Now living among the many things on TV for which I am thankful this year is the memory of last night’s How I Met Your Mother episode, “Blitzgiving,” which, while it was no “Slapsgiving,” had an abundance of charms and laughs all on its own.
We got new catchphrases (“Blitz!” “The gentleman!” “Boomawang!”), more mythology, and a visit from Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost) that even seemed to cancel out another appearance from annoying Zoey (Jennifer Morrison). For a Thanksgiving-themed episode, I’d say it was, appropriately, a feast.
Plot Points:
Ted leaves McLaren’s early so he can prep his special Thanksgiving turkey, the turkey inside the turkey, which he has named a “turturkeykey.” (Robin: “I’ll be eating sides.”) The group warns him that by leaving early, he will become, “The Blitz,” aka the guy who misses everything awesome right after he leaves.
In college, Hurley (We are just going to call him Hurley, OK? He’s Hurley.) was the Blitz, but he showed up at McLaren’s while Ted stayed home, and thus the Blitz transferred to Ted, who, let’s be honest, can’t really afford to get much lamer.
When he wakes up in the morning Ted finds out that the gang had an amazing night (DOG ON A SKATEBOARD!) with Hurley and, to his dismay, Zoey, whom they all love now. Along the way, Marshall sent a photo of his junk to a stranger, Zoey painted KISS makeup on Robin, and they all created a game with a top hat called “The Gentleman!”
DOG ON A SKATEBOARD!
Since Robin broke the oven by dancing on it, the gang must travel to someone else’s house to cook the turturkeykey, but for various reasons (sewage explosion, Hurley’s cats, Barney’s oven isn’t real) they’re forced to go to the house of Ted’s “mortal enemy” (more on that below), Zoey.
Barney decides to take a less crowded cab to Zoey’s, and misses out when the gang’s cab takes a turn into the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Ted even gets a Bueller moment by singing “Twist and Shout.” So now BARNEY is the Blitz.
At Zoey’s, Barney spends the day trying to get his former awesomeness back, Hurley relishes his non-Blitz-dom, Robin crushes on Marshall’s “wang guy,” and Ted and Zoey spend the whole time bickering/smoldering in sexual tension until Ted goes too far, and Zoey kicks them out.
When Ted puts some clues together and realizes that Zoey is just sad that her stepdaughter didn’t want to spend Thanksgiving with her, the gang goes back to her house, and Dad-Ted says the definitive words, “And that was the day that Zoey and I became friends.”
Meanwhile, Barney is still the Blitz … until he rides in the elevator with a naked chick. Thus the Blitz is passed back to poor Hurley.
What We Learned:
- Robin looks pretty awesome in KISS makeup.
- Being the Blitz is BAD. Hurley has missed out on a naked chick, free beer for everyone at McLaren’s, the university president’s toupee getting snatched by a hawk, Led Zeppelin reuniting at his cousin”s bar mitzvah, and “countless nip slips, crotch shots, shooting stars and double rainbows.”
- The original Blitz was also an actual Wesleyan student, who tragically dropped out right before the school went co-ed.
I love the other quotes in the old yearbooks. “Cool it, Pops!”
- Apparently Ted hates/hated Zoey. I say “apparently” because when last we saw them together, they were dancing and pretending that their sexual tension was just regular tension. He also said he respected her. Now he hates her? C’mon, Ted, you can’t flirt-fight with a girl for a month and then bust out the term “mortal enemy.” You can’t fool us, or the gang–except maybe Lily, who totally would have gotten revenge on Zoey if she hadn’t found out that Zoey is her one and only art collector.
- Steve/Hurley’s mom should probably be on Animals Hoarders. (And I hope he comes back someday!)
- “No, I’m not the Blitz. I’m the Bueller.”
- Lost fans got some fun shout-outs from Hurley. The phone number he gave Zoey was not a random set of numbers, as I’m sure you noticed (“4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42!”) and, in reference to his former Blitz-dom, he declared to Barney, “I was on that island for what seems like an eternity. I want to enjoy things on the other side.”
- “People don’t stay enemies forever.” Yeah? Tell that to Lily and Renee Zellweger Reese Witherspoon KATE HUDSON!
Best of Barney:
“With some light beer and some rock hard approval.”
“It was legen … wait for Ted to leave because he’s now the Blitz … DARY!”
While everyone else is yelling “Dance on the oven!”: “Make out with Zoey!”
“I slept with that cute Indian girl who cuts my hair!” / “What does that have to do with anything?” / “Nothing, I just forgot to brag about it before!”
Verdict: Four and a half out of five turturkeykeys. Beyond the sappy and rather shoehorned (but necessary, even I can see that) Zoey plotline about her stepdaughter, the episode was classic How I Met Your Mother silliness with a heart of gold. I loved watching Barney flounder as the Blitz. Neil Patrick Harris plays the character so consistently well that seeing Barney out of his usual element and desperately trying to get back to his usual self was all the more entertaining. There were tons of fun little moments that will have HIMYM fans saying, “Remember when … ?” like we always do when it comes to the best episodes, like the “gentleman” game, the physics-defying quarter, and mysterious “Wang Guy” quoting Gandhi. Jorge Garcia was adorable and charming, and even Zoey was less annoying than usual.
Last night’s episode was all about fun, but it still managed to leave us with the same question we’ve been wondering for a while: Where will this newly formed friendship between Zoey and Ted lead? I read one comment over at TV Club by a user who suggested that, since Zoey’s husband is so much older than her, maybe her stepdaughter is a grown woman, and possibly the Mother. Pretty much any new mention of a female character on HIMYM sparks a similar theory, but this one is interesting, if not mostly implausible (Wouldn’t Ted’s kids then know all about Zoey, their young and hip step-grandmother? And what about the wedding?), because at least that would make Zoey more relevant.
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.
