Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Tedtoria--Not So Much. Barbin--Knew It All Along

How I Met Your Mother, S07E23-24


Barney and Marshall struggled to get back to New York for the birth, while Ted and Robin tried to keep Lily calm with stories.  Marshall just managed to get there in time to see his son, Marvin be born. A week later, Ted decided to contact Victoria and found out she wanted to run away with him on her wedding day.  Robin continued to fail to take a decent family picture for Lily and Marsh to use for their announcement cards.  Barney got held up in the airport security when he refused to reveal the trick inside of a magic box.

Since the finale was an hour long, it had a lot more opportunities for funny moments.  I think it was really funny how Ted had a huge picture of himself in the labor announcement email that he sent against Lily's wishes.  It should be more pathetic that he's living his life through Lily and Marshall, but it just reminds me of how ridiculously close Ted is to his friends.  It's really hard for him to see themselves as separate people.

My favorite story that Ted and Robin told Lily about was the one about Marshall's cursed pants.  He found a note in the pocket written in Chinese that sent him to some interesting shop in Chinatown.  Despite that the owner went into the back where it was glowing bright green as if there was magic afoot, it was only a ticket for dry cleaning.  Of course, it would be.  This is pretty much how my second favorite story, the mysterious door, ended.  I would love to do that to one of my friends, but you would have to trust that they would be so cautious they wouldn't go into the broom closet until the very last second. 

I also liked how younger Lily made it seem like her dad was a stranger and got security to get rid of him.  Then in the present as he was freaking her out, she simply called for security and they dragged him out of the room in seconds.  Man, I would like to go to a hospital where I could just remove people like that (or any place, really).

It was cute how they all dressed as John Bender because they didn't coordinate well for their group Breakfast Club costumes.  The idea of each of them dressing as one of the characters is interesting.  They have exactly enough people and all the right genders.  Lily could be Claire, Robin could be Allison, Marshall could be Andrew, Ted could be Brian, and Barney could be Bender (although, I think Neil Patrick Harris resembles Brian more).  I'd just love to see that.

What I didn't love was Robin coaching Ted on who he should have ended up with.  She was quite right that he kept betting on the wrong horses for love (thus, why I'm fed up with him after these years), but I can't believe that she thought the best thing for him to do was re-explore Victoria, a woman who was supposed to be engaged.  I really liked Victoria and I thought she and Ted made a good couple, but it just didn't feel right for her to suddenly come back and want to run away with Ted.  To me it sounded like she just wanted a quick out and was scared.  If she really wanted to be with Ted, why not just tell her fiance her feelings in person instead of telling him with an empty altar.  I was really happy that Ted was going to take her back to the church until he started remembering all the good times.  I wanted to choke him when he passed the church.  Really?  You're going to go for Tedtoria??  That was the last thing I expected!  I can't help but to think that the start of the next season will show Ted's actions blowing up in his face.

What I did expect was that Barney's mystery box was somehow a proposal ploy.  I don't know why I knew, but he was being overly secretive about it and purposely ruining their getaway.  Any man that can hug his girlfriend upon seeing that she had remodeled his bachelor lair into "Tinkerbell's vagina" has to love a girl deeply enough that he wouldn't actually try to ditch her for some magician's convention instead.  I know it's TV, but Barney would have definitely gotten shot before he had one chance to explain himself in the airport.  But I'm glad it was dragged out so we could see his elaborate trick where a ring appeared on top of a growing flower.  That was amazing!  It was a really wonderful proposal.

But I knew Barney was meant for Robin, the second he mentioned this was their last chance to go off together.  That connection between them has always made me think the woman he was marrying in those random previews of the future was Robin.  I never doubted it for a second, even when both of them started dating others.  I just knew they would find a way.  I still think Robin is a jerk for abandoning Barney for Kevin and then tossing him away too, though.  After breaking his heart like that, I really wonder what Robin did to win Barney back (especially when he already had Quinn).

This was a pretty good ending to this season and had one surprise that I didn't see coming.  I just really can't be happy that Ted is simply recycling his relationships (that's how he got in trouble with Robin), but maybe Victoria will finally lead him to the girl he's supposed to be with.  I know the series is supposed to be about the events that led up to Ted meeting the girl of his dreams, but I can't imagine being less enthused about who his true love is if I were his daughter and son listening to the story in the future.  It's a shame that Barney made such an inventive proposal on a girl that he won't end up with in the long-run, but I feel a little proud that Barney is transforming into a man who can at least commit enough to want to be engaged to someone.  Robin is going  need some transforming of her own and that will be something I look forward to in the next season.  Not looking forward to Ted wasting his time with Victoria.  Or Marvin (Waitforit--are you kidding me with that middle name?) turning Marshall and Lily into boring parents.  Hopefully, they won't do any of those things next season and I'll have a reason to want it to come back in the fall.

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