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‘The Mindy Project’ Season 3, Episode 3: ‘Crimes & Misdemeanors & Ex-BFs’

Alex Reed |
September 30, 2014 | 9:52 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

(FOX, The Mindy Project)
(FOX, The Mindy Project)
Last week, Mindy made progress meeting (and bonding with) Danny’s mother. This week, the couple hits a roadblock when Mindy tries to leave stuff at his apartment.

The episode opens with a classic Mindy monologue. This time, she claims that her and Danny spending so much time together has resulted in them being of the same mind, which immediately proves untrue. Mindy then gets ready to head to work when Danny hands her some of her toiletries to take with her. He claims that he doesn’t want her stuff to get lost in his clutter, which Mindy finds hard to believe because his apartment “is tidy like a serial killer’s lair.”

She reluctantly agrees to take her stuff, but then hides it in the bathroom. When he finds it, she gets more creative (the microwave, the fire escape), but he still finds them every time. She eventually confronts him about it and when it looks like he’s going to offer her half of the closet, he pulls out a suit case, so it’s easier to move her stuff to and from the apartment. Mindy is not impressed.

During a staff meeting – in which Danny gets a shout out from Mindy and Morgan is concerned about bagel to person ratios – Mindy receives legal documents that inform the rest of the office that she hasn’t paid her taxes in six years. The news appalls Danny because he equates tax evasion to “stealing from America.” Mindy is then informed that her biggest asset is her stake in Shulman & Associates, which means that the whole practice could be jeopardized. The good news? Mindy got a lawyer months ago to take care of the problem. The bad news? The lawyer is Cliff, who she cheated on with Danny.

READ MORE: 'The Mindy Project' Season 3, Episode 2: 'Annette Castellano Is My Nemesis'

A very smug Cliff tells Mindy that while he may have said he’d take care of her tax problem, she said she wouldn’t cheat on him with Danny, which Mindy argues that she would have never said because it’d sound suspicious. Nonetheless, Cliff is unwilling to help because he thinks Mindy should be punished for what she did to him. So Mindy informs him that she has been punished. She lies and tells him that she and Danny broke up because Danny cheated on her. Cliff is pleased and then sympathetic, agreeing to take her tax case. Mindy thanks him, telling him that she can never repay him – and doesn’t plan to.

Picking up where the premiere left off, the tension between Jeremy and Peter is palpable. They share an exchange in the kitchen that is rather passive-aggressive on Peter’s part, though he tells Danny that he and Lauren are great, despite her kiss with Jeremy.

Mindy comes over to Danny’s to tell him that Cliff has agreed to help her, but the catch is that she had to tell him that they broke up. She argues that guys only want to help women when they feel sorry for them, which she proves when she placates Danny by fake crying and forcing him to soothe her. While Danny takes comfort in knowing that he and Mindy are only pretending to be broken up for a few days, Cliff texts Mindy to ask her to dinner to finish her tax papers.

In the elevator the next day, Mindy is about to tell Danny about her (sort of) date when Cliff walks into the elevator and notices that Mindy and Danny appear very friendly despite him cheating on her (with a Knicks City Dancer, according to Danny). Making matters involving ex-boyfriends of Mindy’s worse, Brendan enters the elevator and makes note of the strange energy.

When Mindy goes into Danny’s office to calm him down, she continues her lying streak by telling him that she can’t see him tonight, not because she’s having dinner with Cliff, but because she is going to the gym. Of course, Danny offers to go with her, but Mindy informs him that he can’t because her gym only allows women.

While having lunch with Lauren, Peter informs her that she’s completely forgiven for making out with Jeremy. However, Lauren tells him that she doesn’t think they’re working as a couple and the two part ways.

Later, Mindy goes to dinner with Cliff and is uncomfortable by the fancy restaurant and his flirty behavior. She also learns that she owes the government a ton of money from her taxes, but she says she will “just heroically save the practice from what [she] did to it.” Cliff then suggests that she leaves the practice altogether, adding that Danny is a creep. When Mindy argues that he’s a good guy, Cliff reveals that Danny is still married to his ex-wife Christina.

Mindy immediately goes to Danny’s to confront him. When he confirms the news, Mindy is shocked to learn that she is not the “hot girlfriend,” but the “sexy mistress.” Danny demands to know how she found out and she admits to having dinner with Cliff and then storms out.

The next day, Peter overhears Jeremy telling Beverly about his lunch date and is immediately suspicious. He calls Lauren’s office – faking a number of horrible accents that are supposed to be Jeremy – to confirm that Lauren and Jeremy are having lunch.

Danny bursts into Cliff’s office to confront him about telling Mindy that he’s still married. He says that he wont lie anymore and plans to finalize his divorce, which Cliff offers to help with because Danny has something that he wants. Mindy? No, Cliff wants Danny’s Yankee Stadium seat, “something that’s had even more men on top of her.”  

Jeremy informs the office that someone made an anonymous phone call to the immigration office and he might be sent back to England. Peter, who obviously made the call, suggests that Jeremy go back and sort things out for a few years, letting other people (Lauren) move on to other people. Jeremy then complains that he now has no country and no woman because Lauren ended things with him, taking Peter by surprise.

Cliff and Danny go over the terms of Danny’s divorce – Danny will keep his share of the practice and Christina will get his boat, which he was too scared to go on anyways after seeing “Captain Phillips.” Danny thanks Cliff and apologizes for all of his and Mindy’s lies. Cliff then asks Danny what’s going on with him and Mindy because when Cliff and Mindy were dating, his apartment was full of her stuff. There’s “no sign of her” in Danny’s apartment.

Mindy meets with the practice’s accountant to sort out her tax problem and is offended when he casts judgment for her spending more on emojis than rent in a month, which she claims helps sell her “sassy but bangable brat” brand.

Lauren comes by the office to tell Jeremy that the thought of him being deported made her rethink ending things with him. Jeremy informs her that he’s no longer being deported – because he’s rich and white – and the two go into his office.

The episode is tied up nicely when Danny tells Mindy later at his apartment that he finalized his divorce. He also shows her the brand-new, pink dresser he bought so that she could finally leave stuff at his apartment.

Catch “The Mindy Project,” Tuesdays at 9:30/8:30c on FOX.

Reach Staff Reporter Alex Reed here.



 

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