How I Met Your Mother: “The Broath” (Episode 7.19)

This week’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was intense. Excuse me, Marshall’s right: it was Quinn-tense.

After a few weeks off, the show returned with an episode written by the creators, which usually means it will play a huge role in the overall continuity of the show. And boy did it ever. It was a very Quinn (Becki Newton) and Barney-centric episode, but Ted and Robin’s recent problems were also highlighted to perfection and overall, “The Broath” is one of the best episodes of the series that allows viewers to guess where the show is headed in quite awhile.

At first, the episode starts weakly. Barney requires Ted to take a Bro-oath, or a Broath, as to promise not to tell the gang that Quinn is a stripper who swindled money out of Barney before they started dating. Cut scene to Ted telling the gang that Quinn is a stripper who swindled money out of Barney before they started dating.

The writers rarely miss a beat when it comes to fast cuts and perfectly timed insert shots. It’s one of the great things that saves feeble moments of the show. The slow start is met with a hint of annoyance when Quinn turns out to be a controlling girlfriend and Ted and Robin start fighting over her soon-to-be vacant apartment.

Luckily, and in true HIMYM form, there is an ulterior motive behind Barney’s actions that set the episode back on course. By the end of the episode Barney and Quinn reveal exactly how perfect for one another they are. At first I didn’t like Quinn, but she’s grown on me. And even though she revealed she’ll stop stripping once she gets married, I feel it’s a misdirection from the writers and Barney and Robin still have a shot of ending up together.

Before I get started on Ted, I recently saw a poll about most hated characters on television and he was on the list. Sure, he’s become a clown version of himself, but he still is the central character. His whininess and ideal outlook on life are what make him charming.

This episode provides us an opportunity to see that he isn’t always optimistic about his future. He and Robin try to go back to being normal friends, but he isn’t able to. It seems like the writers have tried to have certain members of the group be unable to be friends with another character so many times before, but this time around it looks like it is going to stick.

The show has carried on for seven years now, and it’s gone through plenty of changes. Some say it’s in a rut, but in all honesty it is evolving like any other series that has been on this long has. I made notes about how certain episodes this season were merely stand-alone ones that relied on the characters to make us laugh. In recent weeks, however, the show turned back to its arcing style and has provided us with a lot of questions. We’ll have to wait and see who Barney eventually marries, whether or not Ted will speak to Robin anytime soon and what’s going to happen to the dynamic of the group once Marshall and Lily’s baby arrives.