Crossing The Stalker Line

How I Met Your Mother, S08E15

Barney became obsessed with finding out who Robin was stalking during her days as Robin Sparkle.  His travels to Canada and investigations of her past lovers led him to another segment of the Robin Sparkle story.  Ted met a girl on a train who later found him at work.  After learning their meeting wasn't a twist of fate as he had thought, Ted had a hard time convincing Lily and Marshall that the girl wasn't a stalker.

It's unfortunate that with so many guest stars in this episode that I didn't really know or care about the majority of them.  I liked the idea of them making a Robin Sparkle behind the music thing like you would see on VH1, but it wasn't as funny as I had thought it would be.  My favorite part was when they talked about Robin announcing that Robin Sparkle was dead and how the celebrities there reacted.  Jason Priestley started complaining about Paul Shaffer's stomach growling during that time and how disgusting it was.  Shaffer later commented directly to Priestly:

I'm sorry, Jason Priestley.  I didn't realize you were the Queen of England.

I liked how the two of them drifted away from talking about the tragedy of Robin's career fall and more on something frivolous as someone's stomach making noise during a shocked silence.

After all the running around and "mystery" around who Robin had been obsessed with back in the day, by the time she revealed that it was Shaffer, I didn't care anymore.  I guess that was because I was disappointed with that latest (and probably final) chapter of Robin Sparkle.  It's a shame because the Robin Sparkle stories used to be some of my favorite parts about this show.  I don't know.  Her transition into grunge music just didn't do anything for me.

Ted's story just kept getting creepier and creepier.  I wouldn't say that it was much better than the Robin Sparkle story, but it wasn't bad either.  I mostly liked that Ted was being delusional, as usual, and refused to listen to Marshall and Lily's reasonable points.  My favorite thing in this story and the whole episode was when Ted was trying to illustrate how a big romantic gesture can be perceived as stalkerish or touching depending on if the recipient of the gesture is in love with the giver.  I loved when he redid Marshall's first attempt to ask Lily out in a stalkersih light.  Marshall looked so creepy in the shadows, and I loved seeing Lily scream and mace him in the eyes.  I feel like I haven't laughed that loud at this show in a really long time.

It was a little surprising that instead of Ted being a stalker, it turned out that he had a stalker of his own for over a year.  It was like each time Jeanette said that she had something to tell him that she wasn't going to reveal initially, I just wanted Ted to start running as far away as possible. Unfortunately, he decided to take what he could get and not send Jeanette packing even after finding out she had followed him to a bookstore in addition to other places that she hadn't mentioned yet.  I can't call Ted a complete idiot because I guess he just needs some kind of affection, whether it's with someone crazy or not.  At any rate, Jeanette won't be around forever, so I can excuse him setting aside reason for a little fling.

Also, I felt like Lily had been lying about the first time she met Marshall from the beginning of the episode.  She was way too quiet about Marshall's telling of the story that I knew there had to be more.  I didn't expect that she was faking a reason to see him and knocking on every door to find out where he lived.  For Lily, that seems like absolutely something she would do.  And it sort of pales in comparison to some of the other nutty stuff she's done since then.  But I liked how Marshall used the same line Ted had to make it seem like Lily's actions were all right when previously he was yelling at Ted as if his friend was a madman.

I liked this episode, despite that the Robin Sparkle story wasn't as great as the others had been.  I guess there weren't enough Canadian jokes or they've just done enough of them in the past that poking fun at Canadians doesn't really work for me anymore.  It's weird that Ted got involved with someone clearly stalking him, but at least he's not so naive about it that he doesn't even question whether everything happening between him and Jeanette is as coincidentally as it seemed.  Although it's a waste of hims time to bother with a nutbag like her, I say let Ted have his fun so he can ignore for the moment that he hasn't found the one just yet.