A review of last night’s “How I Met Your Mother” coming up just as soon as we share a cab to our separate decoupage classes…
On the one hand, “Trilogy Time” hit a very familiar “HIMYM” theme, with Ted once again despairing over how little his life has changed since that day in the pilot when he decided it was time to find a wife, have kids, etc. On the other hand, because the show has put off the discovery of The Mother for this long, it’s a problem for Ted that’s not going to go away. And now that we’re much closer to the end of the series than the beginning – and close enough to the point where Ted’s daughter has to be born in order to look like a teenage Lyndsy Fonseca in 2030 – we can close this particular version of this story on a much happier, more uplifting note. The woman of Ted’s dreams is coming, and even though I suspect we won’t see her until next year’s finale(*), that day is no longer a tiny speck in the distance, but an ever-growing shape just coming into view.
(*) Which may or may not be the end of the series, depending on contract negotiations with the actors, the network, etc.
And in the meantime, “Trilogy Time” was a fun tour through various familiar moments in the characters’ lives(**), including Ted, Marshall and Lily at school, Ted dating Robin while Lily and Marshall were separated, Robin and Barney’s fling (which seemed more entertaining in the brief glimpse we got here than it was in the actual 2009 episodes), etc. And the characters’ speculation on what the future would be like – including an alternate history of American politics via newspaper headlines like “President Kucinich Kicks Ass” – added some good gags around the nostalgia, and seemed to fit wherever the characters were at the moment when they made those predictions. (Imaginary 2003 Lily, for instance, still has the goth hair even as she’s pregnant with Marshall’s baby.)
(**) And one unfamiliar one in the 2003 flashback, which finally addressed fan questions about why it took Marshall so long to finish law school by explaining that he struggled to get in straight out of college.
Meanwhile, in present day, things between Barney and Quinn are going swimmingly. I assume we’re going to find out in a couple of episodes whether the bride in the flash-forward is Quinn or Robin, but as much as I wish the show had done better by Barn-man and Robin, it’s going to require some major contortions at this point to justify him bailing on Quinn. After all, what man could say no to the woman who had sex while wearing a Stormtrooper costume without complaint? That’s not weird, right? Come on, guys… We’re alone here… You can be honest with me…
Guys? Anyone?
What did everybody else think?