The Mindy Project 2.16: "Indian BBW"

“Usually when I have sex with a guy, we’ve gone on at least five dates. Or he’s spent, like, two-thousand dollars on me. Whichever comes first.”
-Mindy

“Indian BBW” continued to explore the consequences of Mindy and Danny trying to have a relationship. Strangely, even though I like Jess and Nick of “New Girl” better on paper, I think I may like how Mindy Kaling and her team are handling Mindy and Danny getting together better. Mindy and Danny do have some fundamental differences, but they aren’t differences that make either of them a person I wouldn’t want to hang out with. Danny does the grumpy old man who is actually young thing without Nick’s additional helping of irresponsibility. He’s somebody who would care about you deeply, but also not ruin your credit report. Sorry if that’s harsh, but I’m a recession kid. We care about this stuff. Nick always means well, but sometimes I just want to slap him upside the head.

Anyway, the episode begins with Mindy and Danny sitting on Mindy’s bed, making out. Mindy wants to take things slow, and Danny isn’t especially happy about this. He wants to have sex. Mindy doesn’t relent, and Danny is grumbly about it, but he respects her wishes. Only after calling up a bunch of former conquests trying to prove he could have sex with any girl in New York at any time. Of course his attempt to show up Mindy doesn’t work. None of the women accept his booty call. Except for Vanessa the prostitute, that is. She’s only too happy to have another pay day.

The next morning, Mindy finds out that Danny has been admitted to the hospital with viral meningitis, so she rushes to see him. I found it kind of odd that the episode treated a very serious illness so lightly. And why hadn’t doctors like Danny and Mindy been vaccinated against meningitis? Am I reading into this episode too much? Mindy encounters Danny’s brother, Ritchie, at the hospital, and she gets a little pissed off when Danny re-introduces her to Ritchie as his “coworker.” Anyway, “brain fever,” as they’re all jokingly calling it, has only made Danny even more horny than he was before. Mindy keeps telling Danny that she wants to take it slow, however, and even though he’s in a hospital bed, Danny is frustrated by that. He definitely doesn’t want Mindy to read “Bridget Jones’ Diary” to him.

Meanwhile, Peter sends Mindy some very upsetting texts. Apparently Peter found a sex tape Mindy made at least ten years ago (with her gross ex Tom, played by Bill Hader) online. Mindy really, really doesn’t want Danny to see the tape because she’s worried it’s going to upset him given their recent argument. To try and mitigate the damage, Mindy and Peter first pay a visit to Tom. He has started dating his dental assistant (their relationship is kind of creepy, really, since she’s so submissive), so he’s not interested in the video being widely distributed, either. Mindy wants Tom to destroy the original copy of the video, but Peter wants Tom to go one step farther. He wants Tom to deliver the video to Mindy so that they can ensure it is actually destroyed.

Despite this motivation, Tom isn’t much help on the video already being on the internet side of things, so Mindy and Peter also pay a visit to the porn website’s headquarters. The porn company is run by the guy who played the “King of Bethesda” on “Burning Love,” by the way. Anyway, the guys who run the porn site are very reluctant to take down the video, due to the recent demand for “Indian BBWs” (Indian “Big Beautiful Women”). Mindy is not at all happy with this characterization. Peter manages to save the day by name dropping Dartmouth of all things. It turns out that the guys who run the site are Dartmouth alums, too. Because of that connection, the web site guys agree to take the video down after all.

Tom drops the sex tape DVD off at Mindy’s office, and the DVD accidentally makes its way to Danny when Morgan drops a bunch of Mindy’s stuff off at the hospital so she can get some work done while she spends the night with Danny. Mindy and Peter find Danny watching the video, absolutely horrified. Peter at first questions why Danny would be so upset by the video. Peter buys that at first, but then he remembers Mindy saying something about seeing a new guy. So yeah, Peter now knows that Mindy and Danny are pursuing a relationship, although neither of them have officially admitted it. Before Mindy and Danny can argue about the sex tape too much, Mindy faints. It turns out she has meningitis, too, which only confirms Peter’s theory.

Peter once again saves the day when it comes to the whole Mindy and Danny conflict. He brings Tom to the hospital to talk to Danny, and he uses the threat of telling Tom’s new girlfriend everything to get Tom to say the right things to Danny. Tom tells Danny that although he and Mindy had some hot sex, he doesn’t think Mindy really loved him, or even liked him all that much. Danny isn’t sold, but then Peter steps up and says that he thinks Mindy has been so mortified to show Danny the sex tape because she respects and maybe even loves “the practice” (Danny had been saying he was so upset over the sex tape because it might tarnish the reputation of Shulman and Associates).

By the end of the episode, Danny has taken Peter’s words to heart. He wheels himself into Mindy’s hospital room and asks her where her copy of “Bridget Jones’ Diary” is. Mindy points to the book, Danny grabs it, and then he climbs into bed with her. Danny says he is okay with taking things slow for now, and then he pulls out his reading glasses. He reads the book to Mindy, which I think is pretty adorable. He even reads in a British accent and tries to do different voices for the characters. While Mindy and Danny probably can’t get together for good just yet, I thought this was a really sweet scene that showed just how much they really care about each other.