Tuesday, September 25, 2012

TV Review: How I Met Your Mother 8x01: "Farhampton"

 
DA- Big things happened last night in the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother. Barney and Robin worry that they can not go through with their marriage ceremony, Marshall and Lily spill the beans about how Barney once dated Robin to Quinn, and Ted finally runs into the titular mother- well sort of.
 
The episode begins with Ted sitting at a train station in Farhampton again telling a love story to anyone willing to listen. (Let’s see how many seasons this story within a story lasts). Flashback to Robin and Barney's marriage ceremony. He explains to Robin her hesitation over the wedding by using his own story about Victoria’s wedding to explain this situation. Cue the flashback within a flashback!
 
Ted being the "gentleman" that he is tells Victoria he must leave a note before she can leave her fiancé at the altar since it is "common courtesy." Ted of all people should know this because he remembers how depressed he got when it was him left at the altar a few years back. While he tries to sneak the note in for Victoria, Barney tells the gang not to tell Quinn about him and Robin dating in the past. Barney has already erased the evidence on his end but it was of course tired, delirious, and new parents Marshall and Lily to spill the beans immediately after almost spilling the beans seconds before. (They caught the baby monitor but forgot that five minutes before that they invited Quinn into the room!) Quinn worries that they still have feelings for each other and after explaining the last seven seasons in 52 seconds and how that can not possibly be true, Quinn still tells Barney it’s over.
 
However to make a long story short (something Ted and the show never does) Barney and Robin convince Quinn that they are over each other with the help of seeing Robin's new boyfriend Nick and his “situation.”(His abs guys! Get your minds out of the gutters!) While Quinn is convinced it may not be that clear anymore for Robin and Barney. Barney hands Robin a key to the storage unit probably adjacent to Walter White’s meth money to where all their relationship memories are stored. As she beings to cry Barney is in a cab with Quinn starring out the window probably thinking of a special someone. Who is he thinking of? Quinn? Robin? Bob Barker? Only time will tell.
 
In a last act twist we find out that Klaus (Victoria's fiancé) is also running away at the altar because she is not “the one” or whatever the German translation of that is. This reverts current Ted into season one Ted asking himself is Victoria really “the one" for him. Klaus reminds him you never know where or when it will happen but at some point it eventually will. Finally good old Mr. Saget comes in at the end to reveal while Ted does not yet know when he does know where. On a rainy night at this same station a young woman with a yellow umbrella and guitar will exit a cab and Ted will finally meet his wife. As for whether this meeting is this May, next May, or May 2024 the showrunners are still leading us down the same road we started eight years before. While we still do not know how long this journey may be (the showrunners are under the assumption this is the last season) we are one step closer in wrapping up one of the longest yet funniest love stories on television.
 
Episode Grade: B+
Episode MVP: Neil Patrick Harris (mostly for reciting the entire series in under a minute)
Original Airdate: 9/24/12

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