Universal TelevisionWarning: The following contains spoilers from the season five premiere of The Mindy Project. If you haven't watched yet, you may want to bookmark this page and return once you have. Proceed with caution.
After a season four finale that saw our favorite foulmouthed OB-GYN stuck between a rock and a hard place with a baby daddy who showed her no respect and a co-worker whose affection was borderline creepy (we were not fans), The Mindy Project returned for season five on Hulu, picking up right where it left off, but finally letting Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling) make a choice in her love life that we can fully get behind.
And to think—it was all born from a surprisingly insightful conversation with everyone's favorite office kook Beverly (Beth Grant, who deserves a scene like that once an episode in our opinion).
After telling Jody (Garret Dillahunt) that she needed to think about his baffling grand gesture of buying her the apartment above hers and learning that Danny (Chris Messina) had gone full lech and slept with her in that elevator even though he was getting married, she admitted to a boat-loan-seeking Bev that she didn't know what she was going to do, but felt like she had to choose one of them.
"I should be happy with whatever I can get," she said. "I mean, picking neither would be irresponsible."
And that's when Beverly dropped the truth bomb on her: "If neither one of these guys is right, wait for someone special to come along. Until then, get escorts. Or crank it."
"So don't operate out of desperation? That never occurred to me," Mindy said, a light bulb finally going off in her head.
In the end, "Decision 2016" saw Mindy turn away from the typical two-party system and make a protest vote for a third party candidate: Herself. And we couldn't be happier. Season four was rough for fans of The Mindy Project's romantic comedy aspects as we were forced to watch as Danny (thanks to Messina's diminished role on the series) turned into a completely stubborn jerk and Jody popped up. The only argument anyone needs as to why Jody is an icky character is that he only didn't sleep with Mindy after getting an STD is because she found out. ICK.
And each character's reaction to Mindy's decision only further proved that it's time for her to be on her own again. Danny refused to consider making any changes to himself in order to make a relationship work and still plans to marry the woman he cheated on with Mindy because he needs someone to take care of him which, whatever—bye, Danny.
And Jody? Jody told Mindy she was a bad friend for not falling in love with him, told her she had small boobs, and then threw candy out the window at her as she left. If we never saw that character again, it would probably be too soon.
The smile on her face as she walked away, even as Jody continued to throw crap at her, is what has us excited for this season, though. It's as if Mindy, and the show, remembered that she doesn't need a man to be perfectly fine. Let her follow Beverly's advice and wait for something special. After all, there's always cranking it.
New episodes of The Mindy Project drop every Tuesday on Hulu.