Not too much happened tonight to move the plot along, but there were more than enough sight gags and fun flashbacks to keep everyone entertained.
Full spoilers to follow.
We finally catch up with Daphne and Marshall on their road trip, where Daphne is stunned to discover that Marshall hasn’t even thought about the way he is going to break the news to Lily that he was offered a judgeship. Marshall is convinced he knows exactly how to tell Lily, so Daphne insists they role play how it will all go down. Of course no matter what Marshall says or does, he is immediately shot down by Daphne until he finally realizes that he wasn’t taking Lily’s feelings into consideration when he accepted the judgeship. Daphne, aghast that he didn’t even consult with his wife before making the decision, gets her revenge by texting Lily the news while Marshall is outside walking around to cool off. Just as she gives him the news of what she has done, a horror struck Marshall faces a ringing phone.
Lily meets the stodgy reverend who will be marrying Robin and Barney in an attempt to make a good first impression, but angers him when she shares the story of how she and Marshall met. Robin and Barney explain that they used her story to explain how THEY met because they just HAD to get married in his church (it has cute oozing out the wazoo), and since they are such horrible and slutty people, they had to seem cuter and more innocent then they really are. Everything falls to pieces when they admit they lied, and the reverend bans them from getting married in his church. Chagrined, Robin and Barney explain their true story and all the lecherous things they have done which in turn, leads to the reverend dying of a heart attack. The good news is, they can still get married in the church, but now they need someone else to officiate the wedding.
Finally, Ted is looking for the right person to hook up with and be his date for the wedding, and instead of going with his better instinct, he immediately latches on to Cassie who seems to be the most up for, well, anything. Of course, he ‘chose poorly’ (as we are constantly reminded by the ghost of the knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), and every decision he makes with Cassie continues to lead to more and more horrible happenings until he finally lands her in bed — right before he says she needs some time to collect herself, and she releases him from taking care of her the rest of the weekend. His final bad choice takes place in the bar where he does a toast to the dead reverend, only to have Cassie walk in at that exact moment and start bawling because he was her uncle.
Like I said before, this episode really didn’t move our storyline along at all, but was a lot of fun. The flashback scenes where Marshall, Barney, Lily and Robin play different versions of themselves in their “how I met stories” were a blast. I’ve always enjoyed seeing college Lily and Marshall, so reliving that, but with Barney and Robin was a treat and got some good laughs. The same is true for when Marshall pulled a “have you met Ted?” with Lily before immediately starting to make out with her. Accidently killing the reverend with their stories of sex and partying (we even did it right here in this room, what do you think about that?) was also kind of foreshadowed the moment they began their rant, but it still didn’t change the fact that it was funny as hell, and further proof of what horrible people they are (even though we love them for it).
Ted’s storyline was just ok, as every thing that took place was fully telegraphed moments before it happened, but the running gag of the knight’s ghost continunig to say he “chose poorly” was funny pretty much every time it happened. Also, why has douche Ted made a return? He’s about to meet the love of his life, so let’s bring back sweet, naive and sometimes exasperating Ted!
I was quite happy Daphne got more screen time (even it if was mostly voicing over Lily), and it was good to see she is still her treacherous self with her last minute admission that not only is she a lobbyist for big oil, but also by breaking the news to Lily before Marshall was ready for it. Keep giving us more Daphne; I love her!
Finally, we got more hints as to how the series will play out when it is confirmed that Ted won’t even meet the Mother until presumably sometime after the wedding when he is waiting at the train station in the rain. I’m sure all of us have been wondering when this titular event would finally take place, and we’re getting closer to finding out how exactly it will happen. That said, I love Cristin Milioti, and I really want to see more of her on screen as soon as possible. She’s charming, oozes personality, and had great chemistry with Lily, so I want to see that with the rest of the cast. She’s been MIA since the second episode; bring on more Mother!
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