YES—they have been setting up that trope since the Pilot. Danny has come so far from who he was in the early episodes (where he thought that work was exclusively for work and not for gossip). I wish more people respected Danny's character progression rather than rag on him for being human and getting scared.

Oh, PS — those earrings are definitely coming back for the finale. Undisputed !!!!

I just have to say that this is another episode where the characters get inebriated and confess things to each other. Please don't shoot the messenger, but this makes me so mad.

Groan on Mindy and Peter. Why can't two people be friends on TV and have that be OK? I love Peter and I think they're setting him up to date someone that makes him a better person, but it's clear that person isn't Mindy.

Definitely fair criticism there.

Well, Ed Weeks is part el-Salvadorean, so they're probably bringing that in. And as for Spaniards' Harlem, wouldn't that just be an indicator that he's a dummy when it comes to American stuff and likes to inflate his language?

Even with the AV Club's grading scale being fitted to each episode, it's ABSURD that this would receive nearly a D when New Girl's "Mars Landing" to my probably wrong knowledge received an A-. This breakup was real and based off of character flaws and history and Chris and Mindy deserve every possible accolade for…

They're not changing their mind at all. If anything, this should convince you that in the long run they see Mindy and Danny together because they want to get their one big breakup out of the way before either of them can pursue the big, real thing (that we KNOW is going to happen just based on these two characters…

What was that, WELL-POUNDED VAG?

The episode was filmed before the hiatus, and the hiatus was def FOX's fault. They put Girl Crush there so that the LA/Desert arc could happen before they had to take two months off. It could have been a lot rockier of a transition that it ultimately was, considering that Mindy wanting to leave the practice makes more…

Yeah, Girl Crush wasn't the best thing to drive the point home, but you can't blame TMP for that because they filmed it in November. Given that, it was pretty all right haha

Isn't the point that they break up so suddenly and that's why everyone cares so passionately? Is it better to New Girl it, wait the appropriate amount of time, and then throw a conflict out of nowhere and have a couple break up within one self-contained conflict? Mindy and Danny needed to break up NOW so that, down…

I wish I was a Mindy Project production intern.

WELCOME BACK, THE MINDY PROJECT. I missed you. Pissed that you're going on a seven day hiatus. I understand that's how television "works," but I'm NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT

You know, I would have totally hopped on board with a Debra-Dexter romance than a Dexter-Hannah McKay one. Blame it on the romantic in me, but I'd rather have Deb and Dexter just be really messed up people who have a really weird and deep connection than have what we got, which had the entire plot of Dexter being…

True—thank God they didn't. I got 4 good years out of Dexter before it went gently incestuous and Hannah McKay-inspired.

I would disagree with what you have to say—evidence between Mindy and Danny goes back to the Pilot and is gently progressing whereas in New Girl it was immediate (after all, he did "love her from the moment she walked through the door") and then just played whenever the writers wanted to play around with it, esp. in…

I didn't think a series finale could make me hate a show until Dexter. I don't think HIMYM reached Dexter levels of betrayal and ludicrousness, though.

I don't think it's unrealistic to have alcohol on a show at all, but when you are writing a TV show (as opposed to living your life) it's important to let the characters gain depth through ways that they choose while sober because, unlike real life, TV shows have seasons and those seasons need to have season-long arcs…

Thank you for saying that! I was worried I was gonna get seriously beat up for making that observation.