With the constant introduction of new characters to the show, HIMYM always has a go-to plot for any episode, explaining past events and inside jokes to uninformed group members. Ted, Marshall, Lily and Barney spent the first three seasons filling Robin in on their quirks and traditions, and now the five of them are doing the same for Kevin. Such is the premise for “Disaster Averted.” Kevin makes the mistake of asking why MacLaren’s has a sign banning boogie-boarding, and then must sit through a series of flashbacks and tangents to get his answer.
It all starts on August 26, 2011, the start of Hurricane Irene. Ted, a former boy scout plagued by unnecessary paranoia, is prepared (with a disaster backpack and rental car, no less) to drive the group to his house in Westchester to sit out the storm. Barney asks to stop at his apartment and, once they arrive, insists the gang stay there instead. Everyone but Ted is intent on drinking at Barney’s until the news warns that Irene is serious and they need to evacuate the city.
In the present, Barney has become stifled in the ducky tie and thinks up a Michael Bay-worthy action movie scenario in which he loses it saving a boy from falling off a skyscraper. This is proven false when Lily finds the tie in the trash, and Barney scrambles to find another way out of his tie-wearing obligations when genius strikes: What’s the one thing (aside from Lily) that Marshall can’t resist? The opportunity to lay his monstrous hand on Barney’s cheek in the sacred act of a slap. We are reminded in yet another flashback that, as per the terms of Marshall and Barney’s original slap bet, Marshall has one of five free slaps remaining for him to dish out at a time and place of his choosing. But Barney tempts him with an additional smack if he’s allowed to take off the ducky tie. When Marshall refuses, Barney makes it his mission to upset him so greatly that he has no choice but to slap him—this process involves reddening his cheek with Robin’s blush and pretending to have had sex with both Lily and Marshall’s mother. Marshall eventually becomes so incensed that he nearly takes Barney down. Kevin, however, “therapists” Barney and discovers the real reason he wants to take off the tie: he’s about to meet Nora’s parents. Lily and Marshall thus decide Barney can remove it for three extra slaps. Barney agrees and Marshall immediately uses two of his four total slaps.
Flashing back to the hurricane, we learn that then-Marshall was excessively cautious because he was out of work and without life insurance. Meanwhile, Robin’s daddy issues are acting up because her dad, unlike everyone else’s parents, isn’t calling to check up on her. When Ted tries to bring an attractive female stranger with them, the group fights over the five seats in the car. By the time they’re set to leave, the bridges are closed, they’re stuck in the apartment and the power goes out, but the five weather the storm together. Alone in Barney’s bathroom, Marshall apologizes to Lily for being so needy and they conceive their baby that night (“Hurricane Erickson would be such a sweet name!”).
The next day, with the danger passed and MacLaren’s closed, the gang went out to the street to drink beer, jump in puddles and run around in the rain. Marshall takes this opportunity to boogie board on a trash can lid, sending him straight into the bar’s front window and completing the story of the sign.
The tale told, Kevin leaves for his mother’s birthday party and Barney and Robin share a cab (at which point I admit to breaking into the Bang Bang Bangity Bang song, because we all know what’s happening next). On the ride Robin asks Barney if he’d told anyone else what also nearly happened that day in August. We learn Barney told Robin what an idiot her father was for never calling her, and that for him, a day without talking to her was a day wasted. The two nearly kissed, only to be interrupted by a phone call from Mr. Scherbatsky himself. In the present-day, the two agree that it was for the best that they didn’t kiss that day; after all, soon Barney started dating Nora, and Robin met Kevin. It would have been stupid. It would have been a catastrophe. It would have apparently been worth it, though, considering they end the episode with a kiss in the cab.
“Disaster Averted” brought back some HIMYM favorites and reminded us why we’ve stuck around this long: drawn out and detailed flashbacks, romantic tension, slap bets, overzealous Ted. It also set the scene for some major upcoming conflict: Barney, now ducky tie-less, is about to meet the parents of the girl he just cheated on. Robin, the person he cheated with, just ruined things with Kevin—but hey, maybe John Cho can come back on the show as Jeff Coatsworth to smoke out Kevin and Barney in a genius marketing ploy for their new Harold & Kumar movie. Both of them will have to confront whether they want to be with each other or finally move on. Kudos to the writers, though, for handling their relationship the way they did—we’ve spent this season expecting it to happen, but the wait was definitely worth it.
Highlights
Marshall, faced with his own mortality, turns into a “really clingy Edgar Allen Poe” and dreams up several scenarios in which he is attacked by bears.
Barney: “Wow, it’s come to this. You could help a friend, but instead you’re choosing the hot girl in the tight tank top. Your training is complete; I’m so proud of this kid!
Ted: “If we don’t make it through the night, I want you guys to know, and I really mean this: I wish I had branched out and made more friends in my twenties.”
And, of course, any and all slap bet montages are just the icing on the cake.