How I Met Your Mother continues its legendary ninth season wedding arc with a light-hearted echo to last week’s heavier episode. The Ted Loves Robin story appears to have been put to pasture, and the focus seems to have shifted to something far more entertaining: an epic bitch battle between Robin and Barney’s mom.
During a wedding party poker match, Robin taunts a party-pooping James into betting and losing his wedding ring. Hijinks ensue, up to and including a topless Loretta Stinson. Barney has to make an important decision about prioritzing family and relationships. One meltdown and two poop jokes later, he comes to realize just what his pending nuptuals mean and makes a laughably concrete decision about the most important part of his life. Of course he chooses to be on Robin’s side unconditionally, and of course he exaggerates and miscommunicates his principles, and of course that makes Loretta even more sour on Robin. Hence – epic bitch battle.
Tonight’s subplot involved passive-aggressive Ted and Marshall in a battle of ettiquette that turned out to be a misunderstanding of “Three’s Company” level proportions. Turns out Marshall and Lily have been living a lie, and thought that Ted never gave them a wedding present. This is only because Stuart, of Claudia and Stuart fame, weaseled out and put his own name on Ted’s gift. In the best way, Claudia and Stuart are the antithesis of Marshall and Lily. They are pretty well despicable. I like to imagine that their other circle of friends involves a large portion of the Seinfeld gang.
I think my favorite thing about this series is the many ways that it rewards loyal viewers. Full disclosure, I started watching in season three and had to go back to catch up (“wait, Willow and Doogie are in a show together? WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED?!?!”), but for the past six years this has been one of very few must see programs. As a result, I felt a rush of joy (and no small amount of pride) at seeing the Slutty Pumpkin standing behind Ted at a flashback Hallowe’en party. I love the consistency and attention to detail regarding Lily’s hair in flashback sequences, and I wonder if next week Marshall’s road trip will be waylaid due to the many bathroom breaks he’ll need after eating Gazzola’s pizza. I also wonder if he made Daphne pick up some Tantrum.
I tend to rate HIMYM by how hard I laugh and/or cry. Tonight there were a couple hearty guffaws (poop jokes, you guys) and no tears, but it was a solid episode. It had that wonderful HIMYM mix of surrealism with meat and potatoes; as often as there are bizarre circumstances and coincidences, it always circles back to friendship. The creative team has made a good decision to put a lid on the Ted and Robin bit, because while it never reached Ross and Rachel levels for me it was starting to get a bit tired as a plot device. I think we might get one or two more mentions, as Robin and Barney have had closure on the issue, but Ted has not. But I really hope that epiphany takes place sooner rather than later in the season.
Sithbot will return next week for his reviews, but in the meantime – since I’m not in this particular fandom that often – let’s talk about our favorite HIMYM moments, episodes, and people. Sound off in the comments, or chat up Sithbot or myself on the twitters. We love to take to the twitters.