I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have a special attachment to this episode. You see, a few weeks ago I had to great honor of getting to visit the set of How I Met Your Mother with some friends and even got to see parts of tonight’s episode being shot live! It was a great experience and I realize how incredibly lucky I am… but I’ll get to that later. Really.
“Now We’re Even” was a really solid episode. We had emotion, tons of laughs, and multiple story lines that tied back, oh so nicely together. And if that wasn’t enough, we also got the return of Ranjit, Ted & Barney in a mariachi, a horse in the bar, and Ted in the Green Dress (see: the Mermaid Theory) band The way HIMYM writers work they could come back to this episode for a whole season with stories. I hope they don’t but then again it would be nice to see how they got the horse into the bar. I digress. But they totally should have stole a camel. Let’s take some things one at a time.
Marshall & Lily…and tonight Ranjit. While it’s extremely important that these two are around, they were little more than very funny filler for everything else that happened tonight. Is that bad? Some, especially if you read the tweeter, would say all filler is bad and they want to know the mother now. While I love those people, I know they will get there when it’s time so I’ve written those voice off. I still like to hear them and smirk a little, but I’ve moved on for the moment. I think it’s fine. Especially if it bring Ranjit back for an episode. At least 3 of my favorite moments of the episode involved Ranjit rolling down the window to be included in the conversation. The baby is getting close and will most likely be here before the season ends. I just enjoyed the ride with these two tonight. One critical moment with Lily, was when she went to Quinn for someone to talk with. I get that Robin is busy with the career thing but it starts to show a level of trust there. The fact that they talked at the strip club just made it humorous though. Should we read more from that?
Ted. Living alone and loving it… ish. I completely thought that there would be some inadvertent use of the Naked Man. Two things about Ted tonight: 1. It’s good to see Ted being such a bro to Barney, even though he didn’t agree to help get Genesis back together. Ted calling Barney out on the fact that he truly does love Quinn is important. Not in our overall story line because “we” all know or at least assumed this if you’ve been watching the last few episodes. Barney saying it to Ted is a step though. 2. Ted and Robin. We know that Ted said he didn’t talk to Robin for a while. I’m assuming the text doesn’t really count as talking to each other, but it’s still a step. Plus it plays more to the Ted and Robin drama which is there, in my mind to keep us looking away from things that once were between Barney & Robin. Or it doesn’t matter in the Barney story at all…thoughts?
Robin. Robin is a huge mystery lately to me. We all know she matters to the story and is EXTREMELY important. What we don’t know is her final place. Will she play back in to the Barney part? When? Are we finally done trying to make fans believe she and Ted still have a shot together? Either way, her role tonight was excellent. I started to get a little worried with the helicopter incident. Even for a moment thinking, they aren’t fixing to kill Robin are they? I know it would be an extreme, but who know? I also wonder if Sandy planned the whole thing for some odd reason. It’s just a thought in the back of my mind but it wondered in just the same. Finally, probably the most mad I was in the entire show was when her dad still wasn’t proud of her… “I’ll keep trying”. What a jerk. Still, it make Robin who she is and who we love.
Barney. If this season has been about the development of anyone it’s Barney, hands down. While being the same fun loving guy, he is now showing a lot of emotions. Not quite to a Ted level yet but enough to make you see he is a different guy. We’ve known for a few episodes (see: the Broath) that the job will come into play in Barney & Quinns relationship. How could a guy not be bothered by that… even Barney? Plus we know even more now that Barney is looking for a solution to the situation and Quinn has already said if she wer’re married that should would stop stripping. At very least we see where this is leading… or at least where the writers want us to believe it is leading. Is anything really straight forward anymore or am I too much of a conspiracy theorist.
Where will the end of the season take us from here, who knows? Should we have garnered any clues or take suspicion from any misdirection tonight?
Legendary Lines
Marshall: Did you say you have to pee?
Ted: No but I do have to pee…
Barney: I liked the 3 way between Bill Cosby and Papa Smurf
Ted: He Smurfed the Smuf out of her
Barney: The truth is, I’ve spent the last 5 years, trying to inception your wife
Marshall: That movie only came out 2 years ago
Barney: What movie?
Robin: Sandy, you were IN the harassment video
Ted: actually is epiphany (AH-piphany)
Barney: No Ted, this is THE piphany
Ted: If all nights are Legendary then no nights are legendary…
Barney: You just lost 5 points for sas.
Robin: Hey, Dad. Are you proud of your little girl?….Okay, I’ll keep trying
Moments of Awesomeness
- Ted being honest about not getting to that later…. “They had one song, it didn’t suck. The end”
- Make every night LEGENDARY!
- Barney for President 2032!
- Mariachi Band! That would have been a great story to see more of.
- Ranjit! This is probably the most I have ever seen him speak. Nice.
- When someone asks if you are afraid of helicopters you say yes… the helicopter scene got to me a little. If it would have been after 2am it would have been bad for sure.
- I want to commission a painting of Big Foot playing quarterback for the Vikings
- The Night We Reunited Genesis … this one would have been awesome.
New Jersey (You guessed it…what was bad)
- Despite not advancing… there was nothing bad tonight.
Lingering Questions
- Was I the only one that started to get emotional when Robin was in the helicopter? And even for if it was only a second, though… Are they fixing to kill Robin?
- Was anyone else a little surprised that Barney didn’t have a little more of a comment for Robin after her safe landing?
- What did you think of “Now We’re Even”?
It’s going to be about the one where Ted wears the green dress. Can’t wait to see how THAT happens. 😀
I really liked this episode. I identified with Ted’s joy at living alone for the first time. I was equally psyched when I got my own place.
I think Lily made Ranjit’s night. I was shocked that it was him. Although I shouldn’t have been. Ranjit is awesome and he was on Burn Notice.
Nice to see that Quinn’s job is bothering Barney. No guy can date a stripper without being bothered by her job.
Sucks for Robin, landing a helicopter and saving a dude’s life, still not impressing her dad.
My fav line tho “we’ll get to that later…actually we probably won’t.”
I thought the jokes were really quite awful at first. I didn’t crack a smile for the first 10 minutes but stuck around to find out how and why Ted was wearing that green dress (ultimately, that reason was a little disappointing, but one of only a few plausible explanations for why he was happy about it).
I largely disliked how mean Ranjit seemed. I don’t remember him being evil.
The Lily sleep-cheating storyline was awful and Robin stuck in a helicopter could have been good but wasn’t really given any focus other than – this happened – it ended. I’m glad they worked in Ted’s texts to her – it really helped saved an otherwise emotionally vacuous episode – same with Barney’s confession about Quinn’s job bothering him.
The episode kind of turned around toward the end, but until then this was a big big stumble in the quality. Oh well, they can’t all be amazing. I just felt it wasn’t trying as hard to be amazing – but things will improve.
Nice theory that Sandy Rivers was behind the helicopter. It was all an elaborate Stinson-esque plot to sleep with Robin. Here is my question tho, we know Robin becomes a bull fighter. Is that more scary or less scary than the helicopter?
Ted said it bes: If all nights are Legendary then no nights are legendary…
we’re you happy about it after?
I actually loved this episode. In my opinion, it was definitely an improvement from last week. The “night we brought a horse into the bar” had me laughing into the commercial break. I thought the episode was actually pretty funny, save for the “sleep cheating” bit. It was a little humorous, but I could have done without it. The only part of that story that had me laughing was Ranjit trying to listen in on the conversation… and Marshall having a picture of Bigfoot playing for the Vikings was pretty funny too.
To me, the fact that Lily went to Quinn for someone to talk to was surprising. As you stated, I was aware that Robin was busy but it just seemed odd for her to be confiding in Quinn. Then again, it didn’t take Lily that long to warm up to Robin when they first met either.
And, even though I’m not a fan of Quinn and Barney, I have to admit his confession about not liking what Quinn does with other guys made my heart melt a little. I guess it’s just actually starting to dawn on me that Barney does have feelings for Quinn (that are meaningful). I think there’s only 3 or 4 episodes left in the season… and we know from the writers that the bride at Barney’s wedding will be revealed before this season comes to a close. I’m pretty sure this means Barney’s going to propose to Quinn during the 2 part season finale.
I had forgotten about that story! To me, that seems a little more scary than the helicopter… but then again, I’ve never had experience with either. The theory that the writers might be trying to kill Robin seems highly unlikely, though the show has surprised me before so I don’t exactly know what to think. However, the kids have met “Aunt Robin”, or so I’m assuming, since they drew pictures of her, and they knew exactly who she was when Ted mentioned her. Therefor, I don’t think killing Robin is going to happen in the show.
How is the three-way with Papa Smurf and Bill Cosby not in the Moments of Awesomeness: Ted- He smurfed the smurf out of her.” Marshall-“Yes, while the Cos smurfed off in the corner, we all remember.”
Also lingering question: When Ted gives Barney a card with a girls number he got while in the dress….Future Ted says, “More than a legendary night that we would remember forever, Barney needed a bro to help him FORGET…..in this case a bro in a dress.” Question is WHAT DID BARNEY NEED TO FORGET? A breakup perhaps…….
Read over the smurf line in the legendary lines section……all well, was funny enough to repeat again.
That is an interesting question Spencer. My thought was that Ted was trying to help Barney forget Quinn’s job because of the moment the night before when Barney mentions he is always thinking about what she is doing… Could it be implying more? Perhaps. I choose to take it at face value for now.
True. Thanks for coming back to say so though.
Precisely.
I’m with you. I think assuming it was anything more than him needing to forget about Quinn’s job is reading a bit much into it.
If I’m not mistaken, hadn’t Barney just saved Lily from being hit by a car when Ted walks in wearing the dress?
That picture of Sandy Rivers at the top of this review terrifies me. Yet I can’t help but look. Can you put a Yosemite Sam hat and mustache on him?
Motorcycle, not a car
is the helicopter pilot one of robins old boyfriends,
Bob? Or the younger version of him?
Don’t worry, it is very unlikely that Robin would die. She was in Ted’s children’s drawings, remember? Also, the ’10 years later’ scene in the Meatball Sub episode, while probably not meant to be taken seriously, is nevertheless an indication that Robin doesn’t die for the next 10 years.
I thought Barney had to forget about the fact that Quinn was out stripping?
Marshall: Did you say you have to pee?
Ted: No but I do have to pee…
Shouldn’t that be Lily answering?
How did you get to visit the HIMYM set?!
do you guys think that the girl that gave Ted the card (when he was in a dress) could be the potential mother ? The thought stroke my head
Quick question: Why is ted not living in his own house which has to be almost restaurated completly. It looked pretty good in 6×19?
I doubt they’d show her face so easily just like that. Besides, Ted said precisely that the day he met the mother was the day of the wedding.
I need to know more about the day you spent at the set, that sounds awesome!
Yeah! Please make a post about it!
Great review. One small observation: I thought the pee thing was a Marshall/Lily dialogue.
Marshall: Did you say you have to pee?Lily: No but I do have to pee…
Then Lily goes to the bathroom leaving Marshall explain to Ted and Barney the sex dream story. Wasn’t it?
Anyway, when do we get to hear about your visit to the set?