, capable medical professional—who happens to like girly things like romantic comedies.
Here are some of my favorite lines tonight:
“He knows this is a game, right?”—Jeremy, about Peter’s faux hostage situation
“Just let him kill himself so we can go home and watch TV.”—Mindy
“How dare you, they’re both huge.”—Mindy, referring to her boobs
“We’re getting a gazebo dammit, and maybe a maypole in the spring for dancing.”—Mindy
“Ultimate fighting: It’s like boxing plus wrestling plus strangling.”—Peter
“I follow all of your exes on Facebook.”—Mindy
“When I first met you, I thought you were annoying, and then I got to know you better and I still didn’t like you, and now I think you’re a nice lady. We’re friends.”—Danny, to Mindy
“So they think you’re homeless?”—Tamra, to Morgan
“I led with ‘Breaking Bad.’ I said Walter White was an anti-hero and he rolled his eyes.”—Jason, about talking to the sushi chef
“What? There’s nothing homoerotic about grappling with another man, pinning him to the ground, and making him succumb to your will.”—Danny, about ultimate fighting
“You have great chemistry!”—Mindy, to the MMA wrestlers
“He’s just standing there and taking it like he’s the wife in a country music movie.”—Mindy
“Not for nothing but, it is what it is.”—Peter, imitating Danny on relationship talk
What did you think of tonight’s episode, “Mindy” fans? Did you buy Morgan’s interest in Tamra? Was Ray Ron everything you thought he’d be? Are you sad Mindy’s relationship with Jason is already over?
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