Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: C- | 1 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Canadian Sex Acts
By Cindy McLennan | Season 4 | Episode 18 | Aired on 03.23.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.In the Spring of 2009, Ted is happily working on his plans for GNB's new headquarters, but Bilson hates Ted's ideas. When GNB assigns a new HQ taskforce to oversee Ted, they love his work. Ted skips merrily along through his days at GNB until he meets a girl in the elevator, and in the course of bragging to her about his position as lead architect, he learns his project was scrapped a month prior.
Bilson canned it because of the economy, and gave Barney and Marshall the dirty job of telling Ted. Since GNB was paying Ted's firm for two more months, they put off telling him and invented the taskforce to keep up their ruse. After hearing the whole story at MacLaren's Ted storms out, furious that his friends wasted a month of his life when he could have been drumming up new business for his architecture firm.
Feeling badly, Barney and Marshall talk Bilson into letting Ted pitch a design for GNB's new ETR (Employee Transition Room/the layoff room) on the 20th floor. And in black and white security cam flashbacks, we see Barney attacked when he lays people off; one even whacks him with a chair. After hearing Ted's plans for the ETR on the 20th floor, Bilson invites him to look at the existing ETR on the 18th floor, too. Once there, Bilson fires Ted. So Ted whacks him with a chair. That night at MacLaren's Ted tells the gang that during his time working for the fake taskforce, he did the best work of his life, so he quit his architecture firm, because dealing with Bilson taught him can't work for big heartless, corporate clients anymore. Of course, he was actually fired, but he got a good severance package so he has decided to start his own firm.
In the B Plot, the gang tries to figure out which Canadian celebrity once invited Robin to his place to see his collectibles and propositioned her with an act so filthy she won't tell them about it. She finally relents, but will only give them the deets if they manage to guess all three elements: the celebrity, what sort of collectibles he collects, and the sex act. Barney steers the group to CanadianSexActs.org, to help them guess part three, and his laptop does a decent job of covering Alyson Hannigan's baby bump which can no longer be contained by the table top, alone.
While we've got to get busy adding some Canadian Sex Acts to this list, find out what cool words we've added to our vocabulary thanks to this show.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Remember last week, when my "weecap" was anything but wee? Remember how I geeked out about this little half-hour show to the tune of 17 TWoP pages (probably over 6,500 words)? That's in the neighborhood of my page average for an hour of the craziest show I'll ever love -- Lost, and yet, HIMYM's "The Front Porch" demanded the same attention. Yeah, well, that's not going to happen this week. Not even close. Where last week was chock-full of romance and characterization that pushed the boundaries but felt right, this week is just... a sitcom. And that's okay. I mean, HIMYM is a 30-minute situational comedy, but usually it makes me forget about that. This week, it drove it home, over and over again. So...
Saget!Ted narrates that in the Spring of 2009, Ted was happily working on his plans for GNB's new headquarters, and he loved the assignment. There was only problem -- (GNB's) Bilson. When Ted presents his plan for the atrium -- wood beams bathed in natural light -- Bilson shuts it down. "Uh, no. Natural light reminds the workers that there's an outside world where they have family and friends. We want to crush that. You show up in the dark. You go home in the dark. You spend your whole damn day in the dark!" Oh my word, I've worked for GNB. It was masquerading as a hospital's finance department, but that's a story for another day. Back to this story... Marshall whispers to Barney that he needs to hear Lily's voice and makes to go, but Bilson crushes his escape, too. Saget!Ted tells us that, eventually, GNB took Bilson off the project and appointed a new taskforce to oversee current-day Ted's work. When Ted's all, la la la rooftop Zen garden, reflecting pool, neighborhood children, la la la, the taskforce gives him a standing ovation. They're the anti-Bilson. The more new-agey, holistic, touchy-feely elements Ted incorporates into his design -- for a bank, mind you -- the happier the taskforce is. Ted skips merrily along until...
There's this girl... She rides the elevator with him. She's pretty, blonde, busty, and Ted's all atwitter, so he fakes a cell phone call -- with the Mayor, of all people -- and blathers on about his big plans for GNB and how at age 30, he's such a young architect to be leading such a big project, and yes, he's single and gives to charity. Oh, Ted. When he ends the fake phone call, he fesses up to his elevator-mate that it was fake. "I also know that the new GNB headquarters project was scrapped last month. Nice try." Blondie exits the elevator, leaving Ted standing there with his jaw hanging down to the floor. And...