Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Change Is Bad!
By Cindy McLennan | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.13.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.At MacLaren's, Barney is dressed up as an 80-year-old version of himself (three cheers for the make-up artists), convincing some young lovely that he's from the future, and that she must to sleep with the current day version of himself, when he appears. It works! Meanwhile, the others discuss their prospective moves in their usual booth. Robin, ever the pragmatist, was able to pack for her move halfway around the world in a half an hour. Back at the apartment, she tries to help her slow and sentimental friends, but they wax nostalgic over each object. They're making me sentimental too, because they're all their cute, likeable selves, rather than Seinfeld characters (not that there's anything wrong with that). Welcome back, show!
Discussion of damage to the apartment leads to the story of the scorch mark over the fireplace, which leads to the story of the gang's introduction to the fine art of intervention, after which the kids got so addicted to intervening, that they made an "INTERVENTION" banner, and held interventions anytime one of them did something the rest of them didn't like.
While packing, Ted finds a new version of the banner and a bunch of envelopes with "Ted" written on them. After pushing, the gang admits they were going to hold an intervention with Ted, because they didn't think he should marry Stella. They cancelled it once they no longer felt that way, but Ted presses to hear their reasons anyhow, which are what you'd expect: mostly, it's too soon, and there's a child involved, so he should be extra careful.
While Marshall is trying to convince Ted to get married, Ted talks himself out of marrying Stella. Soon, everyone talks themselves out of moving, growing and changing. It takes a trip to MacLaren's, and seeing Barney dressed up as his 80-year-old self macking on a 22-year-old woman, to give them back their motivation to keep on keeping on. A flash forward to 2009 shows Robin, Barney, Ted, Marshall, and Lily (no Stella) celebrating a 'hell of a year' by splitting the $2,500 bottle of Scotch they'd been saving up for since the night they all decided to get on with their lives. And then? Lily suggests they take the Scotch upstairs…to the apartment. Hmmm. Ted's left hand, which had been hidden for most of the shot, grabs the bottle. If there's a wedding band on it, I can't see it.
The end tag shows Marshall, Lily, Robin and Ted intervening with Barney, to get him to stop using the old man costume and ploy on unsuspecting, idiotic young women. Stay tuned for the more detailed weecap, coming in just a couple of days. In the meantime, don't pay $2,500 for something you can get for $10 and don't hook up with any 80-year-olds (unless you're my widowed mother, and they're rich and childless).
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Hang on to your hats, gentle readers. This here is an actual episode of How I Met Your Mother. And it hasn't even been recast with Seinfeld characters. Welcome back, dear show and likeable people. Let's get to it.
At MacLaren's, our dear friends Robin, Ted, Lily and Marshall, discuss how crazy he is if he thinks this is going to work. Marshall thinks it's going to work. Lily hopes it doesn't work. And Ted shushes us, because here he come comes. He is Barney, and this is dressing up as the 80-year-old version of himself to scam chicks. I wonder if I need to turn in my feminist card, because I sort of want to see it work. Sorry, Mum. Back to the show -- aging make-up usually sucks, but the HIMYM artists outdid themselves this week, don't you think? Barney introduces himself to a young lovely, who tells him her name is Cindy. Uncomfortable, now. "I knew it! You're the Cindy! You're the one who can change everything, or spell our inevitable doom!" Barney tells Cindy that he's on an urgent mission from the future. When she questions him, he says he can prove it. "In exactly four seconds, the woman at that booth is going to slap that man." He clears his throat, and as any reliable wingman would, Robin hauls off and smacks Ted, which I've been hoping someone would do for a couple of weeks, but I figured they'd wait until he started whining about something.
Cindy is amazed. Old Barney tells Cindy that he knows this sounds crazy, and he doesn't really have time to explain it thoroughly, but if she doesn't sleep with young Barney tonight, the earth is doomed. If she does sleep with him tonight, young Barney will be able to solve the problem of global warming and save the human race! I feel like there's a political joke to be made in there somewhere, but it just won't come (which doesn't look like it's going to be a problem for Barney). Old Barney has to get back to the reality accelerator before the vortex closes. Not a paraphrase. "Only you can save us, Cindy! I must away!"
Meanwhile, the rest of the gang discuss their prospective moves -- Robin's to Japan; Marshall and Lily's to Dowisetrelpa; Ted's to New Jersey. Robin, whose outfit is making me crave McDonald's food, is her usual pragmatic self and brags that she was able to pack up her things in about a half-hour to move halfway around the world. Ted, Marshall and Lily are taking a bit longer, because they've been reminiscing about the great times they've shared in the apartment, but their movers are due in 14 hours. Lily's surprised it only took Robin half an hour to pack to move all the way to Japan. Robin says it would have only taken her 20 minutes, but a friend called her in tears. Marshall says, "Moving is really emotional, okay?" Poor Marshall -- he doesn't even get to move to New Jersey, home of the spacious PriceCo. Ted restates the obvious, that everything is changing and proposes a toast to the end of an era, with better hooch than their usual rotgut. "Hey Wendy, your most expensive bottle of Scotch." Wendy pours him a cup of reality she must have gotten from Barney that time she took a ride on his reality accelerator. "It's 50-year-old McKenna, and it costs $2,500." Ted doesn't blink. "Excellent! A bottle of that, with uh beer chasers, and..." he addresses the group, "What do you think? Cancel the Scotch?" Everyone agrees. Huh. Lily really did cut up her credit cards.