How I Met Your Mother

Season 9, Episode 9

Starring Josh Randor, Jason Segal, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders & Neil Patrick Harris
CBS, Mondays 8pm

By Nick Palumbo

With 31 hours left before the wedding, things haven’t looked too good for Robin. With the news, from last episode, of her mother not coming to the wedding Robin just can’t stop crying. Barney, Ted and Lily try to comfort her and make her feel better, only for Barney to take on the challenge of making Robin stop crying. Robin, being how she is, tells Barney that she has to get through this on her own. However, according to Barney once he has accepted a challenge he has to complete it.  Lily then claims that Barney never finished a challenge to pick up diapers and samosas in the fall 

of 2012, a challenge we later find out was given to him by Robin and herself. Hearing this Barney then recounts the story of why he never finished that challenge.

The story opens up with the Barney discussing to the gang that there is no male/female relationship that is platonic. A platonic relationship, for those of you who don’t know, is that of a male and female who have no chance of “hooking up”. However Barney then retracts his statement to say that he knows only one relationship that is like that, the one between Marshall and Lily. Barney points out that Marshall would never hook up with Robin even if all their lives were at stake. Barney still running his plays on women, continuously keeps saying “challenge accepted” to picking up different women. Lily, finally fed up with Barney's own creative plays to pick up women, dares him to take up challenges that she and Robin will choose. First on the list was getting a woman's number while speaking like a dolphin. Once completed a second challenge was given. This one was getting a girls number while wearing a garbage bag and not using any word that has the letter E. Seeing that Barney has passed all their challenges, Lily and Robin decide to make him do an errand for them, he had to buy Lily a pack of diapers for Marvin and samosas for Robin. Barney quickly realizes that this is an errand not a challenge and to make him do it Lily added in picking up a girl while getting these items. Barney once again was off to complete his challenge. 

Barney buys the items and then attempts to pick up a woman. As he approaches this random girl and she turns around, we see that it is “The Mother”. Barney tries to make his move on her only to get turned down. “The Mother” sees through the little game Barney is playing and calls his bluff. She tells him that “everything is going to be ok” and walks away. As she walks away Barney tries to pick up another woman only to return to “The Mother”. Eventually Barney opens up to her and tells her the entire story about him and Robin. Eventually he realizes that he his just a short time away from possibly getting Robin back. However, “The Mother” tells him something different. She says, “This will take all your time, all your effort and all our resources.” Realizing this Barney goes home to write his last and final play, “The Robin”.

While this is going on Marshall and Ted are at a Harlem Globetrotters game versus the Washington Generals. While at the game they discuss Ted’s true feelings for Robin and if he will do anything about it. Ted tells Marshall that he isn’t interested in Robin and will not pursue her again. Marshall disagrees of course and tells Ted that people change and that Robin could have feelings for Ted now, that she may have changed her mind. During the game Ted receives a hone call from his old boss Hammond Druthers (Bryan Cranston). Druthers is calling because he wants to offer Ted a job in Chicago with all the success he has had over his GNB building.  Ted initially refuses the job, but then tells Druthers he would consider it. When Marshall and Ted return home from the game, Ted sees Robin eating olives. Surprised by this, because in the pilot episode we know Robin hates olives, Ted calls Robin out on it only for her to say, “I guess I changed my mind.” Thinking about the conversation that Marshall and him had earlier, Ted calls Druthers back to tell him he can’t take the job. Ted now thinks he has another shot with Robin, but he has no intention to pursue her immediately, that he wants to let fate bring them together.

We then flash-forward back to present day where Barney finishes telling the story of he quest to get Robin. He says that he didn’t know who that woman was, but that she set him straight. He had only one goal from that day on, and it was to make Robin fall in love with him. Upon the completion of the story Robin kisses Barney telling him his challenge is completed.

            What makes this episode special is there is a lot of foreshadowing towards the future since it was a flashback. We already know a majority of things that happen but we never truly knew how they came to be. This episode clears all of that up.  We see why Ted is moving to Chicago and we see how Barney began his quest to write his final “play”. Along with that fellow QU Bobcat, George Sloan class of ’04, wrote the episode. Overall this episode gives us great background of things we already know.