'The Mindy Project' Recap: ‘Bro Club for Dudes’

It’s a bro’s world, and Mindy is justing living in it. With the addition of Peter, Mindy is well out numbered by the male doctors, and last night, our girl had to learn how to hang with the guys.

Shulman & Associates has turned into a bro zone. Mindy is taken hostage during an after hour Nerf-gun war. The next day at work, her proposal to turn the office’s unused backyard space into a “Gazebo Garden and Serenity Spa” is quickly vetoed once Peter suggests to convert the area into a basketball court and grill. Finally, her lunch is disrupted, when Peter and Morgan practiced their Ultimate Fighting moves in the break room.

The source of all this change is Peter, the licensed doctor who thinks everyday should end with a keg stand. Peter hasn’t warmed up to Mindy, so with Danny’s encouragement, Mindy decides to take Peter out to lunch so they can get to know each other better.

Her restaurant pick? The U.S.A Girl Cafe, a place where little girls take their dolls to eat. To make things even more creepy, Mindy begins to tell Peter the story of her first period. Obviously, she is a bit rusty on her guy talk.

After the inappropriate lunch conversation, Mindy asks Peter why he doesn’t like her. Peter plainly says, “I don’t have a problem with you. I just don’t want to hang out with you if I don’t have to.”

Yes, he’s a bit harsh, but he has good reasoning. Peter points out that Mindy is too self involved and only likes doing what she wants. In an effort to try something Peter would like, Mindy attends Peter’s amateur Ultimate Fighting match.

Ditching her sushi date with Jason and dressed in a pink tweed suit (because what else would you wear to a fight?) Mindy tries her best to fit in with the guys. I want to emphasize that she really really tries, but it’s hard to suppress all that Mindy personality.

Mindy starts off by making all the guys squirm and calls Ultimate Fighting homoerotic. She then ruins the guys’ fantasy of the hot ring girl, one of her former patients, by talking about her episiotomy. On a drink run, she asks for mojitos and is astounded that they only serve beer. Sadly, that isn’t the worst of it.

Before his fight, Danny, Jeremy, and Mindy try to pump up Peter by yelling insults at him. In a misguided attempt to help, Mindy tells Peter that his ex-girlfriend got engaged. Peter goes from a testosterone fueled fighter to a broken hearted sap in less than three seconds.

“She got engaged to a male Kindergarten teacher. When he asked her to marry him, the class did it, and... they’re holding the Rs backwards,” Peter says in a cracked voice. This line packs the biggest emotional punch, but it is also one of the funniest moments of the episode. Peter’s delivery is perfectly nuanced and funny.

Poor Peter then walks into the Ultimate Fighting cage in tears. My sympathy for Peter “The Punisher” only grew when I saw his terrifying opponent Doug “The Genocide.”

Peter gets the organs kicked out of him, so Mindy, feeling guilty, sneaks into the cage as a ring girl. Although the crowd doesn’t love her, she manages to give Peter a Danny-esque pep talk.

However, words can only do so much. Peter gets in one solid hit in the second round and then is literally thrown out of the ring by “The Genocide.”

Thanks to Mindy’s sutures, Peter will make a full recovery, and thanks to a heavy dose of pain killers, Peter and Mindy put aside their differences and became friends.

As their relationship begins, Mindy and Jason’s comes to a screeching halt. After blowing him off twice in one night, Jason breaks up with Mindy. Does this mean we get to see more of cute lawyer Cliff?! I hope so!

I can’t ignore last night’s seemingly tacked on subplot (even though I sort of want to). Morgan has a crush on Tamara, the office nurse, but there’s just one problem. She has an awful boyfriend named Ray Ron.

When Ray Ron forgets his and Tamara’s 20 year anniversary (how old are they and when did they start dating?!), Morgan asks her to build the gazebo Mindy proposed. Ray Ron, the stand up chap that he is, hears about their alone time and comes to fight Morgan.

The fight ends with Morgan throwing Ray Ron in a dumpster, promising to steal Tamara if he treats her poorly again, and Ray Ron giving Tamara a panda stuffed animal for their anniversary. He looked up on the internet that for a 20th anniversary you give “china,” and he couldn’t afford a whole country...

I liked that Tamara’s character is getting more flushed out, but I thought this was a juvenile way to introduce both Ray Ron and Morgan’s crush. Hopefully, their plot lines will be better next time.

What did you think of the episode? Do you like Peter more now that we got to see a more sentimental side to him? Are you also amazed at how fast Mindy’s hair is growing? What conditioner is she using? Rapunzel magic?! Comment below!