Naturally, Ted's incredible devotion as best man paled in comparison to Lily's maid of honor performance. I actually quite liked how they drew attention to the fact that the reason why Robin's bachelorette party was so "weak-ass" was because she actually didn't have any female friends. Contrary to most three-camera sitcoms -- which are often notorious for padding out various party scenes with extras we've never seen before -- it was interesting (and pretty accurate) to learn that Robin didn't even have nameless denizens to attend her bachelorette party.
Also humorous was Robin's attempts at trying to connect with other women around the bar. I particularly laughed at Robin's line, "Slut alert," with the patron commenting, "That's my 14-year-old daughter." Of course, when Robin did make nice with one of the women, it was only a matter of time -- two seconds to be exact -- before Lily got jealous. The rest of this storyline played out rather predictably, with Robin concluding that she only needed Lily by her side. With no progress being made on the girlfriend front, this arc was ultimately pointless, with only a few chuckles to spare. Once again, this was one of those B stories that felt more like a time-filler working against the season's restrictive, 52-hour timeline.
I think the the most amusing part about "The Broken Code" was the introduction of "Marshpillow" -- granted, maybe not the subtlest way of keeping Marshall involved in the main storylines, but if it means a diversion from the road trip buffoonery from the last two episodes, then I'm all for a little FaceTime (so to speak). Marshpillow's delayed setup was also mildly funny, with lingering interjections like "Billy Zabka, what a great guy," and "Ted didn't go to his prom? Classic." Additionally, I enjoyed the callback references to Weekend at Bernie's. ("Two dudes on a beach with a lifeless blob they're pretending is alive, it's stupid!")Speaking of Billy Zabka, part two of the Ted/Barney dilemma wasn't quite as good as the first. After it was revealed that Barney did in fact have a problem with Ted holding Robin's hand, we learned that Ted had been phased out of the wedding party, with Zabka taking over as Barney's best man. (Oh, and Tim Gunn as Barney's personal tailor again, because why not?)
Really, though, it was the Bro Code of it all that felt the most contrived and nonsensical -- talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Ted holding hands with Robin isn't weird, you know what's weird? Dating and marrying a bro's ex-girlfriend in the first place. Seriously, how was that not Ted's ace in the hole? Is that Bro Code rule honestly not penciled in there somewhere?
Of course, instead of tackling the issue head-on, the creators went for the cheap "Ted's mom" bit, which spiraled into yet another fall-flat fake history lesson from Barney. The only redeeming quality here, I think, was Marshpillow's intervention to decide which bro was in the right. Following the handholding test by the beach, I was glad to see Ted finally admit that he still has feelings for Robin. But even though he promised to repress his urges, I sense that this still isn't the last we've heard on the matter. Certainly, at some point, there will be a similar confrontation between Ted and Robin. (After all, we're still only four episodes into the final season.) Nevertheless, it was good to see at least some closure on Ted and Barney's end.