By the end of The Mindy Project season 4, episode 2, “C is for Coward,” Beyonce Pad Thai and Diamond Dan are parents. Woah nelly.
A few months have passed since the season premiere, but beyond Mindy’s growing bump, not much seems to have changed. Mindy and Danny spend most of the episode quibbling about everything, from what the gender of their baby will be to what to name the unborn child. But the real hurdle they must cross is determining how Mindy will have the child. She is fully prepared to be knocked out, have a cesarean section and wake up in a sun-lit suite in a plush bed. Danny, however, thinks Mindy should have a natural childbirth.
Danny brings up a good point that causes Mindy to momentarily falter: childbirth is her first challenge of being a parent. Mindy doesn’t want to deal with it, she wants to ignore the bad stuff just to get to the good part (cute baby!). The context of their argument is laid out on the table when Danny gives her a questioning look — what is she going to do when things get hard in the future? Is she going to ignore problems as they arise? Or is she going to face them down? We’d all hope the latter but evidence initially presented in “C is for Coward“ points to the former.
Ultimately, this whole argument is a moot point because a third option neither of them considered rears its head: birth via trapped-on-a-subway. No epidural, no sanitized hospital bed. Just a couple of Deslaurier midwives — who are thrilled that they will be preforming, as their book is called, a Paleo Birth (aka, natural) — Mindy’s squad and a train carriage full of terrified people, but no Danny. Morgan texts Danny, who was about to endure a dinner with Jeremy, to tell him that the baby’s coming, which causes Danny to run through the streets of New York City for Mindy a second time in the show’s history.
The Mindy Project season 4 used its premiere to tie up the cliffhangers of the last season, but beyond that episode and tonight’s where we only briefly meet the baby, the 20-some episodes remaining in the season will be dedicated to Mindy and Danny learning how to parent. Interestingly, neither Danny nor Mindy go through the sit-com prerequisite “nesting” period, and that’s oddly refreshing. Instead of watching Mindy panic that she can’t change a diaper or Danny freak out about where they’re going to put all the baby’s stuff, they just jump into the action.
Eventually, they make it to a hospital where Mindy cradles the un-named baby. Danny takes a look at his son and says simply, “Leonardo.” Not as in ‘DiCaprio’ but ‘Da Vinci.’ Leo Castellano, adorable. The sweetest moment came at the end of the episode, where the new family is gathered on the hospital bed and Mindy realizes she’s a “ma.” Mindy is a ma to Leo Castellano. Who’d’ve thought we’d ever be writing that sentence?