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Ted meets a cute girl, Holli, at MacLaren's. He brags to Marshall, Robin, Barney and the empty space where Lily should be that he got her number. Ted wants to call her right away, but Barney grabs his phone from him and reminds Ted that you have to wait three days to call a girl. When Ted protests that a three-day wait is insane, Barney tells him Jesus is the one who came up with it (right before he invented the high-five) and it's what He wants Ted to do. Ted promises to wait three days to call if Barney will just stop talking (which he doesn't). Ted never promised not to send Holli text messages though, and so he does. He starts out with a lame "Texty text," but their conversations heat up quickly. At home, Ted tells Robin he's really falling for Holli, but then he gets a text from her that was clearly meant for someone else. It reads: "Hey baby, picked up some takeout at Gennaro's. Be home soon. And then I want you to do me on the couch." Poor Ted.
When Robin goes to MacLaren's to meet up with Barney and Marshall, she sees that Marshall has a bag of take-out from Gennaro's and realizes that the guys have been pretending to be Holli. Barney swiped Ted's cell that first night that Ted and Holli met, replaced her number with his work cell number and they've been faking Ted out ever since, with some help from fellow MacLaren's patron Stan. They only strung Ted along as long as they did because they've been waiting for him to tell Holli he loves her. See, they want him to get all his awkward over-sharing out of the way on fake Holli before he calls real Holli. And also? They're having a lot of fun. Robin makes them promise to confess their chicanery to Ted, but of course they don't. Instead they have their fake "Holli" explain away the explicit text by saying that her friend Marsha grabbed the wrong phone and thought she was texting her husband Billy (wait for it; there you go).
Robin tells Ted the truth and they decide turnabout is fair play, so Ted sends "Holli" a text that he sometimes has gay dreams about his best friend. Marshall assumes Ted's talking about him. Barney insists Ted must have been talking about him. When they finally see Ted, they try to get him to reveal which one of them he secretly desires, so he wastes their time with a long, pointless story and then tells them that Robin spilled the beans and he knows about their shenanigans. PWNage! Holli meets him at the booth and they leave together for their first date. Holli, too, is an awkward over-sharer, hell-bent on commitment. And she does what I might have once thought was impossible -- she scares Ted off by mentioning love and marriage. Saget!Ted brings us home by explaining that although he didn't need to wait three days that time, Holly really did. "Like a lot of rules, there are times to follow them, and times to not. But I will tell you this: when I got your mother's number, I called her right away." Awwww.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!It's another Lily-less episode, gang. It's cute, and fun, and yet? It's missing something. NAMELY: LILY! Alyson Hannigan's absence is keenly felt throughout the show. We know who's to blame, right? Yeah, Wee Denisof, we're looking at you. No bogarting your Mommy. She was ours first. We fell for her back when she was sporting Willow's hats and the softer side of Sears -- before she even knew your Daddy. You're just a new kid in town and yet you act like you own her. I hope they teach you how to share, because right now, kiddo? It's not your strong suit.
Barney, Robin, Marshall and NOBODY, sit at the booth, while Ted's up at the bar talking to Greenlee from All My Children. But I have to call her Holly right now. If you already watched the episode, you get why. If not, you soon will. Ted plugs her phone number into his cell and tells her he'll give her a call. She says she hopes he will and then leaves the bar. It's been a long time since I was single, and even longer since I was unattached, so I can't figure out why, if she really does want Ted to call, she leaves MacLaren's so soon. Maybe she has a "life" or whatever. I forget what that is. Anyhow, Ted does a little Saturday Night Fever-ish strut back to the table, bragging that he got her phone number. He flashes his phone at Barney, Robin, Marshall and NOBODY. "Check it out. Holly." Barney's impressed. "Girls whose names end in LY are always dirty: Holly; Kelly; Carly; Lily!" Oh fine, Barney, just rub it in. Marshall starts to take offense. "Hey!" He then gets lost in thought for a moment, then turns sheepish. "Oh, yeah. No, it's true." Barney then tell us not to get him started on girls whose names should end in Y, but instead end in I. "Those girls are like roller coasters. You've gotta wait in a long line, but once you get up there, you just hold on for dear life, and hope you don't drop your keys."
Ted decides he's going to call Holly immediately and make a lame joke about how it's been too long. Barney grabs Ted's phone from him and insists that a guy must wait three days to call a woman -- it's a rule. Ted says he has a new rule. "It's kind of crazy, but I call it: You like her? You call her." Oh bless you, Ted. From what I recall, guys like you were few and far between. Barney asks Ted to repeat that. "I'm sorry. I don't speak I Never Get Laid." Ted doesn't care. He thinks the Three Days Rule is played-out and crazy. "Who even came up with that?" Barney waits a moment, and then looks Ted straight in the eye. "Jesus." On my behalf, Marshall asks Barney to leave Jesus out of it, but it's too late.
Barney raises his eyebrows. My father used to do that when he was full of it, too. "Seriously. Jesus started the whole wait-three-days thing. He waited three days to come back to life. It was perfect. If he would have only waited one day, a lot of people wouldn't have even heard that he died. They'd be all, 'Hey, Jesus, what up'? And Jesus would probably be like, 'What up? I died yesterday'. And then they'd be all 'Uh, you look pretty alive to me, dude'. And then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected and how it was a miracle. And then, the dude would be like, 'Uh, okay, whatever you say, bro'."
Robin scrunches up her face. "Wow, ancient dialogue sounds so stilted now." Heh.
Barney keeps going. "And he's not going to come back on a Saturday. Everybody's busy doing chores. Working the loom, trimming their beards." I guess he missed the whole thing about how Jesus was an observant Jew, huh? "No. He waits the exact right number of days: three." Ted promises he'll wait three days if only Barney will stop talking. Like that's ever worked. Barney's on a roll. "Plus, it's Sunday, so everyone's in church already." Yep, totally missed the Jewish thing. "They're all in there, 'Oh no, Jesus is dead'. Then, bam! He bursts through the back door, runs up the aisle. Everyone's totally psyched." Barney raises his hand and touches a finger to his hand, in what I think is going to be a nod to the nail prints in Jesus' hands, but oh no. "And, FYI, that's when he invented the high-five." Barney looks at Ted and holds up three fingers. "Three days, Ted. We wait three days to call because that's how long Jesus wants us to wait. True story." Robin giggles. I make a note to get on my knees and say an act of contrition, with a side order of: I didn't create it. I'm just reporting it, Jesus. I'm so, so sorry.
At MacLaren's, Ted again promises not to call Holly for three days. And we jump to his apartment, where he decides there was no prohibition against texting. Ted reads aloud as he composes. "I was thinking about you, so I thought I'd send you a little texty text." Oh, Ted. Saget!Ted narrates that current-day Ted was going for charming. The moment he hits send, Saget!Ted explains that he realized it was not cute, but rather, "the lamest thing anyone has ever said to anyone. And the worst thing about texting is that once you send it, you can never get it back." That's why I don't do it. For reals. Current day Ted sees the words Texty Text rise off his cell phone and into the air. He tries to chase them out the window, but it's too late. We see Ted cringing and waiting. A title card tells us that it's 23 minutes later. Ted has just decided he's blown it, when Holly texts him back.
Holly's text says she's been thinking about him, too. "And how weird it is that you texted me while I was in the bath." Ted imagines Holly in a bath full of bubbles and starts doing this horrible little laugh that makes my husband shout out, "Beavis and Butthead! Robin calls this his "Naked lady noise," but I'm going to call it the ButtTed. When Ted denies he makes any such noise, we flash back to prove Robin's point.
Ted walks in on Lily in the bathroom. Sheeesh, I hope she was getting in the shower rather than using the loo, because the ButtTed he does here could turn creepy on a dime. , we cut to Ted and Robin watching a documentary about the Korowai tribe of Papua New Guinea. The documentary narrator mentions that the Korowai women wash their clothing in the river and Ted must be getting an eyeful, because we're treated to the stupid ButtTed, again. Robin rolls her eyes and we cut to a museum. Ted and Robin are looking at abstract art and yet, the ButtTed gurgles forth, and Ted gestures to the painting on his right. "That's totally a boob." Wait 'til he gets a load of himself in the mirror. Huh huh huh huh huh huh. We flash forward to...
The Apartment; Present: Ted's phone rings or bloops or whatever that sound is, indicating he's got a message. Robin calls Ted out on breaking the promise to wait three days, so he explains that texting doesn't count. She shrugs and asks him to keep the Naked Lady Noise to a minimum. When he again denies making the noise, Robin opens her bathrobe and flashes him, says, "Really?" and walks off. Ted just sits there, until she's out of the room. Then, "Huh huh huh huh huh huh."
Ted and Holly stay up texting 'til 2:00 AM and then spend most of the day texting, too. When he tells Robin that what Holly says she's wearing is pretty hot, Robin grabs his cell and then explains to Ted that Holly is lying to get him to like her. "Because no woman in the history of the world is ever 'just sitting around reading architecture magazines in my old cheerleader uniform'." Ted allows that maybe she's making up the architecture magazines bit. Have you met people? His mood changes quickly when his cell bloops again. There's a message on it that is clearly not meant for him. He passes the phone to Robin who reads it: "'Hey, baby, I picked up some take-out from Genarro's. Be home soon'." Robin looks up from the cell at Ted, and tries to give him some perspective. "Okay, yes, this sounds bad, but let's think about this, okay? It could be for a brother or maybe her sick dad." Baby? Really? I'd have suggested a friend with a nickname, myself. You know, like Dirty Dancing. Nobody puts baby in a corner. [Didn't Jennifer Grey's dad call her that, too, though? - Zach] Ted tells Robin to scroll down further. "'And then I want you to do me on the couch'." Oh, so that's where they put Baby. Well, okay, as long as it's not the corner of the couch. Robin shrugs. "Okay, maybe not a sick dad." A beat. "Or a very sick dad. Am I right?" Robin! Ew. Robin says, "Sorry," as well she should. We sideways slide to...
MacLaren's: Robin meets up with Barney, Marshall and NOBODY, and accidentally kicks a shopping bag that's on the floor as she slides into the booth (to Barney). It's from Gennaro's. Marshall says, "It's just some takeout food I'm bringing home to Lily." Robin mentions that Holly just texted Ted "something about take-out from Gennaro's." Marshall's eyes widen. He looks at Barney who keeps shaking his head no no no no no. When they refuse to meet her eyes, she works it out. "You sons of bitches! You're Holly!" Commercial.
Barney explains to Robin that he and Marshall knew Ted would try to call Holly before three days had passed, so when he grabbed Ted's phone from him, he changed Holly's number to his own work cell phone number. Marshall says the plan was to "bust on" Ted for calling Holly so soon, but instead of calling, Ted started texting her. And we flash back to Marshall and Barney sitting at MacLaren's, reading as Ted sends off his "Texty text." Barney's contemptuous, but Marshall's heart bleeds. "Poor, sweet Ted. We should -- we should tell him it's us." Barney agrees, but then adds, "OR -- we pretend we're Holly and we're in the bath." Marshall quickly says, "Yeah, that's better." We cut to Ted doing the ButtTed, and then back to Barney and Marshall who are cracking up. Marshall again suggests calling Ted and confessing. Barney agrees, then says, "OR -- we tell him our favorite color is red, and we think the cowboy look is very sexy." I like to imagine that Marshall wraps his principles in bubble wrap and asks Carl to stow them behind the bar, anytime he's alone with Barney. Anyhow he agrees, and we cut to Ted wearing his bathrobe and the red cowboy boots. Robin's dozing on the couch, but wakes to catch sight of him as he texts "Holly." We get a snippet of his internal monologue. "I'm wearing them now, and they do look sexy." See? Pulling. Them. Off. We cut to...
MacLaren's: Barney and Marshall laugh and holler once they realize that Ted put on the boots. Marshall tries to be good and suggests it's time they come clean with Ted. And again, Barney agrees, then says, "OR -- we tell him we just took off our shirt." Marshall says, "Yeah, that's better," and starts texting away at poor Ted. Barney suggests "we're wearing a black lace bra underneath." Marshall says, "I don't think we're wearing anything underneath." Barney sighs about how sexy "we" are and then Marshall announces that now, Ted is only wearing the cowboy boots. "It is ON!" Barney dances in his seat like a little kid who just got that pony for Christmas. "It is so on! Okay, okay, tell him that we're -- we're slowing slipping out of our..." Barney's hands trail down his body as his words trail off. And then: "What are we doing?" Marshall ponders this for a moment. "I -- I think that we're... about to have..." he gestures at the phone. "Sex with Ted." His voice cracks on Ted's name. He throws the phone down and we flash forward to...
MacLaren's; Present: Robin thinks the guys are just mean to have done this to Ted all day. Marshall explains that this is for Ted's own good. They're protecting him from himself, because it's clear he really likes this girl. He has the same look in his eye he had on his first date with Robin. We flash back to Ted telling Robin he thinks he's in love with her and Robin's shocked, "What?!" Then flash forward to the present. Robin smiles at the memory. "Yeah, well, I-I think I was a special case. This Holly is no Robin Scherbatsky." Oh so subtly, Barney presses his lips into a flat line, cocks his head, and then nods in agreement. Marshall rolls his eyes, as Robin continues. "Hey, what is the deal with her hair? I mean, news flash: they make conditioners that don't leave a buildup." She raises her hand and waits for a high five. "I'm so bad." It never comes. Instead, Marshall explains that since it's been a while since Ted's been into someone, he's probably got a lot of crazy stored up. They just wanted him to get his "I love you" out of his system, before he actually makes contact with the real Holly. And you know, this is as manipulative as all hell, but Marshall has a point. He mentions how Ted's already joked about marriage to fake Holly. Barney reads Ted's messages to Robin from the archive: You like architecture? We should get married. Ha-ha. LOL. Just kidding. Question mark? And Ted's also made a "crazy way-too-soon trip suggestion" to her. I like beer, too. We should totally go to Germany together. LOL. JK. LOL. Finally, he's gotten too personal. Yeah, my parents got divorced a couple years back. It was really tough. LOL. NPH reads that last LOL slowly and sadly, which just makes it. Robin notes that Ted clearly has no idea what LOL means. If you send him to TWoP's forums to find out, Robin, please choose wisely, otherwise, he'll end up thinking it's just another punctuation mark.
Marshall tells Robin that the real problem was that Ted didn't say I love you as easily as they thought he would. Barney adds, "Then we met... Stan. And we flash back to MacLaren's. Marshall and Barney are laughing raucously at one of Ted's texts, when the man sitting in the booth behind Barney leans over and yells, "Why you making so much noise, man?" Oh, it's Kevin Michael Richardson, who played Rockefeller Butts on Knights of Prosperity. I love him, and I loved that crazy show. ABC cancelled that, too. Bastards. Richardson is a big guy. He's a big, bald, black guy, with a fabulously deep voice. Barney looks like he's just peed his pants. Heh. Time to diaper up, B. We flash forward to...
MacLaren's; Present: Marshall tells Robin they explained everything to Stan and he ended up helping them. We flash back to Stan and his romantic suggestions. "Why don't you tell Ted that just knowing he's out there thinking about you, caring about you -- makes you feel safe? So, all your fears, all your yesterdays wash away, and only hope remains in the promise of his embrace." Back in the present, Robin's impressed and wants to know who this Stan is. The guys explain that he's a security guard who works nights and takes lunch at MacLaren's each day. We flash back to...
MacLaren's With Stan: He waxes poetic for the boys, so that they can have their "Holly" say things like that she thanks God for her mistakes because they led her to Ted. Marshall and Barney are choked up at this. Cut to Ted reading "Holly's" message: "And when we finally come together, I want you to hold me... " Cut back to Stan: "Hold me all night, Stroke my hair. Tell me I'm a woman and show me you're a man. Until there was only now. You and I... and now." The way Marshall shouts out yes, makes me want to hustle him home to Lily, ASAP. And we cut to...
The Apartment: We hear Holly's voice as Ted reads her text message. "I do not ask of the night explanations. I wait for it, and it envelops me, and so you and bread and light and shadow are." Ted struggles to hold back his tears. Cut to MacLaren's, where Stan tells the guys, "That's Pablo Neruda." Hee. Great callback, Show. Marshall's voice shakes as he points first to his heart then his head and says, "That touched me here, and here." Barney's eyes are red, his voice husky as he adds, "Well if Ted won't say it, I will. I love you." He takes a sip of his Scotch as Stan thinks over his confession. Finally, Stan nods and says, "That's cool."
Time passes. The guys are still waiting for a reply. Marshall is fretting. "Maybe he's not in love with us." Hee. Barney is indignant. "How can he not be in love with us? We're everything he's looking for!" Marshall's disgusted. "I don't get men." Stan rises to leave. He has to get to work. Marshall grabs Stan's shoulder and chest. "Will you -- will you be back?" Softly, Stan says he'll be back "when the wind and fates and chance bring me back." His voice returns to a regular tone. "Which will be tomorrow. It's cheese steak day." And we flash forward to...
MacLaren's; Present: Robin teases the guys that it sounds like they were all over Stan. "Hope his girlfriend didn't get jealous." She playfully taps Barney on the arm then adds, "Did he mention a girlfriend, or...?" The guys don't answer. Clearly, they can't stand to share Stan with anyone else. Instead, Barney gets back to the point, which is that Marshall accidentally used the "Holly" phone to send Lily a text message, but instead sent it to Ted and ruined everything. Robin reminds them that that no longer matters, because it's over and orders them to call Ted right now and tell him the truth and apologize. Barney says they will, but when Robin walks out, he says, "OR..." We jump to...
Ted's Apartment: When Robin arrives home with her dry cleaning covering Cobie Smulder's pregnant belly, Ted happily announces that everything is now great, because Holly explained the disturbing text message. "Her dumb friend Marsha accidentally used her phone to text her husband Billy." Wait for it... There you go. Robin's with us. "Marsha and Billy? No one sprained any muscles there." When Ted tells Robin he thinks he might be falling for "this girl" Robin blurts out: "You're falling for Barney and Marshall," and then explains the whole caper. Ted can't believe that the whole time it was them. He goes through different moments during their texting and at first imagines Holly, but then his mental picture changes to Marshall and Barney. If you haven't yet watched the episode, please promise me you will, if only to see this scene. First, Holly reclines in a bath full of bubbles. Then Marshall and Barney face each other in the same bubbly tub. , Holly uses a pink, fluffy blanket to cover up her black lace bra as she sits near the window and gazes up at the stars, thinking about Ted. She's then replaced by Marshall and Barney spooning in the same chair. Then, we see Holly lounging on her couch in a cheerleader uniform, reading an architecture magazine, but soon it's Marshall and Barney in her place, and her costume, too. Robin has to pull Ted out of his head by noting that she doesn't think the guys actually did those things. "They were just at the bar. [...] But yeah, it was them."
Robin says, "You might as well tell them you're onto them." Ted says "Yeah," then adds, "OR -- I text them something that will really mess with their heads." Robin suggests that Ted text "Holly" to say that he's only got three months to live, but hasn't told any of his friends yet. Ted counters that instead, he could tell "Holly" that he "once killed a man with a shovel, and those feelings are creeping up again." Robin likes her idea better and tries to bring Ted back to it, but instead he suggests telling "Holly" that he slept with his best friend's mom. Robin's still stuck on the three months to live thing, but Ted ignores her when he thinks of something better. And we cut to...
GNB; Barney's Office: The phone buzzes. Marshall's all excited that Ted texted back. He reads, "'I probably shouldn't tell you this. I mean we barely know each other. But what the hell, I'll just say it'." Barney interrupts -- because he's so excited to finally hear the 'I love you'. Marshall sighs. "I wish Stan were here." Barney repeats Stan's name with stars in his eyes. The phone buzzes again when the rest of the text comes in. Marshall continues: "'I sometimes have gay dreams about my best friend'." Commercial.
Barney re-reads the last text: "'I sometimes have gay dreams about my best friend'." Marshall says, "Why in the world would Ted text a girl he barely knows that he sometimes has gay dreams about me?" I'm just going to transcribe the rest of this bit, because it's spectacularly well done, and so refreshing to see a gay joke played this way, rather than in the icky-poo-cooties way we so often get on TV. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Supernatural.)
BARNEY: Whoa. Whoa. Slow your roll. You? He's clearly talking about me.
MARSHALL: Dude, it's me. I'm his best friend.
BARNEY: Okay. One: that has never been proven; Two: If anyone were to have gay dreams about one of us, it would be me. I mean, look at me. Now look at you. A still-in-the-closet 80-year-old wouldn't be into that mess.
MARSHALL: Here's the thing, Barney. I'm snuggly. You're not. Who wouldn't want to snuggle up to this business on a Sunday morning? Wrapped in a comforter, and it's raining outside, and there's muffins warming in the oven...
RECAPPER: SOLD! (Are you wearing your nightshirt?)
MARSHALL: I'm cuddly, bitch. Deal with it. [He rises to his feet.]
BARNEY (also rising): I work out every day. If there is one thing we know about Ted, it's that he likes a nice body. This body would rock his world.
MARSHALL: Ted and I have a history. I know what he likes. There are things I could do to him that would blow his mind... [A beat] Why do we keep trying to have sex with Ted?
BARNEY: I don't know. It's weird.
MacLaren's: Barney and Marshall are still arguing about which one is more Ted's gay-type, but this time, in front of Robin. Robin's still hung up on her revenge scenario. "Who cares? So Ted has gay dreams about one of you guys. It's not like you found out he has three months to live. That's like BWAAAAAAAH, shocking, right?" Finally Ted comes in and Marshall addresses him as his "best friend of 12 years." Lily says NOTHING because she's not there. That's okay, though, because now that Ted's onto the guys' prank, he can have a little fun. He mentions he had a crazy, embarrassing dream the other night. Barney assures him "this is a safe space" and Marshall nearly preens as he blathers about Ted's feelings being perfectly natural. So, Ted proceeds to tell them a half-hour long dream about having dinner with his five favorite architects. "Frank Gehry slides the check over to I.M. Pei, and he says, 'Buddy, tonight, your name is I.M. Paying.' Buckminster Fuller almost did a spit take." The guys look at Ted expectantly, so he adds, "And then I woke up."
Marshall tries to trick Ted into giving them the answer by posing a question set in the future, after the machines have risen up against us. "All that's left is you, ME... [dismissive hand gesture] Barney. Which one of us would you get with?" Ted wants to know why he'd get with either of them. Barney says, "The machines are forcing you. They want to watch. That's how they get down." They're not Cylons, then. Ted hems and haws and say, "I guess it would have to be... " Marshall and Barney duke it out with their facial expressions as Ted rolls his eyes. He then yells, "Holli!" He stands and tells them that Robin told them what he did, and confesses to cooking up the "gay dream" thing to torment them. Holli walks over, and Ted introduces her and gloats that he didn't wait "your precious three days to call her." He found her at work. He turns to Holli. "Let me ask you, did I call you too soon?" Holli says she loves that Ted called right away. "And by the way, I don't sit around my apartment reading architecture magazines in my old cheerleader uniform." They guys can't look at her. She then adds, "I do that completely naked." Ted does the ButtTed and Robin looks at Barney like, see what I mean.
Holli goes to wait outside. She and Ted are on their way out to dinner. Marshall apologizes and tells Ted that they were just trying to help him. Barney adds, "And also, it was really fun." Ted says he can take care of himself, and he figures that although there are some girls who might be turned off by a prompt phone call or premature confessions or whatever, when that's the case, they're not the girls for him. Ted has to be himself and he's not going to change "because of some stupid Three Days Rule." He starts to walk away and then turns back. "Oh, and Holli spells her name with an I." Barney raises his eyebrows at Ted's departing form.
As the sun sets over Manhattan, Saget!Ted narrates that he'd proven the Three Days Rule was wrong. But he's never told anyone until right now, what actually happened on his date with Holli-with-an-I. When she finds out Ted loves indie music, she says she does too, then jokes, "We should get married... Ha ha... Just kidding... Or am I?" Heh. She's PERFECT for him. There's a quick cut and she declares that they're "totally going to Brazil, together." After another cut Holli is in over-share mode. "And I went to my doctor this morning, and he said it is all cleared up, so I'm good to go." Cut. "I think I'm in love with you, Ted." Saget!Ted says that although he didn't need to wait three days this time, "Holly really, really did." We see her constantly touching Ted over dinner, until he's flinching and pulling away. And we jump to...
MacLaren's: As Ted, Barney, Marshall and NOBODY drink together, Saget!Ted narrates: "Like a lot of rules, there are times to follow them and times to not." Who tells their underage kids that? "But I will tell you this. When I got your mother's number, I called her right away." Awwwww.
End Tag: Robin, Barney, Marshall and NOBODY are at MacLaren's when Stan walks in. Marshall is thrilled to see him and calls out his name. Barney's just as excited and asks if he's working. When Stan says he took the night off, Marshall and Barney are like little kids when they suggest they all hang out. Stan says, "I can't. I've got a date." He then looks down at Robin. "You ready, Baby?" Robin grabs her purse and rises as she says, "Yep." Marshall suggests they stay at MacLaren's and have their date with him and Barney. I don't think Barney knows whether he's more jealous of Robin or Stan. "Yeah! It'll be fun. Ha ha ha. Look, I'm laughing." Marshall laughs, too. Barney adds, "It's fun here. Do you like magic?" He waves his fingers as if he's about to perform a trick. Stan then gives them the best break up speech. Robin honey, you should take notes. "Fellas, it-it's time we said good-bye. I mean, we shared a very special afternoon together, and that's something I will always cherish. I'll never forget you guys." Barney wipes a tear from his eye, and Marshall sighs as Robin and Stan walk away, chatting. Robin takes Stan's arm. "Do you even know their names?" Stan says, "No idea. Is the tall one Ted?" Robin corrects him. "No. That's Marshall. He's married to Lily." Who is blinvisible. Stan asks Robin if she likes chicken wings. Barney's still got his head in his hands. Robin says, "Oh yeah. Let's do it." And we fade to black.
Well, that was a fun episode, but not my favorite to recap. They didn't play with time and perspective so much as just jump around all over it. And as I said up top, I'm really feeling Alyson Hannigan's absence. This truly is an ensemble show, isn't it? Still, I love seeing Robin and Ted together as friends -- real friends. And Marshall and Barney are wonderful together. There was so much tonight in their performance that I can't put into words. Much of it was timing, but also -- just their looks. One thing I've always liked about this show is that I think the actors genuinely crack each other up. When Robin was laughing at Barney's Jesus-backstory for the Three Days Rule, I really think Cobie was laughing there, but I like that the show keeps those moments in. It's so much more real. I just can't believe we have only one week left. I can't wait to see how they wrap it up. 'Til time, don't text drunk, whether on the fruit of the vine, or the wine of infatuation. LOL.
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Cindi Cindy McLennan is trying to think of something funny for this week's blurb, but like this episode, she ran out of steam at the end. But please feel free to e-mail her at CynthiaMcLennan[at]gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.