Season 7, Episodes 17-18
“I swear to God, if they're are any other surprises, I'm going to hit someone.”
After practically rage-quitting the show two weeks ago, I had honestly meant to review last week's episode, but as is increasingly the case this semester, school got in the way, and I was forced to shift this review into a double post that couples it with tonight's episode. Well, the television criticism gods must have been looking down on me, because while I wasn't entirely sure what to say about last week's episode, when I look at this pair I can't help but wonder and worry about the way that the show seems to be rolling out its story plots this season.
There were two reveals in “The Drunk Train” that set me on edge – Ted's reveal that he's still in love with Robin, and the fact that Barney's new love interest is a stripper at a club that he frequents. That each of them essentially resolved themselves within the next two episodes (essentially one for each storyline) should perhaps lessen my anger at each development, but really that the show seems to be burning through all of these supposedly important bits of plot at a really quick pace, and the whiplash makes for a very frustrating ride. Yet I can't deny that each of these stories ended up in a very interesting and hopefully more enjoyable place.
Let's start with Ted. Him professing his love to Robin was the sort of “bold” and “brash” move that shows make in the their late run because they've run out of actual stories to tell, and the writers need to drum up some easy drama. This was got a plot twist that had no real build up, so sudden was Ted's revelation, and no real future, given that we now that Robin can't be The Mother, and will eventually get together with Robin. To that end, it was hard for me to care about Ted's story in “No Pressure”, since I knew that it wasn't going to last. Luckily, the show knew it too, and by the end of the episode, the show was able to wrap up this non-starter without any sort of contrivance. I'm still not particularly happy with the idea that Ted's still in love with Robin (even if it makes sense for him as a hopeless romantic), but it did give Robin one of her few strong moments of the season, where she was able to reject taking the easy way out of heartbreak with Ted and instead wait for something real. (More on Robin in a minute.)
But, as of the end of “Karma”, none of that really matters. In a piece last week, Cory Barker (along with a few of friends) set to discussing the current state of How I Met Your Mother, and among the many topics they covered, their was significant discussion about Ted's limited role as of late, and the show's unwillingness to give him (as well as Robin and Barney) something other than a romantic storyline. And for much of this episode, that remained the case, as we saw Ted trapped in a bland C-story that saw him shaking off his feelings for Robin by curating series of odd hobbies. Yet the show impressed me by the end when it reached a place – however implausible – that allowed for Ted to leave the apartment he's lived in for almost seven seasons (and longer, actually) and set out for a new fresh start. I'm not sure how well this storyline will work out – I'm positive we're in for at least one wacky roommate story in the near future – but there's a freshness here that I find appealing.
Barney's story faces some of the same stumbling blocks as Ted's – the unmotivated origin of the story, the fact that we know it can't last – but I found it to be the more enjoyable of the two. Now, to be fair, for most of the running time of both “Drunk Train” and “Karma” required to Barney to act really stupidly, as he somehow failed to recognize a woman to who has undoubtedly seen numerous times, and he allowed said women to string him along and con him out of a lot of money using tricks that, as a frequenter of bars, he should already be familiar with. It also didn't help that much ofKarma Quinn's screen time saw her acting in a conniving manner, which makes her both a poor match for Barney (isn't he trying to leave his skeezy ways behind?) and a misogynistic characterization. At this point, I'm not sure what Quinn's profession will add to this storyline, apart from the cheap gags that we saw tonight.
However, much like Ted's ill-advised doomed romance, there was a final twist tonight that gives me hope that this story will finally turn towards an interesting place. For a few seasons now, we've seen Barney grow as a person thanks to her series of serious relationships, and in that final scene at the coffee shop, Quinn finally proved herself to be worth the interest, as she began to push Barney in a way that's fitting of his current emotional state. In fact, I think this might make for the most interesting relationship in the past few seasons.
Let's start with Ted. Him professing his love to Robin was the sort of “bold” and “brash” move that shows make in the their late run because they've run out of actual stories to tell, and the writers need to drum up some easy drama. This was got a plot twist that had no real build up, so sudden was Ted's revelation, and no real future, given that we now that Robin can't be The Mother, and will eventually get together with Robin. To that end, it was hard for me to care about Ted's story in “No Pressure”, since I knew that it wasn't going to last. Luckily, the show knew it too, and by the end of the episode, the show was able to wrap up this non-starter without any sort of contrivance. I'm still not particularly happy with the idea that Ted's still in love with Robin (even if it makes sense for him as a hopeless romantic), but it did give Robin one of her few strong moments of the season, where she was able to reject taking the easy way out of heartbreak with Ted and instead wait for something real. (More on Robin in a minute.)
But, as of the end of “Karma”, none of that really matters. In a piece last week, Cory Barker (along with a few of friends) set to discussing the current state of How I Met Your Mother, and among the many topics they covered, their was significant discussion about Ted's limited role as of late, and the show's unwillingness to give him (as well as Robin and Barney) something other than a romantic storyline. And for much of this episode, that remained the case, as we saw Ted trapped in a bland C-story that saw him shaking off his feelings for Robin by curating series of odd hobbies. Yet the show impressed me by the end when it reached a place – however implausible – that allowed for Ted to leave the apartment he's lived in for almost seven seasons (and longer, actually) and set out for a new fresh start. I'm not sure how well this storyline will work out – I'm positive we're in for at least one wacky roommate story in the near future – but there's a freshness here that I find appealing.
Barney's story faces some of the same stumbling blocks as Ted's – the unmotivated origin of the story, the fact that we know it can't last – but I found it to be the more enjoyable of the two. Now, to be fair, for most of the running time of both “Drunk Train” and “Karma” required to Barney to act really stupidly, as he somehow failed to recognize a woman to who has undoubtedly seen numerous times, and he allowed said women to string him along and con him out of a lot of money using tricks that, as a frequenter of bars, he should already be familiar with. It also didn't help that much of
However, much like Ted's ill-advised doomed romance, there was a final twist tonight that gives me hope that this story will finally turn towards an interesting place. For a few seasons now, we've seen Barney grow as a person thanks to her series of serious relationships, and in that final scene at the coffee shop, Quinn finally proved herself to be worth the interest, as she began to push Barney in a way that's fitting of his current emotional state. In fact, I think this might make for the most interesting relationship in the past few seasons.
Of course, it isn't just Ted and Barney that have gone through important changes recently, even if the outrage that their stories caused tend to overshadow the changes in the lives of the other three characters. Of course, Robin already had her latest big change back in “Drunk Train”, but her moving out (and briefly in with Marshall and Lilly) is another important step, and much like with Ted's similar move, I think mooring Robin is a more uncertain place could be interesting for the character. Granted, this is like the seventh big life change that Robin has undergone this season, and her arc this season is indicative of the show's problematic tendency to wave upheaval after upheaval in front of us and hope we don't notice that there's not a lot of solid footing behind all of this, but as perhaps the first upheaval that I can actually endorse, it does excite me a little.
Marhsall and Lilly have unfortunately had the most boring arc of all the characters on the show, which tends to be the case when a show marries a pair off and then has them make a baby. (Okay, so this particular pregnancy storyline is the result of Alyson Hannigan's actual pregnancy, but my point still stands.) Really, the most interesting this to happen to the couple is their acquisition of Lilly's grandparents' house, a development that brought about a lot of plot complications in getting the whole group together, and which gave us some pretty lackluster stories to boot. Thus I'm torn between celebrating Marshall and Lilly's return to the original apartment, which fixes a lot of those problems, and deriding the move for both exposing how pointless the Long Island house subplot was. And while I should be mad at the show for giving us yet another story development that seems to aping the show's glory days by putting characters we know back in a familiar space, there's a certain nostalgia here that works because it's both underplayed and unforced.
With four major characters now on the cusp of significant changes to their lives, it finally feels as if the show is getting back to one of it's signature elements of storytelling: showing us characters that are on a journey, and giving the audience a journey that makes us forget about the endgame. And given the way that these past few episodes have played out, that's probably something that we all need.
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
In case you think I didn't like “Karma”, I did, really. It was a smart episode that ultimately served all of the characters well, and gave us some smart storytelling in the way it was able to intersect three of the stories with very little effort.
Okay, more thing I didn't care for in “Drunk Train”: the show's insistence to keep screwing with it's audience with the closing line “Not yet?”, as if to tease us that we might not have seen the end of the Ted/Robin pairing. Tell me, are there any viewers who are so desperate to see that? Wasn't season two enough for you people?
The show seems like it wants to bring Patrice on as a recurring tertiary character. I am not totally opposed to that.
“Which I didn't tell her about because I go camping...in secret.”
“Oh god, I am so hungover? OH GOD, LILLY'S NOT WEARING A BRA!”
“Barney takes a run at you everyday.” “Yeah, but he just wants to bang me. I want something real.”
“And I'm sorry, Ted cannot pull of bald.”
“NEW HOBBY!”
“To the ourdated viewing device!”
“I know that noise, I heard it through the walls. I thought the neighbors had a sick cat.”
“Barney, that was my own VCR.” “Ted – it was a VCR.”
***********
“For an hour after I couldn't uncross my eyes. Which was awesome, because when I went back for seconds, it was like having a three-way with twins.”
“I'm not getting any? Good one with smoking your own meat. Ho!”
“Nah, Destiny strips at the Melon Patch. They're people Ted, try to keep them separate.”
“Dammit Ted, why can't you ever root for love?”
“Both of our jobs are largely financed by drunk Asian business men.”
“If it's not a dare, then why did she say every fifth dance is free?” “Because that's the Lusty Leopard's policy on Fridays, and I am so mad at you that I know that.”
“I can't believe that we're in a strip club and the biggest boob is you.”
“Well, at my job we don’t rip out people’s hearts for money. My company briefly backed a lab in North Korea that did, but we sold it.”
“Which I didn't tell her about because I go camping...in secret.”
“Oh god, I am so hungover? OH GOD, LILLY'S NOT WEARING A BRA!”
“Barney takes a run at you everyday.” “Yeah, but he just wants to bang me. I want something real.”
“And I'm sorry, Ted cannot pull of bald.”
“NEW HOBBY!”
“To the ourdated viewing device!”
“I know that noise, I heard it through the walls. I thought the neighbors had a sick cat.”
“Barney, that was my own VCR.” “Ted – it was a VCR.”
***********
“For an hour after I couldn't uncross my eyes. Which was awesome, because when I went back for seconds, it was like having a three-way with twins.”
“I'm not getting any? Good one with smoking your own meat. Ho!”
“Nah, Destiny strips at the Melon Patch. They're people Ted, try to keep them separate.”
“Dammit Ted, why can't you ever root for love?”
“Both of our jobs are largely financed by drunk Asian business men.”
“If it's not a dare, then why did she say every fifth dance is free?” “Because that's the Lusty Leopard's policy on Fridays, and I am so mad at you that I know that.”
“I can't believe that we're in a strip club and the biggest boob is you.”
“Well, at my job we don’t rip out people’s hearts for money. My company briefly backed a lab in North Korea that did, but we sold it.”
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