HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: The Playbook

Barney’s back…and back with a vengeance!

Eager to get back into the dating scene, Barney relied on an old and trusted friend - “The Playbook”. Inside this single guy bible were schemes, tricks, and game plans all designed to land the ladies. Some scams, like “The Ted Mosby” (’I got left at the alter’) could work for just about anyone (including Ted), but it takes a real pro to pull off something like “The Lorenzo von Matterhorn” or the titular “Scuba Diver”.

Unfortunately for Barney, the first victim of his “playbook” just happened to be a co-worker of Lilly’s.  Lilly had been waiting three years to set up Shelly with Ted, so needless to say she wasn’t happy that Barney scammed on her first.  Lilly was out for revenge.

I think by now we’ve all learned not to get on Lilly’s bad side. It’s not pretty. Lilly might not be as dubious as Barney, but she can certainly hold her own. Wanting to get back at Barney for ‘playbooking’ one of her friends, Lilly set out to steal Barney’s playbook and use it against him. But little did she know that she was playing right into Barney’s hands. She may have schemed him, but Barney had a much bigger scheme in mind: “The Scuba Diver”.

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HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: The Rough Patch

“Daddy’s Home”

Hey kids. Today I’m going to talk to you about last night’s episode a little differently than usual. I want you to know that I am here for you during this time of grieving. We witnessed the end of something that began so beautifully and I understand if not everyone is able to cope.

The relationship many of us waited ever so patiently and cheered for last season came to a screeching halt last night. As a vocal supporter of Robarney last season, I have felt like I have been a hypocrite these past few months as I’ve been pointing out so many flaws in their relationship-centric episodes. There have been a few good episodes but for the most part, the ho-hum episodes have centered on Barney and Robin’s coupledom and how it has adversely affected the gang. Their relationship made Lily and Marshall’s marriage hard to stomach. Ted, the only single guy in the gang, was more focused on their relationship than finding his own (cue the title of the show). I know the show isn’t truly about finding the mother but rather the adventure leading up to meeting the mother but Ted only dated one girl this season, and it was someone he had already dated.

I have been saying for a while that the two weren’t truly happy. Maybe it was because they were too similar. It could have been because they are too independent (the nice word for selfish) and set in their ways. For whatever reason, it wasn’t working out. They were both crying out secretly (Barney’s case vocally too via VHS porn) and physically (Robin’s looks going to hell and Barney’s compulsive eating) and were too stubborn to see what their relationship was doing to them, their friends and to us - the audience. Upon seeing their reflection, quite literally, they were able to see that their relationship just wasn’t working. They didn’t need Ted, Marshall, Kraken: The Relationship Terminator (Lily) or even Alan Thicke to break them up. They were hurting themselves and each other and agreed amicably to go back to being friends.

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HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Bagpipes

Welcome everyone to another bagpiping good episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.

Last night the gang all had disagreements that they had to work through. Ted and Robin have new upstairs neighbors that “play the bagpipes” all the time. That is Ted’s new euphemism for, well, you know, wink wink, nudge nudge. Marshall and Lily’s fight originally started about the dishes and then escalated into many other arguments. And Robin and Barney were secretly fighting in order to maintain their “best couple ever” cover.

Barney came to Ted worried about Marshall and Lily. After witnessing Lily ask Marshall to wash his dish right away, Barney feared that our favorite married couple was heading toward a divorce. Barney has “new relationship smugness,” Ted proclaimed and assured him that everything would be fine. Unfortunately Barney wouldn’t let go and convinced Marshall to stand up to Lily. Marshall is very susceptible to peer pressure and found logic in Barney’s words. Did anyone else get the feeling that Barney was the devil and Ted was the angel on Marshall’s shoulders? Ted did what he could to convince Marshall that Barney’s theories would lead Marshall to end up in a fight with Lily and they agree upon a slap bet.

Marshall tried to carbon copy Barney’s theory with Lily but he bumbled his way through it and they ended up in a huge fight, leading Marshall to stay with Ted and receiving one well deserved slap in the face. As Marshall admits, he’s a lawyer, he gets paid to argue but with Lily he gets totally flustered and apparently nonsensical. And like all good fights, it is never about one thing. Theirs mutated into several fights. Marshall taking relationship advice from Barney is just poor judgment. I know he knew better but if I were presented with a world of no dirty dishes, I’d fall into Barney’s logic too. Though the easiest solution to me in this particular argument is to buy a dishwasher. I’m sure Barney has a guy.

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HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Duel Citizenship

Are you ready to talk aboot last night’s episode, eh?

Tonight was all about what people may have to let go. For Robin, she had to decide what to do regarding her citizenry in order to avoid deportation. Meanwhile Ted had to come to terms with his place in Marshall and Lily’s relationship.

Let me take a moment to gripe then we can continue on.

I know Lily and Marshall always had a freakishly close relationship. What I don’t understand is why at this point in their relationship are they even more completely glued to one another? They aren’t newlyweds any more. Heck, they aren’t even that young of a couple. They’ve been together for a dozen years. I’m also having a hard time grasping how Ted can be unaware of some Lilyisms. Not only has Ted known Lily as long as Marshall has, but he has also lived with her. There is no way he didn’t know about Lily’s bladder issues.

We’ve learned that he and Robin never double dated with Lily or Marshall and now that he has never taken a road trip with both of them nor know about her constant need to pee. This all rings so false to me. I’m playing the “Friends” card here. While I loved “Friends,” I had issues when they would just randomly come up with a new trait for characters that was not there before, just to fit in with the episode they wanted to write. I feel like this has been happening a lot on HIMYM lately. It’s pulling me out of the story.

OK, rant over. No more complaints from this sentence on.

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HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Sexless Innkeeper

Hey HIMYM fans, it’s Jen here, not at all ready to talk about last night’s episode. Please be advised that I would like to have “more than words”** with the writers of this episode.

I read a few articles and Tweets before this episode aired, raising my excitement for what was to come. After watching this episode, I felt like Ted, the episode’s titular sexless innkeeper – used. This is the one show I praise for keeping up with the mythos of the series and always delivering but tonight’s episode left enough plot holes for Whiskers the cat to lose many of his nine lives and left me unable to sit still.

The majority of the episode centered on Marshall and Lily being the over-eager couple during double dates. While this doesn’t totally ring untrue, I have two major issues with this. First. We know that Lily and Marshall had a wine and cheese double date at the apartment they shared with Ted and they were actually the ones annoyed and bored by the other couple (S1 “Okay Awesome). Second, how could Robin never have experienced a double date with them during her entire relationship with Ted? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

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HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Robin 101

Students, it’s time to quiet down and get your notepads and pencils ready because class is now in session.

Barney had been single for a very, very long time. He’s not used to being in a relationship.  So can you really blame a guy when he tries to sleepwalk out of his girlfriend’s apartment in the middle of the night?  Or when he looks to avoid dealing with her emotions outside of the bedroom? It’s just what he’s used to.

When Robin questions whether or not Barney is ready for this relationship, it’s Ted that steps up to help a bro out.  Time for a little Robin 101. His plan to save Robarney: teach Barney to be a better boyfriend. As Robin’s ex-boyfriend, Ted is chock-full of information as to what Robin finds important in a mate as well as things she cannot tolerate.

When Robin started to notice that Barney was being highly attentive - sending flowers and bringing breakfast in bed. She came to a very logical conclusion - Barney was cheating on her.

Of course he’s not. And despite his protests to Ted, the very fact that Barney would attend Robin 101 and take such diligent notes really shows how truly in this relationship he is.  He doesn’t want to lose her and he’ll do what it takes to keep her.

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HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Double Date

rab some dollar bills and trim that goatee because it’s time for another rousing episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. Last night Ted got a glimpse of his former self, Marshall got a look at a dirty version of his wife, and Robin saw first hand that Barney will be Barney.

Forever on the quest to find the woman of his dreams, it seems that Ted hit a stumbling block. He went on a blind date with a woman that he went on a blind date with seven years ago.

At first Ted thought he was expereincing a bit of déjà vu. Sure Jen looked a little familiar, but it wasn’t until after he made a horribly bad pun that it hit him.  He wasn’t having a “déjà vu” moment, he was reliving their first date - the same restaurant, the same food, the same conversations.  Uh oh. Ted has officially dated all the single ladies in NYC and now he’s starting all over again. This can’t be good.

After the initial shock of the date do-over, Ted and his date Jen (played by Lindsey Sloane) decided to use this mix-up to learn from their dating mistakes. What first date tactics turned them off to each other the first time around?  For Ted it was Jen’s obsession with her cats and her ex-boyfriend.  For Jen, it was Ted’s bad puns and his snobbery. As they relive their first date, they realize that the second date is much better. All seems to be going well but then Ted realizes that he remembers why he didn’t call Jen after their first date.  He doesn’t want to be with someone that just tolerates his idiosyncrasies. He wants someone who like Ted for Ted.

Future Ted tell us that the future mother of his children laughed at his bad pun…at least a little.

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