The Christmas Mistress

The Mindy Project, S01E09

Mindy hosted the office Christmas party at her apartment with Josh.  Things turned ugly when Mindy found a message from Josh's girlfriend on his phone and when said girlfriend later showed up to ruin the party.

What is up with this whole Josh thing?  It's like when he takes one inch forward, he takes ten feet back by acting a like an asshole.  He has the great ability of being somehow a good boyfriend and a bad one at the same time, so that made me unable to decide if I liked him around Mindy.  Well, this story definitely made me not want to see him again unless he was one his knees begging Mindy for forgiveness.

First of all, Josh had arranged for them to have their own little private skating rink for an hour, but he had actually paid a random person with no control over the hockey team that promptly arrived after they got there.  I could have overlooked him just tossing money around to make things happen, but he really sucked at protecting her from the swarm of players that filled the rink.  It totally reminded me of when he nearly burned down her house and was so useless just standing around.  For me, it's a deal breaker if I feel like a guy couldn't provide me with at least more protection than I could give myself.  I could see Mindy having to save his ass than the other way around.  Ugh.  I was already annoyed with him at that point.

However, I started to like him better when everyone at the party was mesmerized by him.  It was a real compliment to Mindy that everyone seemed to love him.  I was happy to see that after Danny and Jeremy had made Josh sound like he was about as real as Santa Claus.  Mindy is not so pathetic that she would be boasting for months that she was dating an imaginary man.

The second thing, of course, that made me fall over the fence into hating Josh was when Mindy found that message.  It's not the first time that Mindy has suspected that he was looking at other women while she wasn't around.  Now she had proof.  Proof that bothered her so much she was listening to it outside barefoot while pacing.

Third, Mindy turned out not be cheated on, but the person Josh was cheating with.  I can't believe that he was stringing along some woman because of a sick dog and never told Mindy about it.  I don't know if Mindy would have been cool with that situation, but at least she wouldn't have had to deal with a psycho woman crashing her party and wrecking her house.

Heather, the psycho girlfriend, not only trespassed, but assaulted Mindy with a pillow, broke her microwave (oh, hell no!), and crushed the beautiful gingerbread house that Danny had built.  That was nuts!  Good thing Shauna was dating a police officer.  Also, it was sucky that Josh had given Heather and Mindy the same necklace, but Mindy's had less bling.  That can count as a fourth thing.  I'm tempted to say Heather calling her chubby can count as a fifth thing because Heather showing up is Josh's fault after all.

Last, Josh's ass ran out of the apartment just as Mindy was being hit over and over again with that pillow.  I doubt things would have been better if he hadn't ran, but just seeing him run off like Heather acting crazy was none of his business pissed me off.  He shouldn't have left until he had made sure that crazy lady had stopped wrecking the party!  Heather could have injured Mindy--didn't he care??  Josh sure as hell better not get back into Mindy's good graces without some serious compensation.  Because he hurt her and embarrassed her.  He needed to be beaten like that gingerbread house.

Speaking of that house again, I was real surprised that Danny constructed it so meticulously.  I mean, he used inspirations from Hansel and Gretel.  I think that he secretly loves Christmas more than he wants to let on.  I loved how he was trying to talk about the details of it to the party guests, but everyone was focused on Josh, so they paid him no attention.

Also, it was sweet how Danny forgot about his date and looked after Mindy that night.  Aww, he really does like her!  Danny was being pretty reasonable about suggesting that Mindy let the Josh thing go and deal with it after the party, but Mindy just wasn't listening.  He was being a great friend when he took over the speech Mindy was giving because it was too hard for her to say all the nice things about Josh she had written.  And thanks to helping her he ended up getting called a "philandering gay florist."  One of the best things he's been called yet.

Jeremy also surprised me with the way he rallied everyone to help salvage Mindy's party.  It's not like I think he hates Mindy or anything, but he often seems selfish, so I didn't expect him to be the one to stop everyone from leaving. He even repaired Danny's gingerbread house the best he could.  I really appreciated him after that.

This was one of my favorite episodes so far.  I mean, there were a lot more reasons to hate Josh and Mindy got her heart broken like her microwave, but it was an exciting and interesting party.  Plus, Mindy's friends came through for her again during one of her difficult times and made me like them all a little more.  I feel like I can almost forget that Josh is a bit of dirt bag and Mindy might be depressed because I know that she'll get over it with the great support system she has in her friends.