Last night’s How I Met Your Mother was all about finding closure, but not about any of the stuff we saw in the last two weeks: Barney still doesn’t have dad-closure, and Marshall and Lily still haven’t decided when/how to get his parents involved in their pregnancy, and whether to tell their poor kids that Santa isn’t real. (The answer is NO, they shouldn’t. Duh.)
Instead, we watched as Ted wrestled (but not Mexican wrestled) with Barney’s wooing of him to be GNB’s RHQA (resident headquarters architect), and Robin tried to get over what a big, selfish, murderable jerk Don was. Meanwhile, Lily talked a lot about poop. Here’s what happened in “Barney Always Gets the Yes”:
Plot Points:
Barney tries to convince Ted to design the new GNB headquarters again. Ted says no, so Barney uses his “pickup artist voodoo” moves to “get the yes” from Ted the way he usually gets girls to sleep with him: Ignoring him, paying him backhanded compliments, and caressing his hand while he’s eating jalapeno poppers.
These eyes will make you feel like you’re the only person in the world who matters.
Ted finds himself loving the attention from Barney but still fears quitting his cushy professor gig to work for GNB again because, in Wayne’s World parlance, the first time they screwed his affairs so badly.
With the help of helpless wingman Marshall, Barney tells Ted that they hired a new architect, and Ted immediately regrets turning down the job. But when he finds out the “other architect” was just another of Barney’s moves, Ted rejects the job again and goes back to teaching.
Meanwhile, on their couch, Robin finds out that Don’s newscasts air in New York, and seeing him on TV makes her seek closure … by getting wasted and leaving Don threatening voicemails.
These eyes will make you feel like you’re the only person in the world who deserves a good, comprehensive murdering.
Lily uses a slightly disturbing “Where’s the poop?” metaphor to tough-love Robin into deleting Don’s number and moving on. Robin retaliates by deleting numbers in Lily’s and Marshall’s phones that she thinks they don’t need, either. Like the one to Marshall’s funk band booker.
In the end, Robin says she’s never going to get closure about her unfinished relationship with Don, but once she forgets his phone number, she realizes she just did.
And, of course, Ted realizes that his architecture career is also “unfinished”–so now he’s actually going to design the GNB building. But before giving away the ultimate “yes,” Ted makes Barney buy him a bromantic dinner first.
What We Learned:
- Clark from America’s Next Top Model cycle 11 is doing line-less guest spots on sitcoms now.
Hi, Clark!
- Hearing Lily say “Where’s the poop?” so many times was discomforting for some (me) and not all that funny to others (also me). What about you?
- Those of us who watched Empire Strikes Back this weekend (once again, me) were extra gratified by the Death Star discussions. Seriously though, Marshall’s right: Terrible design, major hubris. The Death Star is like the Titanic of space.
- Robin’s response to a tough breakup is drunkenness and homicidal fantasy. And now I don’t feel so alone anymore.
- Marshall’s all-lawyer band “The Funk, The Whole Funk and Nothing But the Funk” should be a real band. Why aren’t they a real band? Someone start that band!
- I’m never shy to point out when he’s trying too hard, but it turns out Ted really can pull off a vest. Who knew?
I think it works well with the “earnest nerd dandy” persona he’s got going on.
Best of Barney:
“One hot, one kinda hot, and one who I’m assuming is really funny. We ride!”
“Do you remember how awesome it was to be coworkers, NAY, broworkers?”
“Ted, I admire your loyalty. You’ve had that hairstyle forever. You don’t care that it’s gone out of fashion or that it’s been co-opted by the lesbian community. You stick with it. To Ted!”
Robin Bonus: “I am going to fly to Chicago, kill you, then put your stupid face on a deep dish pizza. Then maybe catch a Bears game. But mostly the killing and eating your face thing.”
And the Night’s Absolute Best, courtesy of Robin: “This just in! … is what I’m going to say when I’m stabbing you.”
Verdict: 3 out of 5 toy airplanes meant to signify a sense of adventure. Last night’s episode was one of HIMYM’s self-contained story arcs, which have their pros and cons. Pros: Without the burden of heavy emotional lifting (about the mother, about Lily’s pregnancy, etc.) the half hour stays light, with room for fun non sequitur scenes like Marshall’s funk band performance and all that Star Wars talk. (And Robin’s stabbing comment was so great that it really makes up for anything else.) But both conflicts were set up and resolved so cleanly and resolutely by the end of the episode that Ted’s big moralizing about finding closure fell a bit flat, especially after Robin’s final big speech about how closure doesn’t even exist. But then, a minute later … it does? I realize they’re working in a sitcom framework, but it just felt like both resolutions came about too easily–especially Robin’s. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Ted’s inner conflict about being an architect again, especially for GNB, but it sure did feel like a shiny, happy ending for all. I enjoyed the ride, but I’m ready to move on. So I guess that’s fitting.
What did you think of How I Met Your Mother 6.3, “Barney Always Gets the Yes”?
(Images courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Meghan hails from Walla Walla, WA, the proud home of the world’s best sweet onions and Adam West, the original Batman. An avid grammarian and over-analyzer, you can usually find her thinking too hard about plot devices in favorites like The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and How I Met Your Mother. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys drawing, shopping, trying to be funny (and often failing), and not understanding the whole Twilight thing. She’s got a BA in English and Studio Art from Whitman College, which makes her a professional arguer, daydreamer, and doodler.
