Something something “your a penis”

There’s a certain risk the creators of How I Met Your Mother took when they decided to focus an entire season on a wedding scene. Inevitably, any joke that could be thought of has been done before and probably done well. It can be hard to bring anything refreshing to these tired plots, but so far the writers have done well by not trying too hard to be unique. They’ll take storylines we’ll already be familiar with – like old people and the fear of falling into unexciting routines after marriage – and update them simply by imagining how Robin and Barney would act it out. This works well because we love the characters, and we like seeing them get into crazy shenanigans together.

This week’s plot for the engaged duo wasn’t the funniest or most exciting, but it got the job done, once again reaffirming the pair’s affection for each other and granting us the fantastic recurring gag of Robin once again accidentally leading Barney on and making him think she wants to get a little more experimental in the bedroom.

However, since the first three episodes have continually grouped Robin and Barney together and followed the same arc of wedding-themed problem and solution, it would be nice to see the two branch out and interact with the rest of the gang. I’ve said this before, but the show works best when it’s all of them together, exchanging inside jokes and working on their problems. More and more throughout the show, it’s become about different storylines of different people, rather than how all of their lives intertwine and influence each other’s.

This is worsened by the fact that Marshall is still not at the wedding. I’m hoping that road trip story doesn’t play out for too much longer, because I feel like the Lily and Marshall dynamic is seriously missing from these first few episodes. Ted’s and Lily’s plots together have been entertaining – this week Lily went through and made fun of some of the items on Ted’s list of things to do before moving to Chicago, namely to fix the grammatically incorrect graffiti on a New York street corner (it originally said “Your a penis”), to say good bye to Empy the Empire State Building and to tell Lily what really happened on April 26 (during a Princess Bride sword fight Marshall and Ted accidentally ripped Lily’s favorite slutty-but-classy dress). And Lily’s advice to Ted to drop the negativity in his life and begin anew with only the good memories will be important as Ted progresses to find his wife.

But seeing Ted and Lily together alone only makes me more aware of a big gap that is caused by Marshall’s absence. Since Wesleyan, it has been the three of them. It is nice to see Lily and Ted strengthen their relationship, but we need Marshall, and really, we need the whole gang back together to make it really feel like How I Met Your Mother is still the show it was.

Tidbits:

– Lily and Robin had a swordfight of their own, which led to their accidentally knocking over and breaking Ted’s $600 bottle of 30-year aged scotch. Their solution? Fill it with a knock-off mixed with a combination of ketchup, chocolate sauce, and “hand sani.”

– Even though the mixture is disgusting, Ted insists the scotch is magnificent. When he observes some weird chunks at the bottom of the bottle, Lily explains it away as a trait specific to the region the scotch is from. Pretentious Ted’s response? “Lily, I’m highly aware of the Highland Clumps.”

– In unision – “We have to have sex right now! …Aww!”

– In the sword fight, Marshall and Ted are both Inigo Montoya.

– Mentioning Mandy Patinkin or speaking of a buffet will summon any old person.