After weeks of just being the hot, blonde, comically unfeeling new doctor on The Mindy Project, Anna finally gets her big moment this week — and it works out pretty well!
Anna serves as a perfect foil for Mindy, who has curiously been functioning without one, despite her extreme personality. Now that Anna is getting divorced and bunking with Mindy, they’re getting plenty of forced intimate time. Mindy makes Anna hang out with her and wear matching pajamas — amazing pajamas, as usual for Mindy. (The pajamas, Mindy explains, “used to be Danny’s. You’re the same size.†I appreciate the joke as well as the fact that we’re not pretending Danny never existed.) Mindy even calls in sick for Anna so they can spend more quality time together.
And by “quality time,†I mean “sharing internet porn time.†In another nice nod to consistency in the Mindy universe, Sploderzz makes a triumphant cameo return to help Anna loosen up during her divorce recovery. If you don’t recall, back in ye olden days of 2014, Mindy had to fight with Sploderzz to get them to take down a sex tape she made with her old boyfriend (the one played by Bill Hader). Anyway, Mindy encourages her new roomie to explore whatever her kink is: “You’re far too uptight to not have a kink … Mine is biracial job interviews.†Anna’s kink, FYI, turns out to be hairy backs. Very surprising! She finds the video “Armenian Restaurant Owner Breaks in New Cook†quite satisfactory. It’s a strangely cute bonding moment, so never say Mindy has nothing to offer the world.
In a slightly less peaceful roommate situation, Colette’s new girlfriend, Karen, is driving Morgan crazy by doing such things as playing ukulele in his closet. She also sings, with a voice that Colette describes (lovingly) as “like Carole King with real bad allergies.†Morgan has a date with Dina from the cafeteria, so he’d like to be able to bring her back to his place. Unfortunately for him, Colette and Karen are celebrating their three-week anniversary: “We’re gonna go to fifth base. It’s a lesbian thing. It’s super-important.†Suffice to say, there are many conflicts afoot at the Colette-Morgan household.
At the office, Jeremy is explaining his own version of the Jersey Shore “GTL†time: While the original version was gym/tanning/laundry, his is “gin/tonic/lacework.†As he shares this window into his private time with Mindy, Anna comes in with a scone for him. “And people wonder why I always carry a small jar of currant jam on my person,†he says, happily accepting. Now Mindy knows that Anna is into Jeremy! She encourages him to ask Anna out, but he balks that it would be inappropriate since they work together. Mindy states the obvious: “Everyone here is inappropriate.†Literally, at that exact moment, Colette and Karen are making out in the middle of the office, so … yeah.
It turns out Jody wants to ask Anna out, too. In fact, as Mindy once again obviously states, pretty much every dude wants to ask Anna out. I mean, look at her! (“I can hear Leonardo DiCaprio turning his yacht around as we speak,†Mindy says.) Time is of the essence for Jeremy, so he informs Jody that he would like to ask Anna out. He explains that they have history; after all, she kissed him in last week’s episode. Jody is ready for that one: “So? She kissed me, too.†(Remember? She did, in the Leland Breakfast episode.) Jody calls dibs, but Jeremy is not having that. He’s not going to give up: “Just because my best friends are a piano and a bird doesn’t mean I’m the beta.†I prefer the way he says Anna with that bit of an R sound at the end because of his British accent, so I call dibs for Jeremy.
Jeremy preps by asking Tamra for advice on where he should take Anna. She suggests a few places in RhombInTri — obviously, the rhombus under Tribeca — rather than his idea of a perfect date, apple crumble at Serendipity. While he’s distracting with all those choices, Jody just goes and asks Anna out! “He got her dad’s permission and everything,†Tamra explains. Jeremy does an end run around Anna’s impending date with Jody by showing up unannounced at Mindy’s (and Anna’s) place that night, bearing prosecco, strawberries, and clotted cream. (If she doesn’t want this date, I’ll take it!) He texts Jody to brag that he’s already with Anna, which feels like a move that might backfire.
Over at Colette and Morgan’s, Morgan has brought Dina home with him, and they’re making out on his top bunk when Karen emerges from the closet. A startled Morgan promptly throws Dina to the floor. She not only breaks up with him, she also bans him from the cafeteria. Colette comes home to yell at Morgan for scaring Karen away, and they have an amazing physical fight. “I can’t afford steroids like you!†Morgan shouts. Colette is heartbroken, because Karen is the first girl she’s liked in a long time.
Anna and Jeremy’s non-date is going only slightly better. She seems intrigued that he brought with him a “Doors of Rochester, New York†puzzle — that’s her hometown! But he spills prosecco on the paperwork she’s doing, which turns out to be her divorce papers. Soon she’s crying, despite having shown almost no emotion on her face during her entire time on this show so far. (This is a compliment; it’s freaky how well the actress, Rebecca Rittenhouse, keeps her face totally neutral, then conveys legitimate emotion here.) The date soon turns around, as Jeremy helps Anna with her papers, just as he once did for his mother. This sweet moment is interrupted by Anna’s pager calling her to the hospital.
When she gets there, surprise! It’s not a delivery — it’s an impromptu romantic picnic with Jody. He takes a photo to brag to Jeremy, but the whole thing goes downhill fast. Anna does not appreciate being tricked; she had even called her patient’s husband in Afghanistan. Plus, she says, “Do you have any idea how much placenta must have been tracked on this floor?â€
At the office the next day, Karen and Morgan make up when she apologizes to him with a song called “When Morgans Cry.†Although he doesn’t want to hear the song, they do bond over what it’s like to be weird. Jeremy makes a real move on Anna, who rejects him, then storms into the reception area to announce that she’s not planning to date any of them. “There’s something very wrong with this office!†she fumes. But we do see her happily doing the “Doors of Rochester†puzzle afterward, so she is not done with Jeremy yet.