Tonight’s episode didn’t really add much to the overall story arc, but it had a lot of great moments that had me laughing almost the entire time.
As always, full spoilers to follow.
Barney and Robin are worried that their sex life might lose its spice once they get married, so they decide to have one last quickie for old time’s sake before they tie the knot. The problem is, they want to do it somewhere they’re not supposed to (cue recurring anal sex jokes), and with extended and elderly family showing up, they’re afraid to get caught and thus miss out on their nookie time. The two weave and slink their way through the hotel, avoiding the elderly like zombies before running into Barney’s brother who agrees to take one for the team and distract the roaming hordes. Barney and Robin finally get some alone time in what they think is a deserted room only to run out in horror when they discover older relatives getting it on to geriatric porn (“you know I like it with your dentures out”). With the lesson learned that even people who have been together for 60 years still find spice in their sex life, they invoke the name of “Mandy Patinkin” which magically summons all old people and embrace the attentions of their relatives.
Lilly, meanwhile, finds out that Ted has been putting together a bucket list of sorts to accomplish before he leaves New York to move to Chicago. Lilly is upset that she is still the only one who knows he wants to leave, even though Ted proclaims that the worst time to drop a bomb like his moving would be at a wedding. Lilly tries to persuade Ted to simply forget all the bad things about New York and while it doesn’t quite convince him otherwise, he does realize he’s been avoiding Barney and heads off to have a celebratory drink with him.
The episode ends with Barney shocking Ted about seeing him and Robin together at the carousel before everything fades to black.
As I said before, this episode was mostly filler, but it had a ton of wonderful moments that fans of the series were bound to love along with some fun geek references thrown in for good measure. Learning that Lilly’s dress was destroyed by Marshall and Ted re-enacting scenes from Princess Bride was a treat since the last time we got to see them do this was a few seasons ago before Marshall accidently stabbed Lilly. This was only topped by the reveal that Lilly and Robin had first destroyed Ted’s expenisve bottle of scotch for an important toast by swordfighting themselves (and butchering the Princess Bride dialogue) and then did their best to replace it with cheap booze, ketchup and hand sanitizer. And of course, Lilly’s stealing a new bottle of hooch was completely in character for her and is another reason why she has always been my favorite in the series.
Speaking of Lilly, I really hope they keep up the constant refreshing of her drinks by Linus The Bartender until Marshall gets there. The delivery of “Thank you, Linus” along with a disembodied hand continually handing her new drinks has me howling every time it takes place.
Also, Daphne, Marshall’s new road trip buddy, is absolutely wonderful! She steals every scene she’s in (even though she’s just essentially playing the role of ‘sassy black lady’, but hey, it works), and I’m excited that she’s now started to bond with Lilly and that the two of them worked together to punish Marshall. I’m hoping she’ll stay on through the season even after Marshall gets to the wedding.
HIMYM has always been at its best when it plays to the characters’ strengths and idiosyncrasies and stayed away from contrived circumstances (like the whole ‘Ted is still in love with Robin’ thing), and tonight’s episode did this admirably.
So far, the writers have been doing this right, and I’m very optomistic that they will continue this streak the rest of the year.
If not, you can all join in with me and Lilly in yelling at them, “You … Son of a bitch!”