Herein, we witness some reasonably entertaining treading of water between major plot developments. But hey, I’ve seen worse on television. For starters, we have Mindy’s line: “I have exquisite credit. I have 25 credit cards.†See, she has just persuaded Danny to move to San Francisco, because we are still pretending like that’s a possibility, and she is still trying to start a practice with Dr. Gurglar. And “the little Mindy†is not what she calls her crotch, despite what she claims in this episode. She is definitely still pregnant — a tiny part of me was still skeptical, but this seems to further solidify matters.
In any case, Richard Gant, of the criminally underrated Men of a Certain Age, plays Danny’s lawyer, when Danny wants to change his will in light of Mindy’s pregnancy. You should all go back and watch Men of a Certain Age, if you haven’t before. If you have already, instead pay attention to the fact that Morgan thinks Danny is dying because he overhears the conversation with the lawyer. Also, probably pay attention to the fact that Mindy and Cliff are in touch again, if only because Cliff is leaving his office and this opens the possibility for Mindy to start her own practice in this space. Hooray for consistency … or whatever.
Speaking of consistency, Mindy’s excellent brother, Rishi, is back. He’s the reason Mindy’s credit is bad; he hasn’t paid his rent in some time. They have some significant discussions about how Mindy hasn’t told their parents that she is pregnant out of wedlock with a white guy’s child; there is, as she says, a world in which she never tells them. I certainly hope not. I am hoping, in fact, to meet her parents roughly two to three weeks ago. Instead, I must settle for the idea of Rishi working as a med tech at Mindy’s new practice, wherever that may be, because he is a biology major.
In New York …
Who knows where this practice will end up, though I’m betting on New York. Sure, Danny has been, as Tamra notes, “hella emo lately,†but that’s to be expected. It may seem like he’s dying, but in fact he is just leaving the practice. Maybe for NorCal, where, as he says, “it’s all Chinese food and tacos.†Mindy, he tells his colleagues, is happy: “She said it was the best present I ever gave her.â€
Finally, after an office tribute to Danny, he explains: He’s not dying; Mindy is just pregnant. Now we all know the truth.
In San Francisco …Â
Rishi is, it turns out, working as a drug dealer for an individual known as “Big Murder.†Mindy catches him in action outside the café where she and Dr. Gurglar are interviewing him as a med tech. (I love how I’m dropping the phrase “med tech†now as if medical technicians are a normal thing in my everyday life.) Dr. Gurglar is not loving it. I am just wondering if Dr. Gurglar is a permanent thing now on The Mindy Project?
In fact, I am wondering where we are going with this whole Mindy Project thing in general. As I said last week, I feel like I’m watching a real relationship, not a sitcom one. That makes this both a wonderful and questionable investment. I’m kind of fine with it either way, but it feels weird.
There is a brief moment in which “Big Murder†won’t let Rishi quit. But it turns out John Cho is Big Murder, so, I mean, come on. As Mindy notes, “What are you, like, his math tutor?†His friends call him Greg. The only reason he’s torn between whether Mindy should call him “Big Murder†or whether she should call him “Greg†is that he doesn’t know “what our dynamic is yet.†(I am mainly still grieving the loss of the 2009–10 ABC series FlashForward, on which John Cho played a major character. It was totally fun, and also Joseph Fiennes was on it, looking incredible. You should check it out if you can find it somewhere.) Anyway, Big Murder/John Cho offers Rishi a 20 percent raise, which is something. In the end, though, to Rishi’s disappointment, it doesn’t live up to the legacy of Wahlburgers, the burger place and reality series of the same name involving members of the Wahlberg family of New Kids on the Block fame.
I seriously cannot begin to conceive of where we’re going with any of this. I have felt that way since I learned that Mindy is indeed pregnant, not just some kind of fake-out sitcom pregnant. I feel even more that way now that we’re still toying with San Francisco, though we’re probably ultimately going to settle in Cliff’s office. I feel still more that way now that the Wahlbergs have so much involved in this situation. I look forward to seeing how it all works out in the end.
Oh my God, are we going to meet Mindy’s parents soon or what?