'The Mindy Project' Review/Recap: "Annette Castellano Is My Nemesis"

Laura Tormos ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

After The Mindy Project’s long awaited season premiere, everyone’s relieved the development of Mindy (Mindy Kaling) and Danny (Chris Messina)’s relationship did not create a lull in the quality of the show. Thankfully, the second episode does not disappoint either and as a bonus: the original theme song is back!
The episode starts with Danny’s mother (guest star Rhea Perlman) barging into Danny’s apartment right before Mindy was about to launch into a synopsis of the dream she’d had that night. Mindy introduces herself, and the two have a quick and somewhat strange, but amicable exchange before Danny succeeds in herding his mother out. It wasn’t until after Mrs. Castellano and Mindy met at the office that she realized Mindy wasn’t Danny’s housekeeper, however, which made the previous conversation they shared hilarious in retrospect. During this brief exchange, Mindy also learns of a birthday brunch the following day, which Danny attempted for Mindy not to attend by scheduling it at the same time as her C-section appointment. Nevertheless, she makes it to brunch, and manages to do well with her “full-proof, four-point, mom-catching plan” she used to calm Danny down, until a misunderstanding happens where Mindy alludes to Danny having told her about paying his mom’s bills, or, as she calls it: their “private family affair.”

This, though, like almost everything thrown Mindy’s way, does not deter her, and she decides to take matters into her own hands. She goes to Staten Island, where Danny’s mother works cleaning in a hotel as to not “burden her son,” to confront her on her behaviour towards Danny. The two manage to have a heart-to-heart, and later, when Mindy is visiting Danny’s childhood home, the two seem to have, more or less, come to terms with each other and reconciled.
Meanwhile, Morgan (Ike Barinholtz) accompanied Tambra (Xosha Roquemore), who he entered a relationship with in the last season, to a hospital, due to Peter (Ed Weeks) having shoved a dog, which she was apparently actually allergic to, into her arms. Peter was convinced that Tamra was lying to Morgan to get what she wants, insisting, in what is a disgusting but very Peter-like line, that “she’s allergic to dogs the way I’m allergic to latex.”
Peter, however, learns his lesson after Tamra has a severe allergic reaction, and accuses him of projecting his trust issues with women onto their relationship.

All in all, this episode, as most Mindy Project episodes, has strong dialogue and one-liners, and despite the somewhat too-quick resolutions, it gives a very strong and interesting insight to Danny’s upbringing (something that would be interesting to get for Mindy, since all we’ve seen of her existing family is her brother.) We can, of course, infer that she may not have the best relationship with them, due to the lack of mentions they receive. Small little details here and there like how she apparently pays for her brother’s college tuition is also another factor that alludes to this. Of course, that could also just mean that she is simply more successful than her parents and offered to pay for his education so they wouldn’t have to. This lack of information about Mindy’s character really sticks out because we actually know a lot more of Danny’s background than we do hers. Not only is she supposed to be the main character, but Danny is, by nature, a very private person while Mindy is definitely not.
If nothing else, this episode, along with Mindy and Danny’s new relationship, poses a very interesting question of The Mindy Project’s characters’ families and background, which, hopefully, the writers take advantage of and delve into.
The Mindy Project airs at 9:30pm on FOX.