If I could just talk about the last six minutes of this week’s How I Met Your Mother, I would. Because I would give the glorious ending a high rating; however, we all saw the sigh-worthy buildup that led to the conclusion.
Let’s break it down, plot by plot. Worst to best.
Marshall… Why is this still happening? At least we know the road trip is in Cleveland, and therefore halfway home. Marshall and Daphne aren’t speaking because she “threw a live grenade into [his] marriage” in the last episode. They have a pit stop at Ted’s childhood home to visit his mother and step-father. Clint stows away in the car and tries to mediate them via drug-induced guitar therapy. It ends with Marshall taking care of Marshall instead of worrying about others, which he always does. Now he is determined to get to the wedding to make amends with Lily.
Meanwhile, Robin and Barney’s mom, Loretta, have a “Scramble Off” to see who makes the best scrambled eggs. This starts because Robin says her mom, who she never talks about, could make better eggs than Loretta. This leads to a clever way to flashback to times Robin actually mentioned her mother, but it wasn’t enough to save me from watching people scramble eggs. I mean, come on. Is this really quality television? Is it seriously the best way to drag out this season? If you’re going to include flashbacks and flashforwards then for goodness sake include them more often.
This leads to Ted and Cassie. Lily gives him advice to just suck it up and try to make it work with her for the weekend. Better to be with someone than be lonely, isn’t it? She admits it is bad advice later, but the episode details his attempts to have a romantic time at the lighthouse the concierge wouldn’t give him directions to because “it’s for couples only.”
Ted does end up there, but vomits and ruins the romance. He’s depressed, but luckily the show gives us what we want: the Mother! Yes, an exclamation is warranted because that is all we loyal watchers want. In fact, three exclamation points would be justified, so let me try that again. We finally saw the Mother again!!!
Two years into the future Ted and Mother are back at the lighthouse. He sure does like visiting the Farhampton Inn, doesn’t he? He explains how he wishes he met her three days sooner, so they could have started their romance. She quips that she’s glad she wasn’t there because his vomit makes her vomit. It’s a cute, couple-y moment. The type of moment we want to see more of. However, we only were able to see less than six minutes’ worth of what we actually want to see.
My hopes are that the show gains steam once Marshall joins the fold. Once the entire gang is back together maybe some sense of normalcy will resume.