The Mindy Project 2.17: "Be Cool"

“Should I fake my own kidnapping? I did that once to get out of a fun run.”
-Mindy

So we all knew this was coming at some point. It’s TV rules. If you’re only on season 2 or 3 of your show, and the endgame couple gets together, they have to break up so they can have a season or so of being apart again before getting back together for good. Part of me wishes these things weren’t so formulaic, but it is what it is. So yeah, spoiler alert, Mindy and Danny break up at the end of “Be Cool.” It’s a very painful scene to watch, and the reason for their breaking up is kind of stupid, but from the circumstances, it’s pretty clear that they really aren’t ready to be together yet. Danny is too scared to be in a relationship with someone he cares about as much as he cares about Mindy. It’s one of those “if this happened, I know that would be it for me, and I don’t think I’m ready for that” situations. I can sympathize with Danny on that one, but I still think that how he treated Mindy at the end of the episode was pretty poor.

At the beginning of the episode, Mindy and Danny are very much still together. We get a cute voice over from Mindy as she wakes up next to Danny in the morning. Voice over Mindy tells us that she’s really enjoying waking up to Danny as opposed to the knife she bought for self-defense. I hear you, Mindy (although I don’t personally sleep next to my chef’s knife). Over breakfast (cooked by Danny, naturally), Mindy and Danny discuss their relationship status. Mindy is ready to tell the office what’s going on. Danny, however, is not. Danny convinces Mindy to keep things secret a while longer by playing up how hot a secret relationship can be. After fanaticizing about clandestine rendezvous a bit, Mindy is on board. Danny is relieved that Mindy has agreed to “be cool” about their relationship.

At first, “being cool” goes just fine. Mindy and Danny have fun coming up with excuses to be alone in each other’s offices (for makeout sessions). Danny definitely has less talent for excuse-making of the pair. His attempt to get her in his office involves him yelling out to all the staff that Mindy made a mistake which has resulting in her patient falling into a coma. Mindy’s not thrilled at being embarrassed like that in front of her coworkers, but once Danny shuts the door, she’s only too happy to enjoy the privacy with Danny. Things are going pretty swimmingly overall until Mindy returns home to her apartment for the first time in three days (she’s been spending nights at Danny’s). The place is trashed, and it’s immediately clear that Mindy’s apartment has been burglarized.

Mindy tells the rest of the office what happened, and they’re very concerned for her. There are statistics showing that burglars return to previous marks, you know. Peter, who is the only one who knows about Mindy and Danny, tries to suggest that Danny spend a few days and nights at Mindy’s place to watch over her. Danny hesitates (probably because he doesn’t want to let on that he and Mindy are dating), so Morgan jumps right in and offers to be Mindy’s (hopefully…for Mindy’s sake) temporary roommate. The whole situation escalates to the point where Mindy has no choice but to accept Morgan’s offer. Morgan, of course, is a kind of creepy/gross roommate. He sets up camp on the couch, and once Mindy goes to bed, he pulls his pet puppy out of his backpack, reminding the puppy that they both need to be careful not to have any accidents.

The secrecy of Mindy and Danny’s relationship is under quite a bit of strain. First, a pharma girl that Danny fooled around with the last time she was in town is making another visit to Shulman and Associates. When she arrives, it’s painfully obvious that she wants to rekindle thinks with Danny. She makes many references to being available to talk to Danny about her products one on one. Danny is continuing to refuse to admit that he and Mindy are an item, so pharma girl mistakenly thinks that Danny is still available. As much as I generally like Danny (he’s kind of adorable in a “grumpy old man in his 30’s” kind of way, and I dig that), he really pissed me off in this episode. His spinelessness ended up hurting both Mindy and the pharma girl. It really took him down a few notches in my estimation.

Morgan does some snooping while at Mindy’s apartment, and he discovers a pair of scrubs under the couch. Upon further snooping, Morgan finds a pen with Peter’s name on it in the pocket of the scrubs. He’s convinced that Mindy and Peter are sleeping together (they have been spending a lot of time together), and he tells his suspicions to Jeremy. Jeremy doesn’t think this seems plausible at first, but when he thinks about it, he thinks that Morgan might be right. In the process of trying get out of having to see pharma girl after work, he ends up instigating a big housewarming for Morgan party at Mindy’s apartment. Neither Danny nor Mindy are particularly happy about this development, but they’re too invested in keeping their relationship a secret to do much of anything about it.

The party itself is pretty much a complete disaster. Morgan and Jeremy are still convinced that Peter and Mindy are sleeping together, so they’re being super judgey. Oblivious to this, Peter (who has seen how upset Danny fake-flirting with pharma girl has made Mindy) tries to help Mindy make Danny jealous. There’s a whole lot of wacky hijinks/physical humor here, including Mindy trying to feed Peter grapes and a chair breaking when Mindy tries to sit on Peter’s lap. This leads to a huge debacle where Morgan and Jeremy try to confront Mindy and Peter about how their relationship is terrible for the practice. Danny is about to set everyone straight, but he still can’t bring himself to admit his relationship. Mindy is crushed, and she runs to hide in her bedroom.

Danny tries to comfort Mindy, but Mindy gives him an ultimatum. She wants to go public, or they end their relationship. Danny opts for ending the relationship, which is definitely not what Mindy had in mind. He says that he needs her in his life, and he thinks he’ll have a better chance at keeping her in his life long-term if it’s platonic. Danny just has no confidence in his own relationship skills at the moment, and that lack of confidence is really hurting Mindy. It’s really not fair to either of them, and it’s a very painful scene to watch. After Danny leaves Mindy’s apartment, Mindy spends the rest of the evening sobbing.