The bottom line is friendship and the closeness these five have that often – almost always  – transcends other relationships. That is understandable with Barney, whose relationships last no more than a microsecond. And of course Marshall and Lily are the glue – a relationship that thrives with three footloose friends, except when they are looking for the perfect couple to befriend.

How sad that Robin turns down the job for love – not  necessarily love for Don but perhaps for love of her four best friends. What do you think – was it Don or the gang ? Or both ? I really could nto call this one, could you ?

That said, if it was love for Don, what a blow ! He never said come with me and we will build a life together and a career for you too ! It could be done. I know because my sister and her husband, Pat and Joe Harper, were co-anchors on WPIX in New York City – the first husband and wife co-anchor news team in television history !

Robin chose love over career, Don didn’t – game, set and match. For a moment several episodes ago I thought Don could become part of the gang. Wrong !!  We never got to know Don well, and now I know why – there wasn’t a  lot there. Robin better get a hold of herself and decide what she wants in life. Otherwise she could be susceptible to the next pretty face that comes along and dings her.

Click here to view the embedded video.

HIMYM Homewreckers

 Finally the romantic Ted surfaced big time.

It was refreshing to see Ted at the center of things  – after all the show is called How I Met Your Mother !  Ted’s sentiments and Marshall’s friendship defined this episode and gave it some substance, a nice counterpoint to Barney’s antics with guest stars that are over before they really start. This episode got back on point with a rather serious story about Ted’s  journey….

Ted’s mom with her hippy lover – fiancée- husband is  a shock for Ted because Clint isn’t the type Ted expected his mother to date much less marry. But this is probably more a reflection of where Ted is in his life, and before long he realizes that love isn’t a list of pros and cons. If it was, maybe Marshall and Lily wouldn’t be married, and certainly Ted’s home buying decision would never have happened either. Sometimes you just have to go with your heart.

 Try telling that to Barney, who actually shows some heart in this episode and some heartlessness too the way he tries to embarrass Robin and her tears. In the end, are we convinced it was Barney who shed tears and really was jealous of Clint ? It’s a little farfetched..but with Barney anything is possible !

I smiled at the time-lapse montage of the living room’s transformation. Anybody noticed the yellow school bus :)) !! But  my favorite part  was the “Drunk, or Kid”? game initiated by Marshall in which the gang had to guess if he was drunk or a kid when he did that stupid thing. I think this one is sure to catch on!

Ted and Marshall in Homewreckers

So what did you all think? Let’s talk…

Click here to view the embedded video.

The plot of this episode is fairly simple: Marshall gets mugged, Lily wants to buy a gun to protect them, Marshall freaks and says a monkey mugged him to prevent Lily from going through with it. Did he really get mugged by a monkey? We will never know, and that’s not the point. The lying about it is the point.

What else is the point of this episode? I’m honestly not too sure. Maybe the writers thought throwing in an adorable animal would distract the viewers from realizing that they had been waiting two weeks for a new episode about nothing (i.e. the Carrie Underwood teacup pig tactic). Now, that monkey was adorable, and I’m okay with an episode of only subplot if it makes me laugh (as “Say Cheese” did a few weeks ago), but the only thing that had me crack a smile this time was Marshall screaming “There WAS no banana!” And maybe when he punched Lily in the face in the flashback sequence outlining his accidental violence towards his wife.

Barney again wasn’t front and center enough in this episode, and only seemed to serve as a contrast to Marshall’s greater good type of lying – Barney lied strictly to get women in bed and to serve his own selfish needs. Nice moral touch there. Lying is only okay when it’s done to protect someone.

This episode wouldn’t have left me disappointed if I hadn’t been waiting two weeks for it, but I had been, and I was. Hopefully this is leading up to a huge, surprising, shocking finale, as cast members have been hinting at lately. At this point, I couldn’t even tell you one important thing that has happened this season. Can you?

AND NOW HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!

What do you think REALLY happened to Marshall when/if he was mugged?

So, we were left hanging at the end of the episode as to what happened with Marshall’s wallet. Tell us what you think happened, and post it as a comment below!  The most interesting storyline will WIN a FREE How I Met Your Mother DVD, season of your choice.

Good luck!

Admittedly, this season has been mostly filler episodes that strayed from an actual and meaningful storyline, but this episode at least made up for the lack of substance by throwing in some hilarity. At this point in Season 5, I find myself asking, “Now what is the point of this show again?”

The episode did do some character building though, by pitting Ted and Lily against each other as they pointed out each other’s annoying habits. Lily, with the control freak ways she makes everyone pose for their group shot during important events, and Ted with his ability to fall in love by the week (or day). It also highlighted their charms though – Lily tells it like it is, Ted remains hopeful that the next girl he meets could indeed be “the one”, thus his reason for bringing a steady stream of “Skank Lane” girls to important group events. The flashback to show Ted’s acceptance of Lily as a permanent figure in he and Marshall’s life after only a few dates also spotlighted his endearing romantic outlook on love and possibilities.
Barney took a back seat in this one, only offering the comic relief from the more tense moments between Lily and Ted (and as Marshall seemed to turn into The Hulk…whoa). His insistence that he is only able to take attractive pictures threw in a little banter between he and Robin, which was also nice to see. The utter cuteness between Lily and Marshall, as he plans her perfect birthday, complete with “Lilial Pursuit”, was adorable as usual.

A funny episode, yes. I’d even say one of the best of this season (and guest star-free!). Did the plot move forward at all? No. We seem to be stagnant, moving a step sideways each episode instead of forward. I’m hoping they’re leading up to something major soon as the season finale approaches.
Awesome Moments:

-Every single one of Marshall’s bad pictures. I need a framed collage of those to keep me in a good mood constantly.

-Barney’s elementary laser-background school portrait. We all have several of those, and I wish they still did them.

-Marshall and Ted’s “80’s-sticom-about-two-roommates-who-can’t-agree-on-anything pose”. Perfect.

Thoughts:

-Who were Robin’s friends before she met these people? Did she dump everyone she had ever known once she met Ted? Some friend.
-Did anyone take special note of the group picture one year in the future? Any things of note, or clues that might trigger something? Ted didn’t have a Skank Lane girl, and Robin didn’t have Don, or a Don-like boyfriend. Hmmm.

The highlight for me was seeing the true character of Barney -his much softer side. Since Barney and Robin’s break up, it had been unreal for things to go back to normal so quickly as if the relationship never happened, or was not at all important. And apparently poor Robin felt the same. This was an issue to be dealt with and the writers did a great job showing how much Barney actually cares for Robin.

I was not a fan of Ted’s song about the Super date though. It was awkward and did not work within the context or with Ted’s character. And then again,  I loved when the whole gang broke out singing the very catchy Bang Bang!!

I must admit, I was disappointed to see Robin go on the “super date” with Don. And I think a lot of you were too. I was, and not-so-secretly, hoping they will get back together.

Do you think the writers are paving the way back to Robin & Barney 2.0 ?

I sure hope so!!

My fave moments;

Barney: At least when I run out on a girl, I have the decency to sleep with her first. It’s called manners.

Marshall: You’re my wife. You’re supposed to stop me from embarrassing myself in public.

The title of Jlo’s Book: ‘Of Course You’re Still Single, Take a Look at Yourself, You Dumb Slut.

 And of course…

I said, bang, bang, bangity, bang bang…

By Andrea Reiher

Carrie Underwood takes flight on “How I Met Your Mother.”

Neil Patrick Harris tweeted Wednesday (Jan. 20): “This week’s awesome guest star: http://yfrog.com/1dmarrj HIMYM – You’ll Love The Way We Fly!” and linked to a great photo of himself and guest star Carrie Underwood.

We do know that Carrie is playing Tiffany, a pharmaceutical sales rep and potential love interest for Ted. Barney says pharmaceutical sales reps, or Pharma Girls, have replaced nurses and stewardesses as the Official New Profession of Hot Chicks.
That explains Carrie’s flight attendant outfit. We wonder if she’ll also be dressed as a nurse in some kind of Barney fantasy. Either way, the “American Idol” fan in us is super excited for Carrie’s episode, scheduled to air sometime in March.

How I Met Your Mother” likes to introduce its own lingo for relationships, friendship and life. There was the Lemon Law. The Crazy/Hot Scale. The Bro Code. And now we have the reacher and the settler, which almost sounds like the name of an indie movie like “The Squid and the Whale.”

The reacher and the settler comes into play after Marshall (Jason Segel) reveals that all the crazy stories he’s been telling about his co-worker Jenkins are actually about a woman. Unfortunately, the sight gag of having a man perform the stories, which included downing a jar of maraschino cherries and going topless, and then a woman was kind of lessened by the news that Amanda Peet was guest starring in the episode. From the start, I figured, as I’m sure many of you did, that Jenkins was actually Peet.

Given the slightly scandalous nature of the stories, Marshall avoided pronouns and just let Lily (Alyson Hannigan) continue to assume that Jenkins was a he. After hearing how Marshall had bonded with Jenkins over the Vikings and some town that Marshall’s dead grandpa haunts, Ted (Josh Radnor) was a little angry.

“If you tell me you have a thing for a woman that is not your wife, I will drag you outside and kick your ass,” he says. I will help you, Ted! Let’s never go the adulterous route with Marshall and Lily. Not that I think they will.
Thankfully, Marshall just thinks of Jenkins as a big brother, but he still freaks out when Lily decides to surprise him at work. Peet hilariously pretends to be a French woman investigating a cheese problem, but Marshall, who’s never been very good at keeping his cool, blurts out that she’s Jenkins. Lily has no reaction. She’s not jealous because, as Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Ted explain, she’s a settler and Marshall’s a reacher. She’s out of his league and he could never do better than her, which is kind of an ouch thing to hear from your friends.

Marshall is denial about his reacher state and sets out to make Lily jealous, which works out a little too well when Jenkins plants one on him. Too bad Lily doesn’t believe it happened. That is until Jenkins tells her about it. Slowly, Lily begins to hand over her phone, scarf and earrings to Barney before defending her man with a right hook.

In another case of denial, Robin thinks she’s a celebrity with Ted’s students when she gets recognized at a college bar. Ted seemed a little harsh, which seems to be a trend in this episode, when joking about how no one watches her show. But Ted’s entire class does watch it. They just do it while playing a drinking game with one simple rule: Drink when Robin says, “But, um.” When Robin finds out about it, she decides to “but, um” them into a drunken stupor by repeating the words over and over. Ted’s class the next day basically turns into nap time as everyone, Ted included, nurses their hangover.

Readers, do you agree that Marshall’s a reacher and Lily’s a settler? Did you enjoy Peet’s guest spot? And what rules should be added to the Robin Scherbatsky drinking game?

How I Met Your Mother” likes to introduce its own lingo for relationships, friendship and life. There was the Lemon Law. The Crazy/Hot Scale. The Bro Code. And now we have the reacher and the settler, which almost sounds like the name of an indie movie like “The Squid and the Whale.”

The reacher and the settler comes into play after Marshall (Jason Segel) reveals that all the crazy stories he’s been telling about his co-worker Jenkins are actually about a woman. Unfortunately, the sight gag of having a man perform the stories, which included downing a jar of maraschino cherries and going topless, and then a woman was kind of lessened by the news that Amanda Peet was guest starring in the episode. From the start, I figured, as I’m sure many of you did, that Jenkins was actually Peet.

Given the slightly scandalous nature of the stories, Marshall avoided pronouns and just let Lily (Alyson Hannigan) continue to assume that Jenkins was a he. After hearing how Marshall had bonded with Jenkins over the Vikings and some town that Marshall’s dead grandpa haunts, Ted (Josh Radnor) was a little angry.

“If you tell me you have a thing for a woman that is not your wife, I will drag you outside and kick your ass,” he says. I will help you, Ted! Let’s never go the adulterous route with Marshall and Lily. Not that I think they will.
Thankfully, Marshall just thinks of Jenkins as a big brother, but he still freaks out when Lily decides to surprise him at work. Peet hilariously pretends to be a French woman investigating a cheese problem, but Marshall, who’s never been very good at keeping his cool, blurts out that she’s Jenkins. Lily has no reaction. She’s not jealous because, as Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Ted explain, she’s a settler and Marshall’s a reacher. She’s out of his league and he could never do better than her, which is kind of an ouch thing to hear from your friends.

Marshall is denial about his reacher state and sets out to make Lily jealous, which works out a little too well when Jenkins plants one on him. Too bad Lily doesn’t believe it happened. That is until Jenkins tells her about it. Slowly, Lily begins to hand over her phone, scarf and earrings to Barney before defending her man with a right hook.

In another case of denial, Robin thinks she’s a celebrity with Ted’s students when she gets recognized at a college bar. Ted seemed a little harsh, which seems to be a trend in this episode, when joking about how no one watches her show. But Ted’s entire class does watch it. They just do it while playing a drinking game with one simple rule: Drink when Robin says, “But, um.” When Robin finds out about it, she decides to “but, um” them into a drunken stupor by repeating the words over and over. Ted’s class the next day basically turns into nap time as everyone, Ted included, nurses their hangover.

Readers, do you agree that Marshall’s a reacher and Lily’s a settler? Did you enjoy Peet’s guest spot? And what rules should be added to the Robin Scherbatsky drinking game?

Marshall took center stage as he mused everyone with stories about Jenkins, his new co-worker. Whether it’s eating a whole jar of maraschino cherries, stripping in a bar or peeing outside the cab window, stories about Jenkins seemed to entertain the whole gang. The only problem was everyone but Lily knew that Jenkins is a woman. And it didn’t help that she came in the form of Amanda Peet.

When Lily found out the truth about Jenkins, however, she was pretty cool about it. Marshall, on the other hand, couldn’t accept the fact that he couldn’t make his wife jealous. The problem got worse as Jenkins kissed Marshall at work since she was so wasted from playing the Robin Scherbatsky drinking game. Yes, there’s a drinking game about Robin and I’ll tell you more about it in a bit.

As expected, Marshall cringed and came clean to Lily, who thought her husband was just making up tall tales to make her jealous. In his final attempt to make Lily jealous, Marshall told Jenkins to talk to Lily about the kiss, and it worked because hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

The other portion of “Jenkins” was just as hilarious. It’s about Ted discovering the real reason why everyone in his class watches Robin’s show. Evidently, college students weren’t interested in the news nor were they interested in seeing hot Robin. Robin’s show airs so early in the morning that students are still in the bar playing a drinking game they’ve come up with every time Robin says “but um,” and apparently she says it a lot.

All in all, I enjoyed this Barney-less episode. Did you?