The Mindy Project 2.10: "Wedding Crushers"

“And he does not like surprises. That’s why he hates boxes of chocolate. Because he wants to know what he’s going to get.”
-Betsy

“Wedding Crushers” was an interesting episode of “The Mindy Project” because it only really focused on a few characters – Mindy, Danny, and Peter. Everybody else was very peripheral to both stories going on in the episode. The one criticism I really have about the episode is that the A and B stories weren’t especially connected. I guess you could say that both Mindy and Danny were confronting things about their past, but that’s a pretty loose connection. Mindy has to confront her past relationship with drug addict sports attorney Josh, and Danny has to confront his father leaving when Danny was a child. It’s just awkwardness and misunderstanding all around, and it leads to some interesting character reveals for several of the characters. We really learn some interesting things about both Danny and Peter in this episode, and I’m wondering if this episode is trying to set up Peter as a potential love interest for Mindy in addition to Danny.

Mindy has inexplicably gotten an invitation to her ex-boyfriend Josh’s wedding. You may recall from last season, Mindy dated a sports attorney named Josh who turned out to be a drug addict cheater. Understandably, Mindy dumped him. This isn’t the first time Mindy has contemplated attending the wedding of an ex. The first such wedding she attending was in the pilot, and she made a complete ass of herself. I can’t really understand why she’d try that again. Frankly, I don’t understand why anyone would invite an ex to their wedding, unless it one of those totally weird “we’re really much better as friends” kind of deals. Even then, as “How I Met Your Mother” taught us, it can still be seriously awkward.

Anyway, Mindy understandably doesn’t want to go to an ex’s wedding without a date. Originally, Danny was going to go with her. Danny’s brother Richie has decided to visit from Miami, however, so Danny wants to spend time with him. Mindy gets kind of desperate looking for a date, and she even ends up hitting on Richie himself (before she realizes who he is). Peter, after watching all of this, states the obvious. Why can’t he be Mindy’s date. He claims to be “Mr. Wedding,” meaning he always tears it up at weddings, even if it means he has a terrible hangover the next day. Against her better judgment, Mindy agrees to bring Peter as her plus one, mostly because she doesn’t have any alternative.

Danny mentions that Richie is in town because he wants to tell Danny something very important. Naturally, all the staff are curious about what this thing might be, and after meeting Richie, everybody thinks Richie is planning to come out. They figure that because Danny is fairly religious, he’s going to have a problem with it. It turns out that Danny already knows Richie is gay, though, and he’s cool with it. So that’s kind of anticlimactic. We find out what Richie wanted to tell Danny soon enough, though. Danny throws a house party in Ricky’s honor, and in the middle of the party, Richie gives Danny a gift. It’s the Miami Vice soundtrack on vinyl, which Danny thinks is the coolest thing ever until Ricky says it’s actually a gift from their dad. Danny throws a fit, because he still resents their dad for leaving. Richie storms out, but it’s Jeremy of all people, with a rousing speech about how Danny really loves Richie, who gets Richie to go back to the party. Richie tells Danny that Danny has always been like a dad to him, and all is forgiven.

Anyway, at Josh’s wedding, all seems to be going fairly well. The only sore spot is that it is pretty much Mindy’s dream wedding, down to the cute photo montage video. Mindy resents that Josh is having her dream wedding when he’s marrying somebody else. Peter tries to cheer Mindy up by going into full “Mister Wedding” mode and dragging her out on the dance floor. Mindy is reluctant at first, but they end up doing a pretty epic dance, and the rest of the guests all cheer them on. Mindy kind of enjoys rubbing all that popularity in Josh’s face.

Because this is a sitcom, of course, things have to take a turn for the worst in a farcical way. Mindy and Josh are in the middle of one of those “oh I’m happy for you” type conversations when they step into a bathroom and see Peter having sex with Josh’s new wife. Josh and wife met in rehab, you see, and of course she was there for sex addiction. Obviously this marriage is not going to last long, but Mindy feels bad about bringing the chaos that is Peter into Josh’s wife, and she wants to help him find a way to cancel the rest of the wedding with some dignity. Mindy’s idea is actually pretty successful, believe it or not. She drags Josh to the stage and announces that the wedding is of because the bride caught she (Mindy) and Josh making out. So Mindy saved the day by doing what she does best – ruining a wedding. And this, friends, is yet another reason why inviting exes to a wedding is probably a bad idea.

The denouement of the episode was interesting. At first it made me thing that the creative team might be drying to get Mindy and Peter together at some point, but then they sort of backed off from that. They have a bit of a heart-to-heart in the car on the way home, and Peter mentions that before the wedding incident, he hadn’t had sex in a very long time. So the playboy persona is really just an act. Mindy seems to have a bit more respect for him after that reveal, and Peter goes into a “you really like me” type riff right out of “Miss Congeniality.” Because the creative team hang a lantern on it like that, it’s probably not going to happen. Although I will admit it would be a bit more interesting than many other options for roadblocks on the way to the inevitable Mindy/Danny endgame.