In last week's episode, Barney declared that he was in it for the long haul with Quinn, officially replacing the Robin versus Nora debate with Robin versus Quinn and putting her in the running as the potential bride at his wedding. Also, after a series of theoretical and actual depictions of the future, we learned that in three years, Ted will have met The Mother and they'll have a baby girl. Currently, though, Ted is still single, and (for the first time) living alone – but in rather un-Ted-like fashion, he doesn't wallow in self-pity, but embraces life by himself instead. This mainly consists of hanging out naked watching television, eating what he wants and doing pretty much naked – overall, not too bad.
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Barney (who is continually trumpeting the fact that his girlfriend is a stripper), however, will not stand for this: he needs Ted to accompany him out nightly so he can complete his quest to make every day legendary. Over the course of several nights, this entails the two starting a mariachi band, eating everything on the bar menu, bringing a horse into MacLaren's and nearly bungee jumping off the Statue of Liberty. When Ted eventually refuses in favor of staying home with single-serving microwaveable meals and on-demand television, Barney pulls him from his apartment, closes the door, effectively locks out Ted and drags him (in his pajamas) to the bar (so they can steal a mummy! or a camel! party with mole people! reunite Genesis! etc.).
Ted postulates that if all nights are legendary, conversely, no nights are legendary – and the two begin fighting over who has more points in the game of life. Barney claims to be in the lead because he achieved Ted's challenge from three years ago to get a girl's number while wearing a dress. Ted, not caring, tries to leave, but Barney admits to needing him around so he's distracted from Quinn's job as a stripper. He's jealous. He loves her. Ted gets it. And so, the next day, Ted goes out in a green halter number (complete with perfume!), hits on some women and cheers Barney up – because, as we know, he's such a good friend.
Meanwhile, Lily has a sex dream about someone other than Marshall, and he's aghast – not by that, of course, but because she refuses to TELL him who is making him a subconscious cuckold. Armed with red paint swatches of shades to match her levels of blushing, (rose quartz for the slightly embarrassed, tomato red for ashamed) he eventually discovers the culprit when Lily turns vermillion at the sight of Ranjit, who has arrived with a limo to take the two to a fancy dinner. Marshall promptly throws a fit about sleep-cheating and Lily leaves the car, seeking advice from Quinn at the Lusty Leopard. Refusing to let reservations go to waste, Marshall cries to Ranjit, who levels with him that now Marshall has to be the sane one – for the pregnancy and the parenthood. Back at home, he apologizes to Lily, saying he understands why she fantasizes about good fathers and he plans to be that guy for her.
Switching to Robin, her promotion isn't quite the dream job she'd expected – journalism is great, but damn it: Canadian teen pop star Robin Sparkles wants to be famous again! So when she's stuck reporting on the traffic from a helicopter above the city, she's convinced her career is once again in a rut. But when the pilot has a stroke in the middle of offering some sage advice, she gets it together, and all of New York watches as (thanks to instruction via radio) she lands the helicopter safely. Suddenly, she's on the map: she meets the mayor, goes on Letterman and finally receives the professional recognition she's been waiting for. And although Ted and Robin haven't talked since she turned him down, he (along with everyone else she's ever met) reaches out, texting that he's glad she's okay.
As an episode, this wasn't all that impressive. All these events – Ted getting over himself, Barney owning up to his feelings, Marshall and Lily dealing with pregnancy together – are significant, but they weren't very interesting. All in all, the show wasn't quite up to its usual standard this week (or maybe all this adults-growing-up business is getting a bit old). The only creative subplot this time around was Robin's career progress: she's had it rough this season (she broke up with Kevin, lost Ted as a friend, and I'm still drying my eyes over her and Barney's almost-children); it's only fair that her career go somewhere. Now that she's famous, I kept expecting the mysterious stranger to FINALLY get in touch, but there's always next week.
Highlights:
Barney: I spent the last five years trying to Inception your wife.
Marshall: That movie came out two years ago.
Barney: What movie?