HIMYM only has 1 season left, and it’s really starting to feel long in the tooth as was evidenced by tonight’s episode that tried to be edgy and fun, and would have been had it been released a few years ago.
Full spoilers abound!
Ted and Marshall kidnap Barney for his bachelor party — an event Barney has been hinting at for months, and something he has dubbed a ‘Bro-Mitzfah’ since it is a coming of age for a man that will only happen, like, 2-3 times in his life. We learn that Barney has skipped out on a dinner with Robin and his mother to go to his bachelor party, and Robin is incensed that not only is she stuck with his mother, but also the fact that Barney told his mom Robin was a virgin, which leads to his mom explaining the birds and the bees to Robin with breadsticks and napkin holders. Ted and Marshall take Barney to a seedy motel on the outskirts of Atlantic City since they can’t trust him not to gamble and begin to bring in a series of party guests they hope will be exciting. The guests include a miming balloon-animal-making clown, Lily, and what’s sure to be a slam dunk for Barney — the Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio … except of course that we all know Barney viewed William Zabka’s character, Johnny Lawrence, as the REAL karate kid. The only thing that could make the night even worse is that the stripper hired ends up being none other than Quinn, Barney’s ex-fiancee who agrees to strip for everyone BUT Barney.
Time goes by, and as Barney sulks in the bathroom, he gets another call from Robin who begs him to come back since she finally admitted to Barney’s mom that she is not a virgin, thus leading to his mother getting extremely drunk and starting to act out her sex history with appetizers at the restaurant.
Barney abandons his bachelor party, taking all his friends and ‘guests’ with him, only to have Ralph Macchio call him a loser which inspires him to head back to Atlantic City and indulge in his favorite gambling game, Xing Haishi Buxing, where he immediately loses all of his money before accepting $80,000 of credit from the loan sharks and losing that too.
Broke and despondent, Barney and the gang head back to New York, only to learn that Barney used Marshall as collateral for the loan sharks which angers everyone who all conveniently abandon him right in front of the restaurant where Robin was waiting. Robin, angry about the fact that Quinn was the stripper for the evening, calls off the wedding and storms off.
Of course, it is shown that all of this was a ‘clever’ ruse put on by all of Barney’s friends to give him a night he will never forget, and when the loan sharks show up and drag Barney up to his apartment, everyone is up there to wish him a happy bachelor’s party. Before the episode fades to black, the miming clown removes his makeup and reveals himself to be Barney’s Karate Kid, William Zabka which checks off his entire list of what he expected his Bro-Mitzfah to be.
My problem with this episode is that anyone who has ever seen more than a season of this show immediately saw where the episode was going, so the ‘twist’ at the end was hardly satisfying. The writers have proven they still have it in them to provide a surprise ending no one saw coming, like when we learned that everything that happened to Ted 2 episodes ago only took place in his head, so this just felt lazy. I would have excused it if the episode itself was funny, but aside from the scenes with Barney’s mom trying to teach sex-ed to Robin, and Lily’s recurring horniness around Ralph Macchio, there were few laughs to be found during the whole thing. It’s not that the episode wasn’t well done, but it’s just that the joke has been done before, and only HIMYM virgins wouldn’t have seen where this was going — a common theme we’ve seen over the last two seasons, and especially the episodes that have come out this year.
Look, I absolutely love this show, but the shtick is getting old, and I’m actually looking forward to the fact it ends next year. We have a bunch of beloved characters and a ton of classic episodes in the can; it’s time we finally meet the mother and get on with life.