How I Met Your Mother: “The Burning Beekeeper” (Episode 7.15)

How I Met Your Mother has only had two episodes since the New Year, but they were both pretty top-notch. This week the show returned after a few weeks off with a concept episode similar to the early era of the show. This week, “The Burning Beekeeper” sets up the premise that everything that goes wrong with Marshall and Lily’s housewarming party occurs within a five minute timeframe. So Future Ted decides to take a nonlinear approach (go figure) and tell the story one room at a time.

He starts in the living room, so why don’t we? Marshall discovers he has to go back to work via a rousing monologue from his boss, Mr. Cootes (Martin Short returning in a hilarious role). Meanwhile the couple has to worry about Lily’s father Mickey (Chris Elliot) raising bees in the basement. Somehow the drama doesn’t stay there and jumps all over the place. Barney is freaking out because he loves his penis, which is a girl. Was I the only one who didn’t know everyone was a girl like ships and sea monsters? I digress. That was the funniest part of the first third of the show. The rest is complicated and mushy.

Future Ted then shifts focus to the dining room. In the first part of the show we hear screams come from the area, but none of it makes sense until this part. Well, sort of. Somehow the story becomes just a little clearer, but it’s not supposed to come full circle until the very end. HIMYM has been known to be a tad bit frustrating from time to time, but the episodes usually come together before the third act. Here, however, we’re left waiting for some sort of clarity until the last part of the show.

That’s right. It’s time to move to the kitchen and by the time everything finally makes sense, none of it really matters. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t care about anything that happened. Usually I trust the writers to bring back certain plot points or even introduce minute details that will later become important. While the latter is still a possibility, I don’t really think anything that happened was that important.

All I know is that next week is Valentine’s Day, and HIMYM always brings its A-game for holiday episodes.