A crazy season, full of twists and turns and major character development, came to a breath-taking end tonight on The Mindy Project season 3, episode 22, “Best Man.”
Mindy is pumped. Danny finally has the opportunity to fly up to Boston with her and meet her elusive parents. She suggests he bring a bottle of wine for her mom, but don’t bring up the Yankees because her father’s a Red Sox fan. Mindy loves the scruffy look Danny (Chris Messina) has going on, as do we, but she says her parents will hate it, so it’s got to go.
Except suddenly it’s 8:10 p.m. and Danny is still at the hospital, unshaven and unable to make it to Boston that night. Mindy is visibly upset when Danny cancels. It is the ultimate let-down: thinking that your boyfriend, the father of your child, will finally meet your parents, only to have him blow that major next step.
But when he wants to make peace by sending a gift a few days later, she refutes the idea. Why? Because her parents don’t know Danny exists. Say what now?
Mindy kind of tested Danny — if he showed up to Boston, then she’d introduce him as her boyfriend. But he didn’t, so it’s not even an issue. They still don’t know that the two are an item.
These two have been a thing — on-and-off, at least — for over a year now, so isn’t it kind of weird Mindy has put off introductions? After all, all her exes (more on that in a second) have done some insane activity with them. But she’s 34 years old. Gone are the days of introducing Mom and Dad to the flavor of the week. She’s been waiting to make sure this thing with Danny is the Real Thing before pulling that plug one final time.
On the other hand, Mindy and Danny walk into Annette’s house like they have dozens of times this season alone, and straight into a surprise baby shower. Annette and Dot wear matching green shirts with sunflower vests and it’s all very awkward. But wait — there’s more!
Morgan pulls a Maury and in walks a sizable portion of Mindy’s exes. Casey (Andres Holm), Lee (Max Greenfield), Jamie (B.J. Novak), and Josh (Tommy Dewey). Morgan had thought he heard Mindy admitting that Danny wasn’t the father of the baby, and beyond giving the show the opportunity to bring these guys back, it didn’t serve much of a purpose.
But wait — there’s more! Annette coordinated with Rishi to Skype in Mindy’s parents! She panics and reveals that they don’t know about Danny. Danny reveals why he didn’t really go to Boston: He didn’t want to face the inquisition of why they weren’t married. He doesn’t know if he would have to ever — want to ever — get married. He has been married before. And his divorce hurt him. It broke him; it made him cynical and curmudgeonly.
Mindy has waited a long time for marriage. Even if it means nothing to him, it means so much to her. No matter how much love is between them, she wants the Instagram-able ring and the signed piece of paper.
Annette and Danny have a great scene after the party where they come face-to-face with their commitment issues. Danny doesn’t want to raise another generation of abandoned Castellanos — like his father did to him. Annette drops this “maybe the problem isn’t marriage. Maybe we picked the people who didn’t deserve it” line that blows Danny’s mind. Christina was the worst. Mindy is the best. Marriage with her might not be terrible.
Danny, instead of flying to Texas like scheduled, instead takes a 12+ hour long flight to India, and The Mindy Project season 3 ends with him knocking on a door and introducing himself as the man who loves “their” daughter.
Whoa.
In B-story world, Laura Dern guest stars on “Best Man” as Mindy’s new doctor with a heavy — Russian? — accent. She breaks the news that she can’t fly to Texas to attend Peter’s wedding as best man because of the flight risk. Jeremy comes for him at the eleventh hour and fills Peter’s best man’s empty shoes, much to the chagrin of Morgan. Glad to see these two finally buried the hatchet about the love triangle earlier this season.
So let’s go forth in life, ignoring the fact that it might have been The Mindy Project series finale.