Man, I still love The Mindy Project and I still love Mindy. But I am struggling lately!

More and more, Danny is driving me absolutely crazy. Maybe it’s that all the storylines have all been prone to pull out the most traditional, stubborn sides of him. Maybe it’s that, as my mother says, he’s just becoming more and more of himself (which she thinks is a jerk). Either way, I feel like they need to be a little careful. Main characters obviously don’t have to be likable (I’m looking at you Hannah), but I have to want to root for the main couple in a rom-com TV show and they are not giving me enough “Danny being lovable” moments to make that especially easy.

We start with Mindy talking about how great it is to be a stay-at-home mom. Really? She just didn’t have a conversation at all with Danny about her hesitations? Oh boy.

She obviously has a misguided opinion of what being a stay-at-home mom entails (not putting on pants and making a “Baby’s First Enemies” list) (also why is Princess Charlotte an enemy? She should be on the “Baby’s First Love Interests” list). But monster Danny, king of tradition, swoops in to tell her duties include: “cooking, cleaning, laundry, paying the bills, waxing the floors, keeping the piano in tune, stocking the pantry, raising [their] son, and maintaining a positive attitude that sets the tone for whole household.” He also makes her feel guilty because his Ma could do it all while cleaning hotels. Have I mentioned that Danny is getting on my last nerve?

The next day, she decides to apply the same focus she applied to being a doctor to being a stay-at-home MILF. Mindy’s found a mommy blog, “Modern Mominista,” and is ready to get to work. Despite not understanding how a Keurig works, she’s off to a great start because the first step to being a Modern Mominista is to dress up every day (yawn).

Mindy’s obviously the best at that, but runs into complications when she has to clean the floor by hand (okay, do any humans still do this? Have you not heard of Swiffer?), thus ruining her fancy outfit. Of course the blog expects her to have run five miles and cooked a duck by this point. Mom blogs really can be the absolute worst form of guilt. Instead, she’s made grilled cheese and tomato soup. I’d call this a solid win for Mindy!

Then we get a great montage, mixed in with our other main story line, where Mindy shows off a bunch of awesome aprons and does a pretty good job at all the tasks Danny gave her. He’s a monster, of course, and is tired of grilled cheese. He’s also really tired from having worked all day. Like seriously, oh my god, are we in a 1970s TV show or something? Mindy is not having any of his nonsense and challenges him to try it.

I was really hoping this would turn into him wanting to be a stay at home daddy, but we’re not going to be so lucky.  He’s taking over for the day and Mindy’s heading into the office.

At the office, Jeremy’s using a new intercom system for office meetings that no one’s listening too. Jody asks the other nurses and Danny for help finding a male suitor to take Collette to a family wedding. Everyone’s confused since Colette is a lesbian (because of stereotypes, duh), but Danny convinces them to let Colette come out in her own time.

Instead, she asks Morgan to be her fake boyfriend. These things always work out well! We get them faking it (relatively well?) in the previously mentioned montage. Colorgan is fun- I like them. But when Mindy finds out about them, she’s not as big of a fan.

Mindy’s best line of the episode comes in as she tells Morgan not to help Colette lie, “You can’t use a Southern family’s gay secret for personal gain. What are you in a Tennessee Williams play? … Wait, am I smart?” She later tells Colette not to hide who she really is. Colette decides to indeed come out to Jody right then, on the handy office intercom.

Jody is upset, in the way that all people who make their kids go to conversion therapy are upset. He’s upset because she won’t have the life he imagined for her AND he won’t get a brother-in-law. I’m going to resist hating him, since he comes around and is excited to find matching trophy wives with his sister, but it is difficult for me.

I’ll also give him another chance since he enjoys doing surgery with Mindy, who is obviously a boss. He’s going to miss her when she stays home. Mindy gets kind of mean about stay-at-home moms here (unnecessary), but keeps telling herself she wants to be home. Luckily, she realizes later, she needs to tell Danny the truth.

Danny, of course, can’t be bothered to tell Mindy the truth. And instead of admitting that staying home was hard, he lies to her and brags about everything he’s done. Um, hi, of course he’s omitting that he got help from his mom. He then says, “I’m a lucky guy. I’m with someone that actually wants to do this every day.” Okay, alright.

You can have a perfectly functional, healthy family if both parents work! Take your nonsense elsewhere, Danny Castellano.

And then, like he seriously hasn’t noticed that Mindy isn’t happy and is hiding something from him?? These are two people who are planning to get married?? YEESH.

Before Mindy can tell him her feelings (literally, I cannot hide my feelings from my fiancé for more than two hours), little Danny calls to tell him that their dad had a heart attack. Danny freaks out about all of his responsibilities, and Mindy is there to support him and make sure he can go be with his father. It’d be nice to see you being that supportive for once, Danny.

Alright, clearly I’m annoyed-and-a-half after this episode. Mindy, get back to work if you so clearly want to be at work! Danny, be a supportive partner! Leo, be in the episode for longer!

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*Feature image source: Originally seen on Entertainment Weekly; Hulu

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