TVSquad

(S02E12) Ah, the new year. I was waiting to hear the Bob Saget voiceover mention that this episode happened in "the winter of 2007," but they just decided to leave the date off. Oh, well.

This week, we get a two-fer of Robin fun: we get some exploration into the Robin-Ted relationship and we get to meet her little sister Katie (who I swear to God looks like a smaller version of Robin). Boy, Robin's parents were busy, weren't they? Robin and Katie must be at least ten years apart in age. Whether there were kids in between them or not, let's just say that the romance hasn't gone out of the elder Scherbatskys' marriage.

Anyway, this episode was about first times, mainly because Katie is going to lose her virginity to a "douche in a fauxhawk," as Robin put it, who accompanied her to New York. So while everyone's on line at the Empire State Building -- isn't it an amazing coincidence how they all do everything together? -- the gang all recount their first times. My favorite? Robin's, where a) we see the brief return of "Robin Sparkles-era" Robin, and b) the "Yeah, I'm gay" her boyfriend utters right as he's... um... coming in for a landing. Also the fact that the room full of pink comforters and unicorn dolls was his was a nice twist.

Barney's fake first time was... interesting. Nice green-screen work they did getting ol' Barn to take the place of Patrick Swayze in that scene from Dirty Dancing. How do I know it was a green-screen? Jennifer Grey's old nose, that's how. It was funny, albeit a bit unnecessary; not every episode has to have a pop culture flashback. Anyway, I can understand why he kept co-opting movie plots, none of which he could get by the gang, because his real first time story was pretty damned pathetic (although the fact that his comforter still smelled of menthol cigarettes after it was over was a nice detail).

But the Best Barneyism of the week was his theory on how romance is like a freeway with exits. And his markers were pretty random, weren't they? The last exit, death, was the funniest one, because "after spending all your life with one person, you're probably like 'are we there yet?'." He predicted that Robin and Ted will take the seven-month exit, which is coming up, coincidentally enough, at the end of the season. Wonder what the finale's going to look like?

More first times: that "I love you" discussion with Ted is going to come back and haunt them, isn't it? She couldn't say it until Ted managed to talk Katie out of giving it up to the fauxhawk dude. In fact, the last time she tried, she blurted out "falafel." No matter what happens, she still thinks the "I love you" Ted said on their first-ever date two years ago was a little weird. And it just seems like that difference between them -- him being the easy-to-fall romantic, she being the practical tomboy who says "falafel" -- is going to eventually break them up. We'll see, but it's looking more and more like Barney's prediction is going to come true. It's that subtlety, though, that is making the series so enjoyable.

Other fun stuff:

• Does every girl under 21 smoke cloves? Is it like an entryway to real cigarettes? I couldn't stand the smell of those things when I was in college.
• I liked the Ted virginity-losing-story switcheroo, even though it was predictable.
• Marshall and Lily's first time story was my least favorite, especially since it seemed to have a traumatic revelation -- "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for Scooter!" But it got quickly resolved with all the "you haven't been to the Empire State Building if you've just been to the lobby" talk.
• Notice that the line moved around the gang as they were recounting their stories? I would have stopped to listen to all those stories.
• For once, the Saget voiceover had a purpose: flashes of what could have happened to Katie if she went though with her first time. Very funny.

Good episode. On par with most of the second-tier episodes this year. Given how funny the first tier is this year -- "Swarley," "Slap Bet" -- second tier is still pretty damned good.