(S02E17) I recently had to part with a car; in fact, I just got all my belongings out of it and took off the plates earlier today. There's always a little bit of a pang of sadness that occurs when you leave the vehicle you've depended on for a number of years for the last time. Of course, as you go through your life and the number of cars you own increase, that sense of attachment gets less and less.But it still stinks to give the car over to the salvage yard or its next owner.
But your first car? One you've taken from 78,000 miles to 199,999.2 miles? That's tough. And funny. At least when it's a Fiero. And when the situation is in the hands of the HIMYM writers.
The fact that Marshall was able to get almost 200,000 miles out of a Fiero is a miracle, especially because the car had a habit of catching on fire a lot. Anyway, the main running thread of this episode is how many friendships were formed and strengthened inside that Fiero. But most of that bonding happened because of Marshall's stringent "no food or drink inside the Fiero... even groceries" rule.
Granted, if a dozen lidless coffees got dumped in my naked lap due to my dingleberry brothers, I'd be traumatized, too. But not so traumatized that I wouldn't put groceries in the damn thing. By the way, notice that pimply teenage Marshall has a deeper voice than adult Marshall? Maybe it was the braces.
Pretentious freshman Ted seems to have an eerie resemblance to author Malcolm Gladwell. But I can see Ted being that way as a freshman... "My parents live in Ohio; I live in the moment." Puh-lease. I wonder if anyone since 1921 has used the term "spectacles," though, even ones that were being snotty on purpose. Still, he and Marshall bonded during the 100k fiasco (or as Marshall puts it, the "Fieroasco"), so Ted couldn't be all that bad.
More fun:
- Robin just gets more awesome as the weeks go by. She loves cigars, knows how to clean up a food mess like she's cleaning a crime scene, and can make up phony Thai dish names by just putting together random syllables with D's and K's in them. I think I'm in love.
- I'm sure most best friends have bonded by spooning for warmth after taking "the road less traveled." I'm sure that's how it happened to Kerouac.
- Barney's lack of driving skills and subsequent 10mph terror was a little over the top for me for some reason. I can see how a city guy like Barn wouldn't know how to drive, but the fact that he was so afraid of going at those "breakneck speeds?" Dunno. Doesn't seem like Barney to me.
- Because of that, my Best Barneyism of the week is all the small reactions he had: after he heard the 100k story, he said that Ted and Marshall became best friends "with benefits, apparently." I also liked how he feigned incompetence to get out of Lily's floating origami folding factory.
- By the way, how many friends come hang out with you at the mechanic's? Yes, I realize that they're all making like they're in a hospital, waiting for a loved one to come out of surgery, but I don't even know when that ever happens, either. Only on TV, I guess.
- If I had to listen to The Proclaimers warble "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" over and over for fifteen years, I'd probably rip that cassingle with my teeth if I had to. But I do get the idea of getting tired of it, then loving it, then getting tired of it again. "It'll come back around," was what Marshall told Ted on their 100k ride. Like I said, I know what he means, as I have that same relationship with Devo's version of "Working in the Coal Mine." Don't ask me how that happened.
- Funny how Marshall started the 100k ride all nonchalant about Lily then vowed to marry her one day if he and Ted made it through the night. Will we see the wedding? Still not sure.
- I knew they were going to try to push the car that extra 0.8 of a mile to get it to 200k. I also knew that they wouldn't accomplish it.
- Will Marshall get another car? He was only holding on to it to make him feel like he wasn't a sell-out. But he lives in New York. You don't really need a car there. If he does, will it be a he, a she, or another "trannie car," as Robin Lily put it?
Only five more episodes left. God, doesn't it still feel like the season just started?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-26-2007 @ 11:49PM
M. Stephen Lukac said...
During Robin and Lily's Thai excursion, I kept waiting for Lily to say she was a "mushroom cloud-laying ******-******, Superfly TNT or The Guns of the Navaronne.
Robin did a hell of a Mr Wolf impression though...
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2-27-2007 @ 12:34AM
Akbar Fazil said...
Lily actually called it a trannie car, not Robin.
I liked that Barney's driving fiasco was over the top cause honestly, it's Barney. Everything has to be legendary, even the unawesome.
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2-27-2007 @ 12:45AM
BigTed said...
I'm a big fan of the show, but this was definitely one of the lesser episodes.... There were no real laugh-out-loud episodes.
By the way, I have to disagree with you about the cigar thing.... There's nothing grosser to me than seeing a woman smoking one, and my estimation of Robin's appeal just went down by about a third. (I'm sure it will go up again next week.) Anyway, it seems kind of strange when an 8 p.m. network show has a "smoking is cool" message.
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2-27-2007 @ 12:45AM
BigTed said...
I'm a big fan of the show, but this was definitely one of the lesser episodes.... There were no real laugh-out-loud episodes.
By the way, I have to disagree with you about the cigar thing.... There's nothing grosser to me than seeing a woman smoking one, and my estimation of Robin's appeal just went down by about a third. (I'm sure it will go up again next week.) Anyway, it seems kind of strange when an 8 p.m. network show has a "smoking is cool" message.
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2-27-2007 @ 12:46AM
BigTed said...
No real laugh-out-loud moments, that is.
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2-27-2007 @ 1:17AM
Danny Edwards said...
I found it odd that there was a hot woman in the waiting room and Barney didn't try to pick her up or even mention her.
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2-27-2007 @ 4:23AM
itsy said...
"Part" with a car, not "depart" with a car. Come on, bloggers need to step up and become real writers with a command of the English language.
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2-27-2007 @ 9:16AM
Tele-Toby said...
I was holding out to hear Marshall exclaim "Zinch(?) Dog" and to hear Ted's accompanying groan when the show's vanity card appeared.
Oh well.....
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2-27-2007 @ 9:28AM
Darren said...
I am not a fan of smoking in anyway but I have to admit Robyn looked hot smoking the "Cuban"! This was a good episode! They just keep getting better and better!
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2-27-2007 @ 9:33AM
Joel Keller said...
Itsy, it's more of a brain fart than a slip of English. It's been fixed, as has the "trannie car" reference that Akbar pointed out.
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2-27-2007 @ 9:37AM
e said...
I don't know why y'all weren't laughing. My sister and I just about died laughing at Marshall and Ted singing along/hating the Proclaimers. And same with the Barney driving scene.
As far as Robyn, she continues to be an "eh" character for me. But I guess there's one in every show. . .
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2-27-2007 @ 10:03AM
SpaceVenus said...
Robin was quoting "Pulp Fiction"'s Winston Wolf while describing the clean-up. Hilarious!
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2-27-2007 @ 2:08PM
floretbroccoli said...
A really minor nitpick about the writers ignoring the obvious -- Robin and Lily are dying for Thai food, the delivery time is too long, and Marshall doesn't allow food in the Fiero. Did they ever considering eating, you know, AT THE RESTAURANT?
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2-27-2007 @ 3:10PM
Dave said...
My favorite moment was when Ted and Marshall were spooning in the car. "Are you thinking about Lily now?" "Yeah." "Please stop."
And Robin with a cigar - H-O-T!!
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2-27-2007 @ 5:33PM
Stevie said...
i can't imagine ever getting sick of a devo song, even a cover, even temporarily.
the proclaimers, however, almost drove me away from this episode. almost.
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2-27-2007 @ 10:38PM
James said...
Joel,
Please tell us about the Devo "Working in a Coal Mine" experience.
Does it have anything to do with that song being the theme to the Fred Savage comedy "Working?"
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2-28-2007 @ 12:20AM
Pev said...
#13: I'm not sure how big your city is, but in large cities -- especially New York -- there are a lot of food places that don't have dining areas at all. They're take-out/delivery only. Chinese and Thai places especially. In crowded metropolitan areas, space is at a premium; there's not room for a dining area. It's more economic to just have a kitchen and a front counter.
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2-28-2007 @ 12:12PM
Duane said...
Was I hallucinating, or did Robin actually say "Don't you go all Prisoner's Dilemma on me" when Lilly was about to confess? It fit the situation (two people have to both remain quiet to get the optimal result, but if only one cracks, she gets the big benefit) but was delivered so quickly and quietly with no reaction I was left wondering if I heard it wrong.
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2-28-2007 @ 2:19PM
whitney said...
Pev: definitely true that the restaurant probably didn't have seating, but if it was close enough for them to get a delivery, it was close enough for them to walk to. I don't know any New Yorkers who wouldn't have just hooved it (or, barring that, taken a cab).
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5-15-2007 @ 3:58PM
Gary said...
Just a note, but people need to stop circulating bad information about the Fiero. The first model year, 1984, had a fire recall. They didn't all have a habit of catching on fire. Look it up. This is a bad rap that is fostered by uneducated comments like in this first post. Thanks, Gary
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