Robyn: Nick signed for a package at my apartment.
Ted: Victoria keeps tampons in my apartment.
Robyn: Dammit!
Tonight’s episode of How I Met Your Mother had three main story lines: Marshall and Lilly’s search for a nanny for Marvin, Robyn and Ted arguing over who had the better relationship, and Barney trying to deal with life without Quinn.
Marshall and Lilly realize that they cannot take care of Marvin all by themselves. Lilly’s father comes to stay with her and Marshall and wants to help take care of Marvin but they both say no because of how bad of a parent he was when lilly was growing up. So, Marshall and Lilly begin a search for a nanny. They interview an old British woman names Mrs. Buckminister. They both love her and know that she is exactly what they are looking for. Unfortunately her salary is way too high for Marhall and Lilly’s budget. They then interview a younger woman who has tie to St. Cloud, Minnesota, the town that Marhall is from. Marshall and Lilly instantly offer her job. She says that she has one more interview and then she will make up her mind. When Marshall and Lilly call her that night to ask her if she was going to take the job, she says that she will not be taking any nanny jobs because she has fallen in love with a man who is a billionaire and they are going to leave the country together. This man ends up being Barney. They storm over to Barney’s apartment to talk to the girl and tell her the situation. She storms out in a fit of anger. We do not hear from this girl for the rest of this episode. While this seems like an unimportant plot point, I have a feeling it will play a part in later episodes of this season. Finally, the next day when Lilly is home with Marvin, she falls asleep. When she wakes up, Marvin is gone. He had been with Lilly’s father who had taken very good car eof him, taking him to the park and feeding him. This prompts a sincere moment where Lilly comes to the realization that her father really is pretty amazing. He shows her that he kept a phot album of Lilly growing up. In one of the last scenes, we see a series of pictures showing the early life of Marvin where Lilly and her father are with him. It was a very cute and sincere montage. I am not going to lie, but I definitely teared up a little during it. This was definitely the highlight of the episode for me.
The second major story line in tonight’s episode was Robyn and Ted arguing and competing about who has the best relationship. Reminder: at this point in the “flashback,” Ted is still with Victoria and Robyn is still with Nick. Throughout the episode we get little points where they argue about little things in their relationships that they think make it better than each other’s relationship. During one of these points, we get perhaps the greatest quote of the night. Robyn says, “Nick signed for a package at my apartment” to which Ted responds, “Victoria keeps tampons in my apartment.” Robyn the simply responds with, “Dammit!” At the very end of the episode, they each realize that they have problems in their relationships. Ted makes a toast saying, “To making these relationships count.” Then we get a sort of situational irony from older Ted hen he says, “both [relationships] will implode within the month.” It should be interesting to see how both relationships end, especially because the ending of the Barney-Quinn relationship was very well done.
The last major storyline from tonight’s episode was Barney dealing with his life post-Quinn. The very first scene of the episodes shows Barney walking into the bar screaming, “Guys! It’s Bangtoberfest!” Brilliance. Carter Bays and the writers of How I Met Your Mother never fail to amaze me with their one-liners for the character of Barney. And of course it wouldn’t be as amazing without the brilliance of Neil Patrick Harris. Really not much happens with Barney this episode except that he tries to become less of a player but ultimately fails. Because this episode featured less Barney than usual, I am betting that later episodes if not next week will have a bigger part of it about Barney. The writers have to know that he is the fan favorite of the show.
Overall, this episode did not do much to advance the story of the series. The only thing it advanced was the relationships story arc but even with that storyline all the knowledge we gained was just that the two relationships end by the end of October. This episode did not live up to the past episodes of the series and was ultimately disappointing. Sorry Carter Bays, but it’s true.
Overall Grade: C