TVSquad

(S04E23) Earlier today, I received a rough-cut copy of HIMYM's season finale. I was all giddy and wanted to pop it in the DVD player right away, but I wanted to wait until I saw tonight's episode first, figuring it would set up the finale, as it did in past seasons. This episode does so, at least a little bit. But the most important part of the story -- the results of Ted's chance meeting with Stella on that street corner -- was at once disappointing and refreshing.

Confused? Well journey with me after the jump and I'll tell you why.

Let's talk about the refreshing part first: Stella's not the Mother. In fact, she's completely the opposite; she broke Ted's heart so thoroughly that he didn't really want to have anything to do with her. What was also refreshing was that the plot with Stella actually dealt more with how Stella's ex-and-current, Tony, wanted to make amends with Ted for stealing his bride. Was it a bit of a head fake from Bays and Thomas? Sure. But it's not like we didn't get some Ted / Stella closure in the bargain. Heck, anyone who drives Ted to Jersey to bail out Barney deserves some closure.

But now the story of the show's title starts to make a little bit of sense, at least the aspect of how it's going to be told. What are seemingly monumental events turn out to be just the turns a person takes on the path of his life. Yes, meeting Stella on that corner on that day led him to meet the Mother. But the way it happened was through another series of small events, starting with Tony wanting to make amends. That's how Carter and Craig are going to be able to stretch things out for as long as they can; at this point, I really don't care if we meet the Mother until the very last episode.

Why? Well, because as most fans know, Ted's the least interesting person in the Scooby gang. And this episode pointed that out yet again. While Ted was practicing his angst with Stella, we got Barney taking the challenge to talk his way out of a speeding ticket (Best Barneyism: a tie between "a What-UpQuake" and "Challenge accep... wait for it..." For some reason, Ted didn't get when Barney pointed at him). Marshall and Robin chime in with their tales of getting out of tickets, with Marshall's being the best -- those brats sound delicious. So while Ted was a-whimperin' away, we had fun with the other folks.

I will say, though, that the "murder house" job was pretty funny. How the guy who owned it thought calling his favorite room a "laundry" room would cover his intentions up, I'll never know.

More fun stuff:

• "I've seen that porn movie. I've made that porn movie!" Really, Marshall? Is Lily that kinky?
• I get this weird feeling that the writers just missed the mark on Tony. We all know how funny Jason Jones can be, and there seemed to be glimpses of Tony's goofiness -- like the kung fu schtick -- but not enough to take advantage of Jones' abilities.
• Also, to believe that Tony and Stella were close enough in age to have met in high school is a bit of a stretch. You don't even have to look up their ages; Jason Jones just looks about ten years older than Sarah Chalke does.
• Lily's back! And she got the joke! It's going to be odd to see her and Cobie actually get smaller in the finale, which was shot early to ensure both of them would be there.
• The alterna-Stella with the big cans was much more interesting than the real Stella. Even the dog she was carrying was more interesting than Stella.
• Also good to see Marshall's Fiero make a guest appearance in his ticket-dodging flashback.
• Which "big fat check" joke did you like the best? I like Robin's "two seats on the plane" line.
• The neighbor of Ted's who kept mistakenly encouraging him and Stella to get back together? Renee Taylor from The Nanny. It's very sad that I know that.

This episode was OK. The dramatic moment (and the source of the episode's title) between Stella and Ted helped make it for me, even though the other plot involved some light fun. But -- and here's the disappointing part -- you'd think that a cliffhanger like the Stella revelation last week would have deserved a more monumental follow-up. I guess we'll see that during the finale...