“I ignore things that don’t follow my emotional narrative.” - Mindy Lahiri
Ah, what wise words to kick off the episode that gives us deeper insight into Ben's life and family, and manages to prove how he is, indeed, a solid choice for Mindy right now (and maybe forever?). They're celebrating their second one-month anniversary and we realize it's been 30 days since the last episode. Their celebrations are cut short when Peter (Adam Pally, so good to have you back!) sneaks in through Mindy's window. Oh, Adam Pally, so good to have you back even if its for just one episode. Even Jody, of all people, is excited to see him.
After a very "Grey's Anatomy"ish on-call room rendezvous the following day, Ben tells Mindy about his daughter Lindsay's upcoming bat mitzvah. She automatically assumes this to be an invitation until he tells her otherwise. He has his reasons ready. She doesn't "need to come" and plus Peter's visiting and they have plans. She tries to keep it cool but when she's hanging out with Peter, he can't help himself and tells her it's weird that she didn't get an invitation. Plus, she's reminded of how before they got together a month ago, Ben was reconsidering getting back together with his ex-wife. Mindy also gets a text from Lindsay wishing she were there and its too bad she had to work. Min realizes Ben's given his daughter some alternative facts and naturally, she does the next best thing: crash a kid's bat mitzvah!
Peter and Mindy sneak in and spy on Ben and his ex-wife, who is easy to spot because she has her arms around the man. When the two get up on stage with their daughter, Ben takes it upon himself to thank those in their midst because every single person invited is very special to him. He's cut short when he sees Mindy and tries to make up for it, but it's too late. "What are you doing here?" he asks her later. Oh, Ben, don't you know Dr. L but at all? He explains to her that the only reason he wasn't inviting her is because he didn't want her to meet his crazy ex-wife Patricia, who crashes their hush-hush conversation.
Seeing that there's no way she can know who Mindy is, our Peter, who is high on 'shrooms, lies to her that Mindy is a rabbi of a very modern temple in Manhattan. Patricia makes the most of that knowledge, secretly asking "rabbi Mindy" and her apprentice Peter later on about advice on how to win Ben over. "He has a girlfriend," she replies. But Pat here doesn't think he's serious about this girlfriend or she's be at his daughter's special day. Right on cue, Lindsay enters the room and immediately happily hugs Mindy, causing the whole charade to fall apart. This is also when a big Ben secret makes the drop on us. The reason he split with Patricia, he cheated on her!
Mindy leaves with a million unanswered questions. The answers for them may come sooner than she expected because Ben knocks on her door later that night, all set to explain. He tells her how his marriage was basically over and failing, and he knew he needed to get out of it, so it just happened. He regrets it. The two decide to never let a third person come between them. Ben tells her the only way they'll break up is when she kills him in his sleep. Let's face it, it's totally possible.
Meanwhile, Morgan and Colette are super curious to know whom Jody is dating. They're happy he's moved on from Mindy but he's keeping his new relationship awfully secretive. For a while there, I thought he's secretly doing the deed with Anna, but nope. Morgan and Colette spot Jody and his lady eating lunch and casually bump into them and are taken aback when they see her. Claire, played by Tiya Sircar, is basically a Mindy clone. Mindy 2.0, if you will. She looks like her, dresses like her, eats like her, references pop culture like her, and even has the same iconic dance moves!
To learn more about her, and convince Jeremy she exists, they stroll into the store where she works. Claire tells the gang how she's been trying to break up with Jody but every time she tries, he showers her with gifts. Most recently, a Mercedes! He needs an intervention. Big time. So our trio along with Anna go to check up on him and give him a dose of reality. Jody admits that Mindy challenged him in ways that he didn't think were possible, and that's why he's finding it tough to let go. Luckily, his friends and sister are helpful and he realizes its time to really move on.
But wait, the love triangle doesn't end there. Love triangles on this show [and many others] are basically like Hydra. You cut one hand off, another one just grows again. Patricia walks into Mindy's office to let her know that she's moving back from Delaware to New Jersey to be closer to Lindsay, and most importantly, to Ben.
Where do you think this whose Ben-Mindy-Patricia arc will take us? Do you wish Peter Prentice made more appearances? Are you missing Danny Castellano or is the thought of Ben being permanently in the story growing on you? Most importantly, where's my Tamra/Beverly plot?
