I’m starting to chronicle this glorious sitcom midway through the fourth season, so I’ll give you a quick crash-course on the characters and this season thus far.
The show is framed around the main character, Ted Mosby, his friends, and his quest for love in Manhattan. The season premiere opens with an older Ted talking to his two teenaged kids. We often see the kids at the beginning of episodes; each is supposed to be part of the story he tells them. Four seasons in, it is becoming a rather long story. Many of the show’s scenes occur at Ted’s apartment (originally shared with Marshall) and at a bar called MacLaren’s.
How I Met Your Mother airs on Mondays at 7:30 Central time on CBS.
Characters:
Ted Mosby: Ted is an architect in Manhattan. He’s become fed up with dating just to have fun, and thinks he’s ready to meet the woman of his dreams, settle down, get married and have kids. Unfortunately, one can’t just decide that it’s time and make it happen. He’s on the lookout, though, and so far has had three serious relationships, neither of which ended in marriage, though he did get left at the altar once.
Marshall Eriksen: Marshall is a big, lovable lawyer (I know, right?) from Minnesota. He’s been in a relationship with Lily for about ten years; the two recently got married and moved into their own apartment. Marshall and Ted are best friends, having been roommates all through college (they went to Wesleyan). Marshall is a lawyer for Goliath National Bank, though he had always had dreams of working to save the environment. He is also intensely afraid of the supernatural.
Lily Aldrin: Lily is a kindergarten teacher and Marshall’s wife. She had dreams of pursuing a career in art, and once took a painting fellowship in California that was disastrous for her relationship with Marshall, though that drama is over. She recently has become satisfied that she was meant to teach kindergarten, but she still paints on the side, marketing her work to veterinary clinics.
Robin Scherbatsky: Robin is currently unemployed. Earlier in the series she had been a television reporter for Metro News One, a low-quality station. She left the station for a job in Japan and burned her bridges with Metro News One, only to quit because she hated it. Robin is Canadian, and used to be a pop star with a one-hit-wonder, “Let’s Go To The Mall.” Robin was introduced as a possible match for Ted, and the two dated for a year earlier in the series before breaking up. She is currently rooming with Ted, as she has no job and nowhere else to stay.
Barney Stinson: Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is a suit-wearing, excitable type whose life is a string of one-night stands. He has no morals other than fierce loyalty. Barney works for Goliath National Bank with Marshall. Viewers are unsure about the nature of his job, but it is clear that he makes large sums of money. Barney believes that Bob Barker is his true father, since his mother clearly slept around. (He has a brother, James, who is black; the discrepancy was never explained to them). Barney is the source of some of the show’s funniest moments. Catchphrases include “suit up!” and “it’s going to be legendary!”
Season Summary:
- Ted got left at the altar by his girlfriend Stella; they subsequently broke up.
- Barney got transferred to Goliath National Bank, allowing Marshall to get hired as well.
- Marshall and Lily moved into their own apartment in an area called DoWiSeTrePla, or “Downwind of the Sewage Treatment Plant.” It has a slanted floor. They are also discussing having children, but haven’t made any decisions.
- After sleeping with her once, Barney discovered that he has feelings for Robin, which he’s been struggling with hiding since. This was especially hard when Ted and Robin started a short-lived “friends with benefits” arrangement.
- Robin took a job in Japan, hated it, and quit to come back for Ted’s wedding (which didn’t end up happening). She’s been living with Ted since.
Episode Summary:
This episode isn’t that essential to the plot; not much changes from the beginning to the end. Essentially, there is a huge three-day snowstorm that hits New York and sets the stage for “three amazing stories,” which are actually only two.
Story 1:
Barney attempts to score a “Party School Bingo.” Every year, he makes a bingo card out of Playboy’s top 25 party schools and attempts to get a bingo by sleeping with girls from the different schools to get five in a row. It turns out that two hotties from Arizona Tech, the only school he has left, are standing outside MacLaren’s. Ted and Barney chat the girls up — they seem pretty cool; they’re in a band — and set up a date. Barney refuses to get their phone numbers, though — his rationale is that if there’s no way for them to call and cancel, they have to show up.
The next day, Ted and Barney are sitting in a deserted MacLaren’s. The bartender, Carl, decides to close up early so he can help set up cots in a church basement for the homeless. Ted and Barney plead with him to keep it open so they can meet their dates. Carl entrusts the duo with the keys, which leads to a flashback about how the two have always fantasized about opening a pub of their own (which they’d name “Puzzle’s” because people would wonder about the name, creating a “puzzle” of sorts). A big part of their idea was that Puzzle’s would never have a last call. Anyway, the dates show up, and they’ve brought their bandmates along with them. The only problem is that the band they’re in is actually the entire Arizona Tech marching band. Fresh from fantasizing about being bartenders, though, Ted and Barney decide to keep MacLaren’s open and serve the band. They, needless to say, make a mess of things, and when Carl calls to report that he’ll be back soon, they panic. Rather than resorting to a last call, though, they decide to simply move the party up to Ted’s apartment. Everything somehow ends well. Oh, and Barney gets his Bingo.
Story 2:
Lily is away on business, and scheduled to come back one Tuesday. She and Marshall have a ritual where whenever one goes on a business trip, he or she brings back a six-pack of microbrew and is met at the airport with a chauffeur’s sign. This time, though, both are hesitant about holding up each respective end of the understanding — Marshall read something about “maturing relationships” no longer needing that kind of thing. As a result, they’re reconsidering the cutesy rituals that they’ve clung to all throughout their relationship: telling each other what they had for lunch, kissing on New Years’ Eve, and the microbrew/chauffeur sign deal. They’ve stopped the others one by one and agreed that this time Lily would take a cab home microbrew-less.
In typical HIMYM fashion, though, each independently realizes that the other might take the initiative anyway. Marshall is talking with Robin, then suddenly feels terrible about not picking her up, so he frantically begs Robin to drive him. They talk on the way there, having a short argument about the role of habitual romantic gestures in relationships.
For her part, Lily is on the plane home talking to a nice old lady sitting next to her, who suggests that Marshall, being such a nice guy, might meet her anyway. She, too, feels terrible, and seizes upon the fact that her flight arrived an hour early to go out to a store and buy some microbrew with the help of Ranjit, an Iranian cabbie who’s a recurring character in the series. The store, though, only has kegs of the beer she’s looking for, so she gets one. There’s a split-camera scene where we see both Marshall and Lily arriving at the airport.
We then learn, though, that Marshall and Lily have been operating in different timeframes from the beginning. Marshall missed a phonecall from Lily, whose flight was delayed until Thursday. He goes home dejected. Fast-forward to Thursday — Lily is sitting alone at the terminal. Just as she’s giving up hope, though, the Arizona Tech marching band starts playing Auld Lang Syne, and Marshall shows up with a chauffeur card. He fervently tells her that he doesn’t want to give up all their rituals, tells her what he ate for lunch, says “Happy New Year,” and kisses her.
Thoughts:
Every series has “diversion” episodes like this one. I was a little disappointed with this week’s predictability, and Marshall and Lily are always a little saccharine for me when their cuteness is brought to the attention of the viewer. Still, the humor was still pretty fresh, and why else does one watch How I Met Your Mother?
Quotes:
Barney: If you wanna have sex with Van Halen, do it on your own time, Ted.
Bartender: You two? No way. You wouldn’t know the first thing about running a bar.
Barney: …Serve the hotties first?
Bartender: Here’s the keys.
College girl: I don’t if you’ve ever seen Star Wars, but it’s like Hoth out there!
Ted: Dibs.
Marshall: It was just something Lily read in Psychology Today. Alright, she read it in Cosmo. Okay, I read it in Cosmo. Alright, it was Cosmo Girl! Just drive, OK!