For once there's a female guest star who isn't on the show solely to be pursued by Ted or hit on by Barney (not that Barney doesn't try, of course -- "I wanna wear Jenkins like a sock"). Amanda Peet's turn as Marshall's new lawyer coworker Jenkins is a nice change of pace. I've found Peet to be a bit wooden in past roles (she was my least favorite part of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) but she's perfect here; immensely likable and showing great chemistry with Jason Segel. She'd be a great regular addition to the show, but based on How I Met's past use of the majority of their guest stars, I don't expect to see her again, which is a shame. Her bonding with Marshall -- over the Vikings and Pelican Rapids, Minnesota -- and "full-on lady wood" (as Ted put it) for Big Fudge, culminating in her drunken kiss, was very entertaining.
The two big reveals of the episode -- that Jenkins is a woman and Robin's popular due to a drinking game -- were very well done. HIMYM has had plenty of fun in the past switching up the display of character's flashbacks, and the juxtaposition of a man and woman being the center of Marshall's Jenkins stories was excellent -- from the maraschino cherry eating to removing a shirt (with one of the funniest stories being one that wasn't shown: "The 'Jenkins peed out the window of a cab' story..." "Much more impressive now, isn't it?"). The secret to Robin's popularity with college students -- drink whenever she says "but, um" -- was made the all the funnier when Robin was shown interviewing a little kid. Robin and Ted also had a great moment when she stopped by Ted's classroom to bring him his pen ("This is your pen, and you chewed on the end of it... recently").
The weakest point of "Jenkins" was the theory presented by Ted and Robin: every good relationship has a reacher and a settler. It was slightly amusing, but it feels like this season we constantly see Marshall and Lily acting like they just started dating, even though they've been together since college and have been married for over three years. I didn't think the concept even needed to be established (although it did result in a funny line from Lily when she had to make a choice after Marshall's preposterous scenario: "And Oprah's tried everything?") since Marshall has made it clear over the past five seasons that he could never be interested in anyone other than Lily. From last week's dismissal of the hot bartender to Marshall's confession that he needs to imagine Lily's dead before he can even think of being with another woman, in "Double Date," Lily knows that she's the only woman for Marshall.
Regardless of the reason for Lily's lack of jealousy, it was very amusing to see Lily start taking off her jewelry in preparation for a brawl when Jenkins confessed that her kiss with Marshall really did happen ("No one kisses my future baby daddy but me!"). The end to Robin's storyline was a bit predictable, but still very funny. I loved the reaction to Robin's on-purpose string of "but ums" for the drinking audience: "We have to drink, professor. It's the rules." "God help us all." And it was a nice bit of revenge to have Robin come back into Ted's class with a bullhorn, just to irritate the hungover group.
It's a great testament to the quality of the show that you can have such an entertaining episode -- complete with a guest star and a drinking game -- and not have to address the series' overarching search for the Mother storyline.