How I Met Your Mother: "The Exploding Meatball Sub"

Season 6, Episode 20

A smart bit of structuring is wasted on an emotionally flailing episode

With every episode review that I write, I try to make sure that I identify both good and bad elements within an episode; because if a show can’t produce at least one good thing each episode, then why watch it? Well tonight’s episode of HIMYM if forcing that rule to the extreme, as the only good thing I can identify about it is its structure. By having all of tonight’s plot spin out of the Lilly-Ted relationship debate, it made sure that they all congealed into some sort of the whole, even if each part was either a waste or just plain mean.

Tonight’s episode could have worked. In a season that has been so emotionally tumultuous for two or three of its characters (depending on how you count), the show has continues to surprise me with how dedicated it remains to the emotional fallout everyone is going through. And for the portion of the episode where is seemed like “The Exploding Meatball Sub” was following in those footsteps, I was fine with the episode, even if the jokes were landing all that hard, if at all. (Even the quotes I put in the Additional Thoughts section are fairly weak, and they were the best lines of the night.)

Yet it all pretty much fell apart in the last act. For starters, I was more or less enjoying the Ted-Zoe storyline, even though I have technically long ago given up on the arc itself, as the juxtaposition with Marshall and Lilly meant that it was mostly light and fun fair. But in the closing minutes the show suddenly asked us to take this “We challenge each other!” storyline more seriously than we had up until that point, and that rang hollow for me. As I’ve said before, we know that Zoe won’t be the titular mother, and that tends to suck the emotional resonance out of all the Ted-Zoe stories. If Zoe was just some random, fun girl that Ted had a fling with, and then after some weeks they broke up due to some minor reasons, no harm done, I’d be okay with that. But I can’t bring myself to take this relationship seriously on any sort of emotional level, and that means I don’t care about the fallout between the two that is going to be played out over the next few weeks. And for them to break up over something as basic as compatibility, something that most couples figure out long before this point, seems like a cheap way out of a dead-end plot. I would rather Ted have just broken up with Zoe at the end of tonight’s episode and be done with it.

More problematic was the Marshall-Lilly storyline. While I can understand Lilly’s frustration at having to tread lightly around Marshall after his dad’s death, and her anger at having to give up on the couple’s baby dreams, it was played out here in such a way as to cast a very negative light on her character. When Lilly stormed off at the airport, ready to head off to Spain without Marshall, it reminded me of the closing minutes of “Come On.” Yet while that episode played off of weeks of emotional setup to glorious effect, this time Lilly’s walking off seemed out of the blue, even if a “logical” explanation was given, and she came off selfish and uncaring wife, the exact opposite of what the show was telling us about her role as a mate.

That leaves the most problematic element – Barney’s storyline. I would have been more than content if Robin’s explanation for Barney’s childish attitude at Marshall leaving GNB – that Marshall leaving brings up Barney’s abandonment issues – had been the real reasons for his outbursts, even given how obvious that scene was written. It fits in with what we know about Barney’s childish approach to adult friendships (caring yet selfish at the same time), and it could point to Barney gaining a better appreciation for the emotional ties he has with those around him. Yet the show sold out all of this potential set up for a joke, and a heartless one at that. A Barney wishing to get revenge over something as petty as a meatball sub is the same kind of Barney that laughed at Marshall for forgetting his pants back in “Sorry, Bro.” He is a cruel, callous cartoon, and such characterization completely disregards all that he has been through in the past handful of episodes.

Despite how strong the back half of this season has been, this episode gives me pause. If an episode this bad was produced this late in the season, which is usually when HIMYM starts brining its A-game, what does this mean for the next few episodes?

What did everybody else think?

Additional Thoughts:

“Okay, clearly when we’re watching Tommy Boy, we’re watching two different movies.”

“Marshall and I have been together 15 years, and the only debate we’ve have about Tommy Boy is whether it’s awesome or super-awesome. That’s love, bitch.”

“And I said my name was…?”

When playing “Who’s Hot and Who’s Scott?”, remember it’s always the one in the turtleneck.

“Barney, I’m not going to teach you how to hypnotize people, you’ll only use it for evil.”

“One, your mom didn’t seem to mind last night…”

“Well, in her defense…hamburger pizza, Ted? What are you, twelve?”