How I Met Your Mother: "Hopeless"

Season 6, Episode 21

A welcome return of John Lithgow brings the show back to top form

“I want to hang with Crazy Jerry, not Stay At Home Jerome.”

-Barney

If we’re being totally honest, the previews for tonight’s episode had me a little – okay, a lot – worried. As I noted the last time Lithgow graced the show, the man has had a tendency to go broad, and given how “Hopeless” was advertised as “Barney and his dad spend a night on the town,” I was afraid that the show was going to take advantage of Lithgow’s particular brand of scenery-chewing. (Regardless of how you feel about his hamminess, it’s something that a lot of Americans seem to enjoy, and, well, this show did have Britney Spears guest star – twice.) Yet even when he was playing Crazy Jerry, Lithgow kept it relatively in check, and since it ended up turning into….wait. I’m getting ahead of myself. 

As I noted last week, the show usually works best when there exists some sort of link between what all of the characters’ various subplots, and tonight we got that in spades, and thinking back on how the Barney/Jerry plot took a little while to get going, it actually ended up being a sly piece of story-stacking. It was obvious from the start that the presence of Jerry would eventually lead to some sort of pathos, and though the scenes leading up to it were humorous enough, they were overshadowed by the expectation of what was to come. So during this time, the show kept us entertained/distracted with Marshall and Lilly’s bet over who would “win” more in an open marriage, or the story of The Origin of the Red Cowboy Boots. They were funny, slight stories, and though they probably didn’t add up to much in the grand scheme of things, they gave the rest of the actors something to do that wouldn’t end up being a distraction from the main event, Barney & Jerry. (Anybody else suddenly get a craving for some ice cream?)

“Son, I was far more broken than you’ll ever be. But look at me now.”

-Jerry

But eventually we did get to the pathos, and once again Harris and Lithgow delivered, but perhaps what was most brilliant was the way that the show led up to it. The show actually had to deal with a few different angles in Barney’s relationship with his father – he wanting to hang out with his dad in a way that seems fun, Jerry trying to both bond with his son and erase all the damage he did to the kids emotional and social well being as “Uncle Jerry” – that it was actually surprising how the show managed to juggle all of these different elements yet avoid any sense of things being too crowded.

(And here is where I admit that it wasn’t until about halfway through tonight’s opening flashback that I remembered that Barney had spent time as child with his dad, who was operating under the moniker of “uncle.” Given that the episode we learned that in – “Natural History” – aired back in November, you think the show could have reminded us just a bit earlier of that fact, before some of us began falsely throwing around accusations of retconning.)

Father-son relationships, even ones that are dominated by abandonment issue like Barney and Jerry’s, are always based on more than one feeling, and for this show to pretend any different would have rang false. Thus, when Barney finally breaks down to Jerry about how broken he feels, and how he sees hope for himself in Jerry’s own life path, there is a lot more to it than just Barney reaching for advice from an elder figure. It is also about Barney and his Dad finding a real common experience – not just a love of magic – something that they can truly bond over, especially as this affords Barney and Jerry something over which they can keep in touch, as Jerry can help guide Barney through this difficult journey.

But there’s one thing about this revelation that worries me. It’s great that Barney’s fears about being broken are going to lead him down the road to self-improvement. Also great is that he will finally be in a place to find “the right girl,” the girl who will make him want to be that better man. And I am also quite pleased that – as the show made abudantly clear tonight- that that girl WILL be Robin. The problem rests in how the show will get from the point where we are now to the point that at which we know they will end up. Barney is currently still dating Nora, and Robin’s dalliance with her secret crush is apparently just beginning. So unless the show just quickly pulls the plug on these two subplots – which, even if I’m not invested in them, would still be in bad form – we are stuck with what will most likely be a long and frustrating road to a foregone conclusion. Let’s just hope it’s all worth it.

Agree or disagree?

Additional Thoughts:

An another awesome scene –thought one that went too fast for me to pull a good quote from – was the Abbott and Costello exchange among the group concerning the various bars in the city. Sometimes scenes like this can feel half-assed, but the show really pulled out all the punches here.

“Are you sure? I feel we learn the opposite lesson at least once a year.”

“Do any of you know George Clooney?”

“Here’s a giant pile of topics you should avoid talking about.”

“Robin, you’re dating Ted.” “Awwwwwww, man. Why?”

“Instead of being a naked super ninja…”

“We’re also a band.” Cue the greatest opening credit gag ever.

“Daddy’s home….And granddaddy’s home!”

Did anybody else think Marshall was going to say his rock opera was about Dracula?

“Jerry’s gone. Let’s break up.” “Okay. ‘I would have stolen you a whole orchestra.’ What’s next?”

“Oh, hi Robin….Can I have your phone number?”