'The Mindy Project' Season 2, Episode 14: 'The Desert' Recap

Mindy has been dumped again. She watches "Gone With the Wind" and is inspired to find some way to get Cliff back. She decides she, too, must go home... she packs to leave L.A. and go back to New York.

Danny tells her she has to stay, and go see his dad with him. He needs her emotional support, but she has already called Cliff and left a message. She has to go win him back. She asks for a ride to the airport.

Peter goes back to the office, humiliated from his experience in L.A. He has a date in the evening and wants no distractions. However, at the end of the night, he locks himself in the bathroom with Morgan when the handle falls off the door.

Danny drives Mindy through the desert to LAX. He tells her he'll wake her up when they get there. There is actually his dad's house. He tells Mindy he really needs her to set his hand because he's going to break it punching his dad in the face. He tells her to stay in the car but she chases after him. Danny opens the door and finds a young girl, named Danny... his sister.

Thrown, Danny's rage is off. His father comes out and hugs him. Danny wants to leave but Mindy insists they stay.

Morgan and Peter argue in the bathroom and hear Cliff in his office through the vents. He puts on Jewel and sings sadly along with it, crying. They start to try to call to him but decide to let him save face. Peter recognizes the cry as the sound of a man with his heart broken. They think Mindy must have dumped Cliff. Finally a maid lets them out. They encounter Cliff in the elevator.

Danny is disgruntled eating with his family and finding out his dad has been taking good care of his wife and daughter. Little Danny invites him to her soccer game. Danny gets drunk and decides to take a walk, with Mindy ready to take the car and go off to fly home. She pauses when drunk Danny begins to wander off into the desert.

Mindy drives off, calling Cliff but she gets a call from Danny. He's lost. Reluctantly she turns around and goes back for him since he refuses to call his dad.

Cliff tells Peter and Morgan that he and Mindy broke up. Morgan suggests they take him out for a guy's night, and Peter agrees to change his date.

Mindy wanders the desert looking for Danny and finally finds him hours later. She's angry at him for making her miss Cliff, and Danny tells her guys don't dump girls they want to be with. Mindy tells him he's mean and selfish and just like his dad... worse, even, because his dad changed. Furious, she makes him walk behind her as they go off looking for something. They find a town, but Danny says it's not on the map. Flood lights go off.

Cliff tells Morgan and Peter that he dumped Mindy, not the other way around. Peter tells Cliff he was at the party and nothing happened, and that Mindy is obsessed with him. They tell him he made a mistake.

Danny and Mindy are taken into the army base and questioned. They recognize Danny's last name and know his father, and tell him to just call his father. Finally, he agrees, and his dad comes to get them. His father apologizes for how he was in the past, and invites Danny to be a part of their family now.

Mindy and Danny go to Little Danny's soccer game, and she gossips with Little Danny about her issues with Cliff. LD suggests she write him a letter.

On the plane ride home, Mindy apologizes to Danny. She knows it took a lot for him to make peace with his dad, and he's not mean. He's great. He apologizes for what he said about Cliff, and that he was lucky to be with her. Danny helps her with her letter to Cliff, and produces an amazing e-mail. Mindy sends it, thrilled. Cliff reads the e-mail and realizes he needs to get Mindy back.

Pleased with her success, Mindy goes to get Danny a tonic water as a thank you. As she gets up the plane hits turbulence, frightening Danny. He looks at the empty seat beside him.

Mindy is in the back, trying to pick the correct water for Danny. He comes back there, and kisses her.