(S03E12) How I Met Your Mother has been making a lot of news lately, with its timeslot change, its constant bubble status, the hiring of Alicia Silverstone, the subsequent hiring of a certain young woman named Britney, and the resulting departure of Silverstone and arrival of Sarah Chalke.
But what we haven't seen were actual episodes, thanks to the writers' strike. Thankfully, the strike is over and Bays and Thomas managed to be one of the first to get new episodes on the air, just in time for St. Patrick's Day. And, while HIMYM's returned with only a slightly-above-average episode, we inched ever so closer to finding out the solution to the show's main mystery. That's the least the guys could do after three months off.
You knew that St. Paddy's Day would bring out the best in ol' Barney. Green pimp suit ("Hello, NBA player rehabbing an injury," is how Ted greets him), entreaties to Ted to leave the old folks -- Marshall and Lily -- at home, and deep belly buttons meant that he was in his element. His whole "no tomorrow" thread didn't quite ring right to me, mainly because everyone knew that he wasn't serious about the end of the world. Yet, at least in the way Ted remembered the night, he managed to convince Ted to act as if there was no tomorrow. Maybe Carter and Craig realized that Wild Ted wasn't quite as wild as we thought he'd be, and were giving him this reverse karma night in order to get the wildness out of the way.
Thank God for pocket dialing. I thought that went away with the advent of clamshell-shaped phones. But I guess you can pocket dial BlackBerries and iPhones; Ted apparently never locks his keypad. Just as well; it was a convenient way for Marshall to show Ted just how silly he sounded all night. He still managed to order Dom and put it on Gredo's tab, and he still managed to convince a married Vanessa Minnillo to sleep with him, he just didn't do it as suavely as he thought.
What he did do was lose his cell phone. And then he grabbed the yellow umbrella. Yes, that yellow umbrella; the one belonging to (dum da dummmm!) the mother. More on that later.
Now we know why a) M&L spend all that money on their stinky Dowisetrepla condo and b) how they get to stay living with Ted for a while longer. It's that old sitcom saw: the crooked apartment! "It's like the last 20 minutes of Titanic in here," cracks Robin. Actually, the angle used to shoot the apartment scenes reminded me of how every villain's lair was shot during the old 1960s Batman series. Anyway, the ghost story Marshall made up about the Confederate general was funny, but the entire crooked apartment plot was a bit on the thin side (except for Robin... her flat line reading about the ghost going through her... asking "How is a racist ghost better than 'crooked'?"... Scherbatsky was a font of comedy tonight).
Other stuff:
- The Best Barneyism: a tie between "Bropocalypse Now" and his recitation on personality types sorted by area code. "She may think she's a 212 or a 718, but she's definitely a 516." Though I think he vaguely insulted the 973 area code. Sigh. Par for the course on this show, I guess.
- In one of the party scenes, Ted and a young woman briefly encounter each other and say "excuse me." Wonder if that's the infamous mother...?
- It was very clever how the yellow umbrella was on line for the party, but by the time we got back from the break, the rain had stopped and we had no idea who was who. That's why some extraneous encounter at the party would make me think that's the mother. Why put it in if it didn't mean anything?
- Having Lily keep winning at Hungry Hungry Hippos was a funny way to demonstrate the slant in the apartment.
- So wonderful of Robin to create Apartment Roller Luge just to help Lily feel better. Such a friend. Wonder what they did after the floor was fixed.
- Oh, and I can't wait to hear what kind of a money pit M&L have gotten themselves into.
So the guys were a little rusty, and next week we get what I'm sure will be an extremely overhyped guest spot from Brit Brit. Jeez. Hopefully, we'll get classic HIMYM back by episode 14. Maybe by then the show will actually be renewed for season four. Yeah, right.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-17-2008 @ 10:43PM
Darren said...
I thought it was a great show - I'm so glad it's finally back - now I hope CBS doesn't screw it up and not bring it back next year
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3-17-2008 @ 11:57PM
Bash said...
Nice theory about the "Excuse me" women.
Except Ted said in the voiceover at the end of the show that he didn't meet his future wife at that party.
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3-24-2008 @ 9:53PM
Anonymous said...
Sarah Chalke is the mom. She'll be back eventually.
3-18-2008 @ 12:29AM
Curt said...
Well, I wouldn't exactly call running into someone and saying excuse me iss meeting, Bash. Granted, the creators probably threw that in for over analyzers like me, but still. It was extraneous and unnecessary to the show, unless maybe it is mom.
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3-18-2008 @ 1:13AM
Jake said...
I agree that the show wasn't the biggest laugh fest, but it was a warm episode, especially at the end with Marshall and Ted. Really the part that didn't jive with me was we didn't see Ted all that crazy. I wanted to some real debauchery. I think Ted was crazier with Many Moore at the season premiere.
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3-18-2008 @ 1:16AM
Jeff N. said...
I thought the show was pretty funny. And it was a new show. And aren't we all glad for that. Barney just cracks me up.
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3-18-2008 @ 1:23AM
sara said...
Does anyone know the title of the song at the end of the show when Ted went to find his phone?
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3-18-2008 @ 9:26AM
Dakota Dux said...
I know! The song came on and it was so familiar, and so good. I watched the credits, the name is not there. What is it?
3-18-2008 @ 9:41AM
Nonentity said...
The song at the end was Beautiful Beat from Nada Surf's new album Lucky, Great album btw.
3-27-2008 @ 8:02PM
Andrew said...
I think the song you heard was Thirteen by Big Star
3-18-2008 @ 3:44AM
Dave said...
the girl may not be the mom but is probably connected in some way... maybe a friend of the mom's
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3-18-2008 @ 6:12AM
Wii60 said...
It's the mother, after going back, the woman covered by the umbrella seems to be wearing the same jeans. If the show is really on the chopping block, maybe we're going to meet the mother this season?
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3-18-2008 @ 6:17AM
Wii60 said...
The woman is credited as "Woman" and her name is Nicole Muirbrook-Wagner.
Her imdb page is: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2789724/maindetails
Why credit her if she didn't at least have something to do with it?
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3-18-2008 @ 7:21AM
Ginny said...
Bash - I don't remember Ted saying that at the end ( I was too mesmerized by the yellow umbrella), but I do know that at the beginning (before the intro song) Ted tells the kids that the mom was at that club that night. He said she was there, not that he met her. When he bumped into that one woman the kids and I immediately jumped, pointed and yelled "that's her!"
Now the question is....if he has someone elses' umbrella.....who has his phone?
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3-18-2008 @ 7:26AM
Alicia said...
When he bumped into "woman" I said, "Oh that's Mother."
You are right not a total laugh fest, but it was still HIMYM. It had it's moments.
Next week will be better (even with Britney) and the week after will be "slap-tastic". (Not that I know anything... it just sounded good... you know... Slap bet and all... ok... shutting up now...)
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3-18-2008 @ 8:41AM
RC said...
I don't think this season of HIMYM was quite as good as last season. That being said, the worst episode of HIMYM is still better than 80% of the other comedies on TV. I watched Two and a Half Men and Old Christine for the first time last night and I wanted to jab a spork in my eye. Sorry CBS I will only be watching you from 8-9 from now on.
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3-18-2008 @ 9:21AM
Usama said...
I too think she's the mother. I think we've become accustomed to how this show works and that is exactly how the show would introduce her to us (other than the nice umbrella thing in the first episode of this season).
Glad this show's back.
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3-18-2008 @ 9:50AM
Michael said...
What about Barney rising like a Phoenix from the trash pile at the end, a complete mess, proclaiming "I'm awesome!". How epic was that?
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3-18-2008 @ 9:50AM
Justin said...
Great episode, I'm so glad the show has finally returned. I've got a whole recap over at my blog:
http://www.have-you-met-ted.com/2008/season-3-episode-12-no-tomorrow-discussion/
It was good to see some measurable forward progress toward the mother.
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3-18-2008 @ 11:29AM
Don-Don said...
Could the woman he bumped into just be the reason he dropped his phone? I can't remember if there were any more messages after he ran into her.
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