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Mindy doesn’t go to an ex’s wedding for the first time since we’ve known her, Beverly gives us an open-bar life hack that requires a bucket, & the Sonu Lahiri is back to drop some motherly pearls of wisdom.
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Cough cough nepotism
It’s Danny’s wedding weekend! The staff is taking a half day so they can prepare and they’re all talking about how excited they are to be going. Morgan, Tamra & Colette try to console Mindy, who ISN’T GOING! Just let that sink in, we first met Mindy when she went to Tom’s wedding & we were there when she went to Josh’s; for her to not go to Danny’s shows so much growth but also how much this wedding has to be killing her inside, even though she won’t admit it.
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Currently single, not looking to stay that way
Mindy & Ben are practicing Leo’s ring bearer duties with him and he seems to pretty much suck at it. Ben offers to find a new chaperone for Lindsay’s tournament so he can stay with her but she promises she’ll be fine. They continue to be adorable when Annette & Dot show up to pick up Leo. Dot is busy flirting with Ben the whole time (my hero) but Annette takes a serious turn and apologizes to Mindy for how things have turned out, she knows how hard it is to see your son’s father marry someone else. We also learn that Annette does not like Sarah one bit, because she lets Danny push her around. I feel so much for Sarah y’all, she deserves better.
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I don’t need to go to a wedding to get drunk & make a fool out of myself, I can do that right here.
Later that night, Mindy is watching Wheel Of Fortune by herself, waiting on a giant delivery of BBQ. Jeremy texts her from Danny’s bachelor dinner (where Beverly made a very moving speech apparently) to check up on her. Min walks over to get more wine and is talking to herself about how fine she is when she hears Danny’s voice! There’s a picture of him with Leo on the fridge and the picture is talking to her and taunting her and judging her for eating popcorn. #boooo
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We were like peas and carrots, barf city
After the credits finally roll, Mindy goes into her bedroom to escape the Danny picture voice, but she can’t. He’s in there too! She finds an old Shulman Halloween picture where’s she’s dressed as Tinkerbell Tailor Soldier Spy and everyone else is photoshopped in various costumes, except Danny because he’s lame. Photo Danny is also rude to Mindy here so she starts ripping it up and ranting about how SHE’S FINE. Thankfully she realizes she might be spiralling and gets in her cry to drive for a while and clear her head.
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Transported by the sound of my beautiful voice
She can’t find anything to listen to in the car – even public radio seems to be attacking her. Mindy decides to sing the entire Les Miserables soundtrack to herself and we get to hear tiny bits of 4 of them and honestly it is the greatest thing to ever have happened. Anyway, she’s driven for so long that as she’s singing the “do you hear the people sing” part of the Finale, she hits the curb and realizes she’s driven all the way to her parents house in Concord. (Les Mis is 104 minutes and the drive from NYC to Concord is 3 hours and 45 minutes but okay). Mindy walks in through the front door and despite saying “mom, dad” as she walks in, her mom whacks her over the head with a pan. (SONU!!! <3)
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You know what isn’t normal & beautiful? My life right now.
The next morning, Sonu wakes Mindy up & throws a wrench in her plans to sleep, cry, watch The Princess Bride & get catered to. Mama’s got plans all day so her adult son & daughter will have to fend for themselves. I totally relate to this by the way, Iranian parents also baby their children so we will always need them and the one day they’re like lol jk go be a grownup.
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You could do a TED Talk if your voice wasn’t so annoying
Mindy & Rishi play some games and have some inspirational chats until they both get hungry. The fridge is FULL but they don’t eat Indian food OR leftovers so they call their Auntie’s house to complain to their mom. The plot thickens however because Sonu isn’t at Priya Aunties for dinner!
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DAYUM! That’s where you go before prom!
The Lahiri siblings hack their mom’s email, and by that I mean it was already open on her computer, and find out that she’s having dinner with some sleazy dude names Conrad to chat about an audition. They’re left wondering why their mom wouldn’t flat out tell them about this. Rishi right away assumes that it’s because their dad is a loser who buys his jeans at Kohl’s. They decide to go to the restaurant to see what’s up.
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Now I know what Garfield is on about.
As they’re about to leave, Morgan calls from Danny’s rehearsal dinner. APPARENTLY, Danny is drunk as hell and told Morgan that he’s been thinking about Mindy and realizing what a huge mistake this is. Now Mindy really wants to go back to New York and stop this wedding, especially after the photo was taunting her and making her feel like Danny was her only shot at happiness. Rishi convinces her to stay and investigate this mom matter before she leaves.
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I curse you!
They crash their mom’s dinner and make a huge scene, leading Con(artist)(not very)rad(at all, ironically) to make a rude remark about Sonu being a housewife and leaving. Back at the house, Sonu is piiiiiissed at her kids, so much so that she even curses them! Mindy and Rishi are being really hard on her, even when she confesses that she just needed the temptation, she’s an actress after all, every scene is a seduction. While Rishi is listing all the things mom “gets” to do (cooking, cleaning, buying presents) Mindy realizes how important this is for her mom and that they really got in the way of her dreams, so she heads over to Conrad’s place to make things right.
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It’s like where a witness lives in Spotlight
As she apologizes to Conrad in his tiny sad apartment, he’s all “maybe I can help you if you help me” and pops an herbal off brand viagra. Realizing that he’s a gross perv who was only trying to seduce her mom, Mindy storms out.
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My acting will never be as good as my boobs.
After finding out about Conrad, Sonu is really down on herself. Saying that she should’ve been content playing servants & tress and not looking for more. [We must take a sidenote so I can tell you how much I loved this flipping of the script. Kaling herself has often said that she only got to play servants and trees, it’s so cute to see her now pass on her struggles to her TV mom as her character honours her real mom as an OBGYN – it just gave me all the feels.] The picture of Danny in India that rests on the mantle starts talking to Mindy again while she’s trying to comfort her mom, so she rushes out and starts driving to New York.
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I love…that you called me
GUYS! GUYS! GUYS! BEN CALLS HER!!! He wanted to check on her and make sure she was okay, because he realized that this wedding was harder for her than she was letting on! AND THEN he tells her that he can’t stop thinking about her AND THAT HE LOVES HER! Y’all! My heart! I can’t! The stupid Danny voice has to chime in with “yeah right does he know how crazy you are?!” and Mindy tells it to shut up but Ben thinks she’s talking to him. She quickly has to fix it and finally confesses that she was talking to the picture because she’s a little crazy. Ben assures her that he already knew that and loves her anyway (he doesn’t say that last part but his face does so fight me.) She doesn’t say the “I love you” back but Ben is an adult and he’s secure in his masculinity so he doesn’t flip the fuck out. They hang up and we’re left wondering what Mindy will do next.
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Stopping weddings is something you’ve done several times.
We don’t have to wonder for long because the next thing we see is Min walking into her parents house while Sonu swings a pan at her head, again. To make it up to her, Sonu makes mac & cheese with cut up hot dogs while they both hang out in the kitchen. Mindy finally tells her about Danny’s voice in her head and Sonu comes through with the wisdom that only a mom could. Mindy has always been hard on herself so she associated a man’s love with him being hard on her, ending up with a man who did all the criticizing for her. Say what you will about how the character of Danny has changed drastically, but from day 1 his schtick was picking on Mindy. Anyway, Sonu thinks that now that he’s not around, Mindy is criticizing herself the most in his place. This is a revelation for Mindy, who can finally let go of all this nonsense and love herself and let herself be loved. She also thinks this is a cool plot for a movie, and Priya Auntie knows M. Night Shyamalan, so maybe they can get this made and Sonu can star in it!
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Can I be high for this?
As they eat, Mindy gives her mom the idea of writing her own play so she can break in to the most unfair industry in the most secretly racist city. [Again Mindy is commenting on her own struggles in Hollywood through her TV mom and it’s so poetic and beautiful I loooooved this.] Sonu confesses that she actually kept very detailed journals and wants to read them some of it. The family gathers in the living room and queen Sonu Lahiri reads a passage from the first time she saw snow in America. While her mom is reading, Mindy gets a call from DANNY! THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS WEDDING!!! In a show of growth & self-care, she doesn’t answer. Instead, homegirl texts Ben that she loves him too and he sends back a happy face emoji and a heart emoji and all is well in the Mindyverse. The camera pans out on the family, just hanging out and having a good time and being with each other and we’d yet to see that & it’s so important.
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You probably figured by my rambling and gushing that I loved this episode! We spent so much time with Danny’s family and his backstory so it was great to finally see Mindy at home and at ease. It also felt like a great beginning to the Ben chapter as well as a new “put yourself first” era Mindy. My guess is that Danny went through with the wedding because Mindy didn’t answer and he needed someone to tell him to not do this. Honestly I just feel bad for Sarah in all of this, I hope she came to her senses and left him at the altar.
I would give this episode 5 out of 5 nerd glasses but instead I’m going to give it the same love emojis Ben sent Mindy.
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The fall finale of The Mindy Project is now streaming, and it just so happens to be the 100th episode.
