Back when I was still doing actual weekly “How I Met Your Mother” reviews, I started keeping a checklist of things that I had come to expect from this final season, like Marshall being elsewhere, the Mother being absent entirely, an utter lack of recognizable emotion, etc. Well, “HIMYM” closed out 2013 with a kind of anti-checklist episode, as “Bass Player Wanted” offered up a whole lot of Cristin Milioti, finally brought Marshall to the Farhampton Inn, and had some nice moments between Lily and Robin and between Ted and Barney (even if some of it is wrapped up in dumb ideas like Ted’s inability to get over Robin).
What did everybody else think? Does seeing Milioti this much please you, or just make you even more frustrated that it took this long? And are you hopeful to see lots of Marshall interacting with the rest of the cast in 2014, or are you expecting some kind of contrivance where Marshall is frequently stuck in an obscure corner of the hotel?