The Mindy Project Season 4 Episode 10 Recap: Danny’s Gone

We're now officially at week I-don't-even-know-what of Danny Watch on The Mindy Project. Chris Messina is obviously off shooting movies and working on other projects, and Mindy (Mindy Kaling) has been struggling in his absence for several episodes. We watched her search for a nanny. We saw her try to get Leo into a prestigious private preschool, only to decide that public school is totally fine for her son. On this week's episode, Mindy finally stops focusing on Leo and motherhood and starts paying attention to the fact that her husband appears to have vanished. It's about time, because we're really starting to miss Danny around this joint. Mindy asks Danny when he thinks he'll be able to come home from California. When he's finished shooting this Ben Affleck movie, duh. Oh, she meant in the show. The date has now been pushed back until Christmas. Danny also wants Mindy to have sold her apartment by then, so add that to the growing list of things she's having to do sans Danny while also caring for Leo during the first six months of his life. Mindy feels conflicted about selling her apartment, and I totally get where she's coming from. Buying a place in New York City is a huge accomplishment, and naturally Mindy feels very attached to the first piece of real state she's ever owned. Plus, she has fond memories of "slaying a ton of guys" there. Still, Danny wants her to sell it, so she goes to post an open house flyer at the posh Mercer Club. While Mindy's at the Mercer Club, a widower named James (Steven Weber) overhears her begging the snooty hostess to hang up her flyers. He misunderstands Mindy's rant — "This is something my fiancé would have taken care of, but he's gone now...and I am just struggling to keep it together" — and thinks that she's a widow, too. James not only hangs up Mindy's flyer, he finds a buyer for her apartment who offers 10% above the asking price. Mindy doesn't have the heart to come clean about Danny being alive when she hears that she'll be getting more than she's asking for the apartment. Peter (Adam Pally) tells Mindy she needs to be honest about her non-widow status, but that whole notion flies out the door when they learn that James is the executive creative director of Nike. He invites the members of his bereavement group to a party he's hosting with some NBA players and the Knicks City Dancers, so guess what? Peter now has a dead wife, too. It seems like Mindy is going to get away with the whole ruse until James tries to kiss her at the party, and she's finally forced to own up to Danny's still-alive status. The rest of the bereavement group is shocked that she'd pretend her fiancé had died simply to sell her apartment. Have they never seen a sitcom or dealt with the New York real estate market before? This seems like a fairly run-of-the-mill occurrence. Anyway, Mindy leaves in a huff, and Peter stays to party on. The next morning, his wife Lauren (Tracey Wigfield) shows up on Mindy's doorstep to confront Peter. She's not too happy about the pictures on social media saying that she's dead, or that a scholarship fund has already been established in her memory at Tulane. Damn, that was quick. Lauren's arrival gets to the bottom of a larger issue, though. Peter needs Lauren to make the decisions of their relationship, because without her doing so, he'll retreat to his natural state (300 pounds and constantly masturbating). Peter isn't sure why Mindy lets Danny call all the shots, though. He also doesn't undestand why Danny isn't there right now. Um, he's taking care of his father in California and shooting a movie with Ben Affleck? I'm tired of Chris Messina's hiatus causing problems in Mindy and Danny's relationship. Sometimes couples are apart. It happens. He's not staying away because of something Mindy did. Mindy finally decides to take control of the situation. She calls Danny to give him the what for and this how (that might not be a real expression), and it turns out he's actually right outside the door. He's back! Everything is right in the world, although I hope Mindy calls Danny out on his controlling ways in next week's episode. In the non-Mindy/Danny portion of the episode, we learn that Tamra (Xosha Roquemore) moonlights as a singer, using her breakup with Morgan to make her more relatable to fans, "like Taylor Swift." It's not the world's most exciting b-story, which is why it only gets a paragraph down here. Basically, the most exciting part of this episode is hearing Danny's ringtone for Mindy and being reminded of what a great song Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" is. Can Chris Messina bring some much needed juice back into The Mindy Project? I guess we'll see next week.