Mindy Learns A Tough Lesson About Using Morgan To Scare Annette Out Of Dating

It's hard to blame Mindy for the idea behind her latest caper. Initially, she sets up nice old Dr. Ladreaux so that Annette has a man in her life to focus on instead of Danny, and given that the episode kicks off with neither Danny nor Annette thinking it's weird that Annette would walk in on her pushing-forty son in the tub, Mindy's not exactly out of line. (There's also the fact that Mindy thinks if she makes him a love connection, he'll give her his parking spot when he retires: "I don't have a car but I don't want anyone else to have it!") But when Mindy's makeover turns Annette into "the tart of Staten Island" (per Danny) and Annette joins an online dating site because her first successful outing makes her greedy for more strange (per me), Mindy decides the best way to scare her straight is to let her see what it's actually like to date a weirdo from the internet. How can Mindy be sure the weirdo will be weird enough?

Because Tamra just dumped Morgan, Morgan just joined the same site Annette did, and Annette is one of his matches. And Mindy has twenty bucks to make it happen.

But remember that one Seinfeld when Elaine tries to arrange for Kramer to see her physical-therapist friend's old-fashioned bouffant and tell her she needs to change it because Elaine can't without being a bad friend, but then Kramer ends up loving the hairdo and it all blows up in Elaine's face? Kind of the same thing happens here, because the thing about weirdos is that just when you think they're going to zig, they zag on you. In this case, the zag is that Morgan and Annette somehow totally hit it off.

Ultimately, this horrible series of events actually leads Danny and Annette to have some real talk: she tells him that she never dated after his father left because Danny and Richie were so traumatized to have lost one parent that she didn't want them to think they might get less of her, too. Danny accepts that his mother is allowed to have a dating life, and the net time Annette interrupts tub time, she comes bearing ziti, so everyone wins.

Yet even though the story has a happy ending, one can be pretty sure Danny's never going to let Mindy forget the brief interlude when Morgan thought he might be taking over as Danny's new dad.

That forcible hug is one Danny will never forget, and almost certainly never forgive.