Later, baby! Mindy Lahiri (played by series creator Mindy Kaling) finally got her happy ending — with Danny and her business — in the series finale of The Mindy Project, which started streaming on Hulu on Tuesday, November 14.
After breaking up during season 4, Mindy and Danny (Chris Messina) reunited at the end of the sixth season in the series finale titled “It Had to Be You.” But before the on-screen parents could get back together, Mindy had to try to find a new partner to invest in her fertility practice, “Later Baby,” after Jody left for Africa.
Mindy interviewed a series of candidates, but they were all either too creepy, young, or “mute by choice.” At an appointment for Danny’s mother Annette’s upcoming mastectomy, Danny learns about Jody and Mindy’s struggle to find an new partner and decides to invest.
Mindy gets a call from her financial advisor during Morgan and Tamra’s wedding — her “Call Me Maybe” ringtone interrupts the ceremony — and finds out about Danny’s offer. Mindy is initially apprehensive to go into business with her ex and baby daddy, but he reassures her that he will not try to control her and he now understands she can successful in her professional life and as mother.
One of the reasons Mindy and Danny broke up was because Danny did not support her dreams of opening the clinic or want her working after their son Leo was born. Mindy accepts Danny’s offer after he tells her he believes in her.
During a toast at the wedding, Mindy talks about how much Morgan and Tamra have grown as people and as a couple and concluded, “What I didn’t realize was how much people can change.” She also asked for the translation of the inscription on Danny’s grandmother’s bracelet, which says “Run” in Italian, and takes off to Annette’s mastectomy surgery.
The Hulu comedy then paid tribute to the pilot, which aired on FOX in 2012 along with the series’ first three seasons, when Mindy hopped on a bike to rush to see Danny. Fans will remember Mindy drunk riding a bike, yelling “I’m Sandra Bullock” in the first episode.
When Mindy initially arrives at the hospital, Danny cuts her off as she starts to open up about the bracelet to tell her his grandfather gave it to his grandmother “to get her to run more” because she was 400 pounds. Mindy then pretends she was there just to check on Anette. After encouragement from his mother and brother, Danny finds Mindy — with her hand stuck in a vending machine trying to steal the candy — and asks her if there was something else she wanted to tell him.
“I wasn’t going to say that I loved you again,” Mindy said after Danny tells her he thought she was going to confess her love. “I was going to say that I never stopped loving you and I don’t think I ever will.”
The pair kiss and immediately start their classic back-and-forth banter — this time about cupcakes and where to live — before Mindy reminds Danny, “We have the rest of our lives to argue.”
Other highlights from the episode include Morgan, Jeremy, Anna, Colette and Bev doing a dance to Jason Derulo’s “Want to Want Me” at the aforementioned wedding and Jeremy going through an identity crisis — and wearing clothes that resembled a cross between a ‘90s rapper and boy band member — after celebrating the death of his controlling father. In the end, Jeremy realized being the opposite of everything his father wanted was still giving his dad the control and Anna was happy to have her man back.
Kaling, who Us Weekly confirmed was expecting a baby girl in September, said goodbye to the comedy series in an emotional Instagram post on September 20.
“Last day,” Kaling captioned a photo of Mindy Lahiri sitting in her office.
