It’s very late and I’m on vacation so the bulk of this will have to wait, thought I really want to know your thoughts on some things.

First off, I thought the episode was solid. Great flashbacks, worked pretty well on continuity I thought and kept me laughing all the way through. Barney’s awesomeness and inability to take a bad photo was great. Marshall’s love for games came through even at Lily’s party too and that really made me laugh. A ton of great moments and quoted but I wonder what stuck out to you.

Secondly, Did the one year from now birthday shot tell us anything? To me it says that Ted isn’t with the Mother yet…has he "met" her, possibly (or possimpibly, whatever) but since it’s just the 5 of them I would say that Ted isn’t with a "the one" girl. No Don either… and you would think that after a year it would be acceptable. He could just be out of town but I would put my money on him being gone within the year. Also, it may be a small detail but Marshall & Lily are in the same place. No baby either..I had heard once that LAME might have a baby but I hope not since it would change the show dynamic a lot! Did you see anything else? Reading other items of interest in? It’s in my nature to search for these things, but I miss a lot. What did you see?

Finally…music. I loved Marshall’s happy Birthday Lily (Lori?) song…that guy cracks me up. But the French Rap song… just awful. Well placed, but it was so bad it was comical. Btw. It’s "Briques" by Les Cautionneurs . I can’t find the song for sale but it could be under a different name, I’ve left you the Amazon and iTunes band links above if you want to search and report back. I’m horrible at French and draw the line for listening to music at something that horrible where that combines the worst elements of rap and a language I don’t understand. Wewe? Bonjour.

I’ll do my regular roundup soon but for now, what did you think?

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?

International Suit Up Day (ISUD) is celebrated on October 13th of each year.  On this day, suit up in honor of How I Met Your Mother, and Barney Stinson, and because suits are awesome…

For more information and to confirm your participation, visit the ISUD facebook event page. I’ll remind you again when it get’s close but I would love to see some pics of how you chose to suit in an upward direction!

    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.