Robin's Failed Flirting

How I Met Your Mother, S08E09

Robin tried desperately to seduce Barney, determined to do so after he made it clear that he was done trying to get with her.  Ted started looking after Marvin for Marshall and Lily and was experiencing a bunch of firsts with him without his parents around.

It was a little fun to see Robin throwing herself at Barney, who was more concerned with mourning the lose of Cornelius the tie than her flirting attempts.  She is really selfish, though.  Finally when Barney told her that he was done with her, she decides that still sort of wants him.  Even if she does this with anything that she's been forbidden to have, it's a horrible habit of hers.  She needs to get it together.  Luckily, Barney wasn't paying her any attention.  I really loved that.  Even with her trying to turn him on with some girl-on-girl action didn't get a reaction from him.  Barney's not the sharpest guy around, so I could believe that he was too into a funk to notice what Robin was doing, but not so much when Robin literally threw herself at him by appearing at his door in just lingerie.  I would have liked Barney to have been like, "Thanks for the offer, but no."  He didn't really reaction like I thought he would.

But it was all good since Robin got a slap in the face when her bold move was countered by Patrice.  Wow.  Barney could not been with someone that irritated Robin more!  That was awesome.  Plus, as annoying as Patrice is, she feels like a genuine person who could help Barney heal from his breakup and his decision to shut the door on Robin.  I don't know if there will be romance between them, but at least she's acting like a friend to him.  Robin's too caught up in herself to help Barney with the pain, Ted's got his own mess to deal with, and of course, Marshall and Lily have Marvin.  So really, Patrice might just be what he needs.  At any rate, she can make Robin blow her top and that's enough for me.

This week's Ted wasn't so pathetic that I wanted him to just drop into a hole and disappear.  I mean, he was acting crazy by acting like Marvin was his kid and stealing all the first moments away from his parents, but his actions were able to evoke some sympathy from me.  Apparently he needs a project to obsess over before he becomes the creepy guy at a baby's swimming class who has no baby there in attendance.  I think I liked, though, that he made a scrapbook just because it had pissed off Marshall and Lily so much by its existence.  And it was even better that in the future Marshall and Lily get revenge by taking Ted's firstborn to Santa while they're babysitting him.  Loved that they apparently do hold grudges (and rightfully so).

There was some pretty interesting development in the Barbin situation.  Not sure if Patrice is a roadblock or simply a distraction, but it's got me thinking about what will happen in the next episode a lot more than I've thought about this show in a long time.  I'm not too worried about Ted--I'm sure he'll get another project to keep him occupied.  Better him building some structure that bores everyone than him moping around about not having found his future wife yet.  There's little worse than love-lost Ted.