'The Mindy Project' Season 1, Episode 1: 'Pilot' Recap

In the pilot episode of “The Mindy Project,” we are introduced to Mindy, who grew up watching romantic comedies while doing her homework.

Romantic Mindy grew up and became Ob/Gyn Doctor Mindy. Dr. Mindy’s life changes when she sees Tom, the man of her dreams, walking down her ward. The two meet again in the elevator, and she drops her files. As they gather them, the elevator stops. It’s just like a romantic comedy. She talked to Tom in the elevator for 20 minutes. 2 months later, she moved in with him.

However her arresting officer doesn’t seem real interested in hearing Mindy tell this story.

Mindy insists it has everything to do with her arrest. She continues.

Tom apparently ran away with the Serbian bagel girl, and the two got engaged. Thinking that she wouldn’t come, they invite Mindy to the wedding. Mindy shows up, gets tanked, and makes a speech about how Tom dumped her because she was getting too old.

Pardon me—he wanted to build a future with someone who had more good years to share. That sounds much nicer.

So, Mindy steals champagne and dashes off, drunkenly biking home. Somehow along the way she misses seeing a swimming pool, and manages to crash right into it. As she’s floating down to the bottom, a Barbie-style toy lying in forgotten in the water tells her to get her… ahem… life… together. Mindy has words with the “hot, mean doll," but realizes she speaks the truth. Even she has a boyfriend.

The officer, again, isn’t interested in this story. Mindy is up on 3 counts of public intoxication, theft and disorderly conduct. Mindy believes there are worse people out there to be pursuing, but the officer claims she is “a rapist of peace and quiet.”

Mindy’s best friend Gwen bails her out, and Mindy contemplates why she doesn’t have a man.

“My body mass index is not great, but I’m not like Precious or something.”

She gets informed that her patient is in labor and rushes off, but when she gets there, the smart mouthed doctor, Danny Castellano, has delivered the baby. Mindy is not pleased.

In the lounge, she grumbles about her life. The hot sex addict doctor and bed buddy Jeremy Reed is aroused by her trashy slept-in dress and make-up, but she shoots him down for the moment. She needs a change in her life and that means no more bad hook ups and poor decisions.

In her office, a young boy and his foreign mother plead with Mindy to take her on as patient, even though they have no insurance. Mindy finally says she will as long as the boy pretends he is going to get the insurance, so she can at least pretend.

As her work day winds down she prepares for a date she has, showing off her sparking outfit. Danny think she looks perfect for a “date with Elton John on New Year’s Eve.”

She checks with veteran Dr. Shulman who thinks it’s glitzy. “Razzledazzle, like a fishing lure.”

Danny still advises something more low key, tight, with comfortable shoes. She makes a snappy, rude comment about his ex wife, and, baited, Danny tells her she’d look better if she lost 15 pounds.

Jeremy tells her she looks great, and, ego boosted, she takes him to his office and they start a hot make-out session. But, she stops herself.

“Oh, great. We broke this model of the human pelvis.”

She changes into a tight red dress. Danny is in the elevator, and compliments her, but she tells him to go to hell.

Mindy goes in and meets her date, Dennis, played by Ed Helms, and is very impressed. The two hit it off, until she gets a call from Max, the son of the pregnant immigrant, and reluctantly has to rush off. Before she does, she makes sure to confuse Dennis about her intentions, telling him to swing by between two and three, and then, realizing how that sounded, talking herself into a hole and pretty much ruining the chance of another date.

She rushes back to work, changes, and delivers the baby, with Danny watching in approval through the window.

In the lounge, he meets up with Mindy, who is watching “When Harry Met Sally.” He asks about Dennis, if he was a real “guy.” Mindy opens up to him about her frustration, but Danny just changes the channel.

Still annoyed, back at home, Mindy finally has Jeremy over to take the edge off.