The Mindy Project – “The Devil Wears Lands’ End”

Season Three, Episode Five

Grade: A-

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While no one believes that The Mindy Project is a great show, the fact that the show itself understands that is why it has survived thus far. Working through its many flaws, once in a while the show can capitalize on some solid, stand-alone episodes such as this one. Sure, the Mindy-Danny relationship is a rocky roller coaster that I cannot believe is still working (but it is because this is a sitcom), but they’re good together for the show. The Jeremy-Peter rivalry has been an ongoing plot for a handful of episodes and this time around we see them team up together. This is as good as The Mindy Project gets.

So there’s a new hospital administrator (Niecy Nash) and the gang are off to a terrible start when they arrive at her meeting late, plus it didn’t help that Mindy’s cell phone (Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”) goes off, interrupting everything. The result, their practice is scheduled to work the graveyard shift and everyone is blaming Mindy. Naturally, Mindy feels like she can save the day by taking Jean out on the town. While they do have a great time together, Jean leans in and kisses Mindy on the lips, something unexpected but also something Mindy doesn’t reject. Now Mindy’s in a whole new conflict: they were taken off the graveyard shift but now Jean is making moves on Mindy. What’s a girl to do?!

Then there’s the B-story, which being a beer pong enthusiast myself, enjoyed probably a bit too much. What really works in the B-story is that something emotionally real actually happens. Peter and Jeremy have been feuding the past few weeks, but this was their first opportunity to team up. And team up they did at the Dartmouth beer pong tournament! Note: The scene where Morgan is trying out to be Peter’s partner is hilarious as he can’t even throw a ping pong ball into a bucket.

We get the frat house vibe at the beer pong tournament, a vibe we’ve become accustomed to with Peter’s character. But Jeremy soon realizes that Peter is bothered by the group calling him by his nickname “Lefty.” Why “Lefty”? Because throughout college his girlfriends have always left him for other friends. Oof, that hurts especially because Jeremy is right there next to him, but Barf makes it his goal to have Peter win the beer pong championship, which he does! So Peter gets to pick his own nickname, “Diarrhea.” Okay, it’s not the best name to pop into Peter’s head, but you actually feel like something important was accomplished in this story-line.

Now back to Mindy’s girl problems, we learn that Jean has a wife who are on the verge of breaking up because of Mindy’s kiss. I guess that somewhat makes sense, even though it’s a bit weird that Jean came onto Mindy in the first place. The only way to fix this problem is for Danny to pretend he’s going to commit suicide because of this (not so) huge problem! Yes, you can always depend on Mindy to be dramatic and to over-react to every situation she’s in. But just like the beginning where Mindy cries herself out of a speeding ticket, Danny does his best impersonation of Mindy and lies his way out of their predicament. Mindy couldn’t be any prouder.

While a lot of this episode was silly, it was enjoyable and funny throughout, which is more than I can say about last night’s New Girl episode. I wonder how many whacky situations the writers have up their sleeves when it comes to Mindy and Danny’s relationship. And though Morgan was terribly missed for most of the episode (his Iggy Azalea ring-tone joke was great), it was important for Peter and Jeremy to be back on the same page. Will Jean be a reoccurring character? Probably not, but The Mindy Project certainly doesn’t have a shortage of cameos.