Let’s start with two thoughts.  I’ve never been a huge fan of guest stars…I mean they do help with ratings and they are usually very nice to look at, but few really pull of any great acting. It’s mostly about making an appearance. That being said (and please exclude Sarah Chalke, she is amazing), I felt JLo did one of the better acting jobs I have seen from a guest on How I Met Your Mother. Then again as long as it wasn’t Gigli I think we knew she had acting chops.

Secondly, Throughout most of tonight’s episode I found that I was enjoying it but never really felt like it was significant or of any real substance, other than to draw more attention to Barney. Luckily, I think I was wrong again. I love the fact that we got a lot more Robin time this episode, I felt it was long overdue. More importantly than more Robin development, was a huge reveal into the true character of Barney. While, some would argue that Barney needs to be only about suits & sex, I think it’s great to develop him in some other dimensions. I thought that his relationship with Robin was a strong start to that and now we get another glimpse. Not only does he show that he still cares for Robin, though maybe not in the same way as before he make a commitment that is against his normal persona on the show. That’s not just unusual, I feel it will be critical. I have to say, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cheer when he ran out and jumped in the Hudson…I digress.

I thought the callback to Ted’s legendary date planning ability (like in Ten Sessions) plus his music number to convince Barney of the “Super Date” was pretty funny. I loved the scene changes…the whole video was like a mixture of The Old Spice Man Your Man Could Smell Like video played by Michael Bublé. However, after Girls vs Suits, I’m starting to wonder if HIMYM is turning musical.

I’ve have to say, I started the episode underwhelmed, but now I feel like it was a pretty solid ep. Lots to like… then again, I’ve watched it 3 times now.

I’d love to know if I’m the only one who felt that way. What did everyone else think?

Music

• The Bang Bang Song by Marshall (reprised at the end by Robin)
• Super Date by Ted Evelyn Mosby (the heart touching ballad sung to sell the “Super Date”) get the mp3

Legendary Lines

Barney: At least when I run out on a girl I have the common courtesy to sleep with her first. It’s called manners.

Lily: She kinda sounds like the anti-Barney

Robin: But um….     (looks like it’s back! May the drinking games commence.)

Marshall: You’re my wife. You’re supposed to stop me from embarrassing myself in public.

Robin: Isn’t that every girls dream?

Lily: Of Course she’s upset! Take a look at yourself you dumb slut.

Marshall: I can’t believe you threw up in your storm trooper helmet.
Barney: Eh, that had something worse in it after the Phantom Menace premier.

Moments of Awesomeness

• Superdate…did I mention I ripped the audio for that song? I’m listening to it for inspiration while writing.
• Barney’s “This changes everything, new plan” moment was hilarious.
• I will be trying the sit on a chair and fall off from shock move…great effort by NPH there.
• I’m fairly certain that my wife read “Of Course You’re Still Single Take a Look at Yourself You Dumb Slut”… what a great title by the way…and her new book, “ Of Course You Don’t Have A Retirement Plan yet Take a Look At Yourself You Dumb Slut”… it’s due out in June, hopefully at a book store near you.
• Marshall pretends to be Robin and she jumps him in the kitchen. Now there is a decent fight… Murder Train vs. The Hoosier
• Poor Mike got Hooked by Anita (JLo)… and only 1 ep after getting unhooked by Robin.
• I love it that Robin goes to the range to shoot when she is mad… and she throws the gun when she is out of bullets.
• Barney’s reason for jumping into the River. I feel there is a lot more to this simple act that what we see in this episode.

The Re-Return

Everyone wants to know what happened on Robin’s date with Don. Robin doesn’t want to kiss and tell… Although one interesting thing did happen:

I said, bang, bang, bangity, bang bang…

This week I think I’ll try moving my thoughts to the end and starting out with lines, moments and such… spoilers follow, but if you’re here you know that… btw, I’m trying out a new blog editor tonight, be gentle.

Legendary Lines

Barney: Shall I walk you through the history?
Ted: I’m going to explicitly say no…

Robin: Move past it guys. I’ve been a little bit loose, but money never changed hands.

Barney:…and so hot girls rolled into doctors offices, rendering the very erection pills they peddled ironically redundant.

Barney: What IN THE WORLD is up?!

Ted (to Robin): You are Captain Hook.

Marshall: Hang in there Scoots, I’m not gonna live forever.

Barney: Am I right people?
Robin: yea, there’s no people. Just the girl you most recently dated.

Ted: I seriously considered marrying her out of sheer awkwardness…

Moments of Awesomeness

• Remember Bait…, trampoline too dangerous. slot machine too fun. In fact, Note to single friends/readers: Buy a teacup pig.
• Old Ted breaking into Younger Ted’s conversation for clarification and insults
• Ted & Henrietta’s Engagement. Especially, the parental reaction.
• the return of Marshall’s Vintage Auburn Shirt … War Eagle anyone?
• I loved, Alyson Hannigan’s work with the pig…NO, not Barney. Lilly and the teacup pig…seriously funny. Add Marshall eventually caving to Scooter and it makes it even better.
• Although teenage Marshall looked pretty old compared to his hook, I still love those scenes.

Music

• Wish You Were Mine by Light FM – (Marshall waits in the snow to tell Lisa how he feels in song)

the Re-Return

Barney seems to very upbeat about the end of the hot pharma-girl profession, thanks to some purple pills that someone left in his couch.

Have you been the hookee or the hooker before? Before married life snagged me from the clutches of phrased activities and clutch phrases, I was familiar with the hooked phenomenon. I’ll leave out how often I was on each side, but much like everyone on the show I was on both. Tonight’s episode was great. We got to see a lot of Barney being Barney, Ted being naive, Robin being the female Barney in a lot of ways, some Carrie Underwood, and Lily and Marshall doing the couples things in a way that makes us all happy.

Carrie Underwood, while being gorgeous all night, really wasn’t as important as Barney’s teacup pig. I do love the way that the writers kept her as part of the story bit in the background. I mean after Brittany’s second appearance and flop on the show, I guess something had to happen. The pig caused me to laugh a lot more. And even though my wife kept telling me how not cute the pig was, when Lily and Marshall had it I couldn’t help but laugh. Add the pig bit with the return of Scooter, now “lunch lady Scooter” and you see a pretty strong story.

Let’s talk Robin for a second. I loved the fact she kept being the hooker, as she called it, long enough to get her laundry done despite everyone else’s change of heart. What I don’t get is why haven’t we seen more of Don? Maybe the Olympics are just fooling with my timeline but I expected more from that story already. Past her relationship status, I feel like HIMYM struggles at times with what to do with Robin. Anyone else feel that way? I mean I love everything she does but it all feels like it adds but in more of a space filling and not necessary way. Then again, maybe I’m still feeling jilted because the Robin/Barney relationship was cast aside so quickly.

Barney’s wink at the camera never gets old. I felt that Barney’s history of hot-girl employment was one of the stronger points of the show but I had seen it so many times in the promo stuff it lost a bit of the edge. What didn’t fall flat was the end of the Ted and Henrietta story. Even though you knew what was going to happen once he accidentally dropped the ring, it was still one of the best moments of the night. When her parent’s ran out to congratulate Ted, I nearly lost it. SON! I will admit though, the reaction was vaguely reminiscent of another proposal that happened between Barney and another guest appearance.

So overall I thought it was a strong episode, not a ton of substance but a lot of laughs for sure. Enough about me, what did everyone else think?

    Rabbit or Duck? So which is it? I’ll answer that as soon as my phone stops ringing… Do your ears hang low do they… Isn’t this fun?

    I don’t know what everyone else thought, but I felt this was one of the funniest episodes this season. All the story lines were great tonight and I rarely like them all, where to Start first, let’s go with Barney. 

   If you watched the Super Bowl last night then you saw the Call Barney Stinson sign with Barney in the stands of Super Bowl 44. Tonight’s sign had a different number but wow, how clever are these guys? Even my friend who didn’t watch the show wanted to know what the message said. Barney usually carries a lot of the comedy but tonight he may have been most visible but having Ranjit with him made it so much better. Near the end, when Ranjit carries Barney from the bar while wearing the red scarf, hat and such that he knitted, I almost lost it. The best part of Barney’s story tonight was that despite being the center of attention other players shined.

     While Ted, Robin, Lily and Marshall were all lumped together with Barney passing through tonight, they each had distinct parts. Ted, passionately arguing for the duck, accompanying Robin, preparing for his arranged date/marriage and succumbing to the temptation of the magic phone. Marshall and Lily were together all night but still had time to forget to arrange Ted’s date and come through at the end…both for his date and to dispose of the phone.

   Meanwhile, Robin was repelling the opinions that she liked Don. We all know that she and Don become a couple eventually, but it’s nice to see the transition there. Plus, we got the see Robin passing on the naked man this time despite falling for it earlier. The fact that Don found the move on “some guy’s blog,” maybe mine…but probably Barney’s made the reference even funnier.

   All in all it was quite a solid episode. Lots of laughs, lots of call backs and a ton of what makes HIMYM the best comedy on TV…I don’t care what the polls say.

   Enough about me, what did you all think?

Music

see the music from every episode on the How I Met Your Mother Music Page

• Turkey in the Straw –

(the ringtone on Barney’s phone.) I’ve managed to round up the mp3 and iPhone ringtone for it so enjoy!
-mp3 version
-m4r ringtone

• Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn – (plays while Robin cleans & tells Ted to go meet his “future wife”)
• Someday by Haroula Rose – (Ted and Robin drink together on the couch at closing)

Legendary Lines

Ted: Well, that explains where Barney is.
Robin: Dibbs on his wings.

Marshall: What would your viewer think?

Barney: Does she text her mother with those fingers?

Ted: There’s always a hotter girl. Isn’t that the problem in a nutshell.

Marshall: Have you ever been in a fight with a duck? Ducks are jerks!

Marshall: Who carries around a duck foot for good luck?

Ted: Permission to say lawyered?
Marshall: Permission Granted.
Ted: Lawyered!!!

Barney: No Please! Please! Please! It could be an emergency! She could be trapped in a giant bra!
Ranjit: Barney, Barney, Let it go…to voicemail.

Moments of Awesomeness

• Ranjit! I love it when Marshall Manesh makes an appearance on HIMYM. And tonight he had so much screen time! Knitting during Barney’s travels to and from the bar, arguing in his native tongue about Rabbit or Duck, carrying Barney out of the bar…simply awesome.
• Barney’s Super Bowl payoff from last night. PLUS!!! We got call backs to the Super Bowl tradition from Season 2’s Monday Night Football, The Naked Man from Season and a reference to Barney’s Blog!
• Robin’s glass of Scotch… wow.
• Teddy “West Side”…and Ted’s nice blazer
• The most intense arguments the group has ever had. Marshall had all the good points/lines in the Rabbit vs. Duck fight btw. And Ranjit arguing and leaving was hilarious!
• The jokes and lines about Robin and Don weren’t that great But their story line was.  The Naked Man he pulled and the re-return moment were great. Plus we finally got the see Don in pants.
• Lily & Marshall put so much thought into Ted’s future wife. I mean Marshall even got mased for the cause. Their approached were so different too. Classic.

The Re-Return

Don apologizes to Robin…not for pulling trying the Naked Man, but for not caring about being her co-host.

Now she sees him as a duck, not a rabbit.

Robin: Aww Duck.

    I’ll run down my regular music moments and quotes below but I’m pretty sick so I’ll just hope the discussion gets the rest. Just don’t jinx it.

What did everyone think of the episode?

MUSIC

• Pennant Fever from the Major League Soundtrack (Ted helps Barney check the scouting report. Thanks Skip) (youtube link)
• Baseball Charge (night 5 intro and a beer for Ted)

LEGENDARY LINES

Robin: He couldn’t keep his good eye off of me.

Barney:  I’m just assuming that’s what they say when I’m not around.

Marshall: You know how Lily & I have been looking for couple friends ever since we lost Robin & Barney and Ted & Stella, and Ted & Robin, and Ted & Victoria…geeze Ted, when are you gonna get your live together?
Ted: How did we end up here?

Ted: Marshall, 4 out of 5 dentist just threw up in their mouths.

Robin: My panties would drop so hard there would be a hole below me halfway to China.

Barney: Giddy-what-up

Jim Nantz: Unbelievable. You know. There’s two things you don’t do. One, you don’t open an email from Phil Simms in from of your kids…

Ted: Yea…I’m totally gonna site my kids down one day and tell them about the time Uncle Barney nailed 7 chicks in a row…
(lingering shot of the kids)
Old Ted:  Am I a bad dad?

MOMENTS OF AWESOMENESS

• Barney calls his shot.
• Marshall’s Sasquatch fixation “Sasquatch isn’t fictional”
• Barney might get fired? While Barney losing his job isn’t really awesome at all, it was very cool how he handles his stress. This bring me to my next moment:
• Jim Nantz. High fiving, making sports analogies about sex, kicking his chair, calling Barney a ‘playa’…the dude was great tonight.
• The reference to “performance enhancing drugs”. Espically when Marshall asks for the time, counts on his fingers to 4 then get’s up with the pillow and ask to go to the hospital…YOU CAN TEST ME IF YOU WANT JIM NANTS!!!
• Wendy. I love it when Wendy (Charlene) is on the show, I wish Carl would show back up but I’m still happy with the Wendy appearance.
• How many people will start talking about Victoria possibly being the mother again because of the reference? Even though we know she is not.
• Marshall’s “Seven Up, Seven Down” hats tribute to Barney’s week.
• Mustache Pete Drexel
• Ted helps Barney check the scouting report in a Major League tribute.
• IS it just another coincidence that Nick Swisher (who happens to be dating Ted’s dream girl, JoAnna Garcia) was on tonight?

THE RE-RETURN

(FYI: “re-return” is the epilogue scene…a reference to something Ted does in s01e15, Game Night)

Wendy the Waitress (Hooray Windy!!!) has a to go order for Cook Poo…

Ted, believing it’s a joke by his friends makes fun of what a stupid name it is…then Cook Poo says “Here” from the bar and leaves.

    The episode seemed pretty strong. It was also Neil Patrick Harris’ directing debut for the show. It did seems a little out of place for Marshall to be in hiding something from Lily situation but still played out really well, especially when Lily finally showed her jealous side even though she was the settler. I mean we have really never had to think of Marshall and Lily as anything other than a safe and secure relationship. That’s always been something I have loved about them. And despite tonight, it was done so well that they are still just that.

     While I love the terms and social names that come up, I’ve never really thought of Marshall and Lily in the way of the reacher and the settler. In fact, I would probably agree with Lily (despite how awesome and hot Alyson Hannigan may be) that neither settled. It’s sad but the whole settler deal makes their romance loose a little bit of the luster, maybe I just don’t like the direction they have went lately.

     We really didn’t see a lot of Neil Patrick Harris this week, probably because he was directing this week. And that’s ok, I love what Barney brings to the show but I would really hate it if EVERY episode had to be carried by him. Plus, with a pretty Barney-centric episode last week for HIMYM’s 100th it’s nice to see everyone else take some stage.

     Though it’s just me and my wife watching HIMYM usually, I still feel as though we need a drinking game to go along with it. Speaking of which, the Ted/Robin plot was great as well. I mean that’s a completely reasonable explanation of why to watch the show so early in the morning. And I do love how Ted feel that his student are always wanting to learn. I guess he throws himself into everything he does that way, always over the top. Speaking of which, I had someone tell me not to “Ted something up” the other day. Classic.

   So there you have some of my thought on the subject.  What did everyone else think? Favorite Moments, lines, etc?

Music

• Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber (plays when Ted’s student tell him they have to drink because it’s the game…and the re-return)
• Kaboom by Ursula 1000 (Marshall puttin’ nothing but wood in the 50 hole at skeeball, or just another night for big fudge)

Legendary Lines

Ted: I don’t even have my projector

Robin: Lily can’t find out what?
Ted: That Marshall’s gonna buy her a horse.

Robin: You are so the reacher. You’re getting her a horse.

Marshall: …and our future cat or monkey, depends on who wins the game of risk we have been playing for 3 years.

Robin:Ted, I have got a great idea
Ted: Oh, is it clean your hair out of the shower drain when you’re done? Seriously, it’s like you’re trying to carpet the tub.

Moments of Awesomeness

• Marshall’s scream in response to the kiss.
• Ted terms: Full on lady wood
• Ted’s “SO FACE”… that will be happening to someone I know.
• Barney’s drinking game with Robin… while she was asleep. That’s just classic.
• Amanda Peet. She was great this episode. Anyone else catch when she said “For Peet’s sake”…maybe she said Pete, but I still laughed.  I know we will probably never see her again, especially after the pounding by Lily but still…this leads me to":
• Lily’s fight scene… When she started to take off her earrings and such, you knew it was coming. Though, I was pretty disappointed that they didn’t play Murder train there.

The Re-Return

(FYI: the re-return  is the epilogue scene…a reference to s01e15, Game Night)

Ted & Class recover from the hangover with a very low key class (seems he couldn’t find gravy, his previous hangover cure, so he is using aspirin to help) and Robin drops by to thanks the class for watching… she thanks them with a bull horn…but, um.

Speaking of drinking games… anyone else have a HIMYM drinking game? I used to have one for LOST, but it got way out of hand. I would drink every time I got confused and that usually just went all downhill.

And now the full lyrics to “Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit”. Enjoy:

I know what you’re thinking

What’s Barney been drinking?
That girl was smoking hot

Yes I coulda nailed her
But no it’s not a failure
‘Cuz there’s one thing she is not

To score a ten would be just fine
But I’d rather be dressed to the nines
It’s a truth you can’t refute
Nothing suits me like a suit

Picture a world where all the girls and boys
Are impeccably well dressed
That delivery guy in the jacket and tie
That puppy in the double-breast

That ’80s dude in mutton chops
That baby with a lollipop
That lady cop who’s kinda cute
Nothing suits ‘em like a suit

Wingman I can wear
They’re oh so debonair
The perfect way to snare
a girl with daddy issues

In navy blue or black
Check out this perfect rack
I want to give them a squeeze

Oh really? Then answer these questions
If you please

What would you do if you had to choose
Between your suits and a pot of gold? Suits.

What would you say
If you gave your suits away
In return you’d never grow old? Suits.

What would you pick
One million chicks
Or a single three-piece suit? It’s moot.

What if world peace
Were within your reach … Abbadabada I’m gonna stop you right there. It’s suits. Come on, Lily. Get your head outta your ass.

Two! Three! Four!

Girls will go and girls will come
But there’s only one absolute
Every bro on the go needs to know
That there’s no accepted substitute

I’m sorry suits, let’s make amends
My Sunday best are my best friends
Send casual Friday down the laundry chute

‘Cuz nothing suits the undisputed oft-saluted suitor of repute
Like a …. wait for it …
Suit!

Then again, she is pretty hot.