HIMYM 8.21

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Jason C. Stanley

The previous episode was the emotional cliff-hanger that HIMYM has become known for. It gripped us to the point that we were anxious to know what was going to happen in those extra 45 days before Ted met Mother, and for the moment when we could stop referring to her as “Mother.”

This episode, while it may have been a necessary evil, really did not do much to move the story along. It did not fulfill the emotional cliffhanger we were left with. If anything, it has left us with more questions, especially knowing there are only about three episodes left to this season and the show has been renewed for a 9th season.

As the episode opens, Ted’s voiceover is describing how Marshall and Lily’s life. He says, “Life was a well oiled machine.” Which is the first clue that something is about to change. The Captain calls Lily to inform her that he is going to Rome for a year and wants Lily to come with him. Lily freaks out a little bit. She can’t even imagine that he would ask her to make such a move when she has a baby and a husband with a great job. Without talking with Marshall first, she declines the offer. When she goes to surprise Marshall at work, she quickly learns that Marshall’s great job isn’t all that great.

Marshall convinces the Captain to offer the job to Lily again, which he does. But Lily declines the offer once more. While Lily says no a second time, Marshall is in Little Italy preparing himself for his new home. After some urging from her friends, Lily finally talks to Marshall and they decide that they will in fact move to Rome.

What does this mean for season 9? Is it possible to have Marshall and Lily in Rome while the others are in New York, especially when Ted meets Mother? Or will Ted meet Mother before the end of the season 8?

In the meantime, Ted and Barney are at MacLaren’s when a woman Ted recognizes from his yoga class walks in. According to Ted, her body is “redonkulous.” But she is wearing a huge winter coat. Barney becomes almost obsessed with finding a way to get her to take her coat off to see how “redonkulous” she is. Turns out, she is Robin and Barney’s wedding planner. Barney eventually asks her if she wants to take her coat off, showing confidence in his love for and relationship with Robin.

Is this woman in the oversize coat the Mother? Or she is just a distraction? And for those fans who are longing for Ted and Robin to get back together, there was this small exchange between Ted and Barney:

Ted warns Barney that he should be careful how he acts around Robin. Barney very boldly and sternly replies, “You’re not getting married in three weeks, Ted. I am. Robin’s marrying me, not you.” And that put an end to Ted offering Barney advice.

Is this some strange foreshadowing on the writers part? We have been promised a wedding, but will we get a marriage?

We never know for certain what life will throw our way. But each of us has a vocation, a calling, a purpose in life. It is challenging, as Lily experienced in this episode, to discern that vocation. And if we’re lucky, we have a spouse or a friend who will sit with us on the sidewalk as we ponder our way through what God is calling us to. Thank God for those sidewalk sitters in our lives.

HIMYM 8.20

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Jason C. Stanley

CBS

“The Time Travelers” has to be one of the better episodes of HIMYM. It combines the creative, funny storytelling with the deeply moving storytelling. Two reasons that make the show what it is. It starts off with Ted and Barney sitting at their booth discussing going to see robots verses wrestlers. Then, 20 years from now Barney and Ted show up to convince Ted he should go to robots verses wrestlers.

Not to be out done, 20 hours from now Ted shows up with a hangover to convince Ted not to go to robots verses wrestlers. Then, 20 minutes from now Barney shows up to try and stop Barney from making a mess with his food, but also to get Ted to pay attention to who walks through the door. It is coat check girl from seven years ago, played by Jayma Mays (from Glee). Ted questions if he should go talk to her, and all of the Teds and Barneys yell, “Yes!”

On his way to talk to Coat Check Girl, Ted is distracted by 20 months from now Coat Check Girls. Yep, girls. Neither she will be so desperate to keep Ted she becomes some what obsessive or she will become so disgusted with Ted she will break it off. When Ted goes back to his booth, he learns from Barney that the whole thing has been a memory. It didn’t actually happen. “Ted, you’re all alone,” Memory Barney tells him.

And that’s the reality that pulls us in. Ted is alone. We have all been there. Everyone else around us is with someone, has found their partner in life, and we are still sitting in the booth alone. Wondering if we will ever find that joy.

Ted tells his kids that if could have done this or he could have done that. But if he could travel through time, what it would do would be to run through the streets of New York, into an apartment building, and knock on the door of 7A, which we can only assume is the apartment of Coat Check Girl. But, we don’t know. Whoever opens the door, is not made known to us. Ted, though, gives one of his best Ted speeches yet, making it one of the best show endings.

Hi. I’m Ted Mosby, and exactly 45 days from now, you and I are going to meet… and we’re going to fall in love. And we’re going to get married. . . .I want those extra 45 days. I love you. I’m always going to love you. To the end of my days and beyond.

These closing minutes of the episode offer us hope that the show will be able to deliver on the emotional goods. But how long will be the 45 days be? How will we have to wait to finally meet The Mother. And Ted’s poor kids, this has been a loooong story.

If you could go back into time to do something differently in a relationship, what would you do? Sometimes we think if we could just see 20 minutes from now, 20 months from now, 20 years from now, it will change everything. But how much will it change? If Ted teaches us anything, this looong story was worth it. Look at all the experiences Ted has gleaned, all the stupid things he will never do again. Ted has a story worth telling. If he skipped it all, we wouldn’t have this story.

HIMYM 8.18

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Jason C. Stanley

In “Weekend at Barney’s”, Ted plans to bring Jeannette to Barney and Robin’s wedding. In an effort to help him, Barney plans to walk Ted through a number of plays from the infamous Playbook. Yes, the Playbook we all thought Barney burned. Turns out, he kept it the original. When Robin finds out about the Playbook still in existence, she is, to say the least, upset. Barney runs after her and explains that of course he lied. That is all he has known for the last eight years. But the one truth that trumps all lies is that he loves Robin.

Jeannette, on the other name, is less reasonable than Robin. She finds out about the Playbook, and simply goes nuts. A few episodes back we got a hint that Jeannette would go crazy enough for Ted to finally say, “That’s enough.” Well, this is it. It’s all because of the Playbook. The Playbook is officially burned. Jeannette sets it on fire using Barney’s fireworks. With everything going boom as it falls out of Ted’s apartment, he says words that we have been waiting to hear, “No more dating. I’m ready to settle down.”

This episode showed the quality acting by Josh Radnor (Ted) and Jason Segel (Marshall). Radnor does some pretty crazy things following Barney’s Plays. In one scene he is standing in the bar wearing a hospital gown attempting to pick a girl. Barney wants him to say, “penis,” and Ted refuses. While standing in front of the girl, Ted carries on a conversation with Barney that only he can hear. Radnor does a brilliant performance.

Segel as Marshall is trying to make friends and help Lily out at her first art gallery working for her new boss. Convinced there will be no food there, he brings Skittles with him. In a moment when the artists is dedicating his work to his dead grandmother, he asks for a moment of silence. Marshall stands in the back of the room, determined to be supportive of Lily, when suddenly his Skittles start falling onto the floor out of his coat. Marshall does not move. Segel’s humor is often communicated through his body and facial expressions. Here, he makes us laugh by being still, committed to his effort to support Lily.

The episode ends with the whole gang sitting on the side of the street watching Ted’s belongings fall from the window above. This is just another great example and visual of what this show is about. Community. This image of these four friends sitting on the side of the street supporting their fifth friend is what the church should look like. This is the image of small group ministry, supporting one another in times of struggle and pain and grief. If you wonder why young people struggle with the church today, it may be because the church is missing this element of being community.

HIMYM 8.17

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Jason C. Stanley

CBS

“The Ashtray” centers around the appearance of the Captain, a character we haven’t seen in a while since Ted brought it off with the Captain’s ex-wife Zoe. The Captain wants Ted to call him back and Ted thinks it has something to do with Zoe. When he finally talks to the Captain, he just wants Robin’s number. So, Ted gives him Robin’s number. When Robin finally talks to the Captain, the Captain is actually looking for Lily. So, Robin gives him Lily’s number.

The way Lily retells the story about when they last saw the Captain is completely different than the way that Ted and Robin tell the story. Turns out that Lily really liked an elephant painting that everyone else, including the Captain, thought was crazy. “You’re just a kindergarten teacher,” he tells Lily. Lily, upset beyond measure over the jerkiness of the Captain, takes his expensive ashtray that Robin and Ted almost broke. Lily thinks that the Captain is calling because she has his ashtray.

This is followed by a beautiful moment between Marshall and Lily. Lily is struggling with her vocation. She is a great kindergarten teacher. But she has always wanted to do more with her art history degree. She feels like she is wasting it away. “I am just a kindergarten teacher,” she tells Marshall. Marshall assures her that she is not just anything. She is Lily.

Turns out that the Captain went back and bought the elephant painting that Lily liked so much. And in the year and a half since he bought it, the artists has exploded. The Captain was able to sell the elephant painting for thousands of dollars. He was trying to get a hold of Lily to ask her to be his new art consultant. She was the only one who saw the potential in the elephant artists.

So many of us have been, or will be, where Lily is. Is this what God had in plan for us? Is this my vocation? Is this my purpose? It reminds me of Abraham in Genesis 12, when God calls him to “go.” Go where? “Go to the land I will show you.” Abraham isn’t given a road map or a GPS. He just has to go until God tells him, “You’ve made it.”

Too often that’s how it feels when we are fulfilling our calling or vocation in life. We go through life until we feel like we’ve heard, “You’ve made it.” Lily hears it when she is offered a consultant job, which she accepts.

HIMYM 8.16

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Jason C. Stanley

“Bad Crazy” just confirms that Ted is his own worse enemy. The only thing holding him back from a committed relationship and finally finding “your mother” is himself. Saturday Night Live‘s Abby Elliot guest stars as Jeanette, who turns out is a police officer and slightly crazy. And it doesn’t look like this is the last time we’ll see her either. The guys tell Ted he should break up with her. Lily finally tells him to stay with her. Because Ted’s in a crazy stage right now. “And when it all comes down in flames,” Lily tells him, “and it will, we’ll be here for you.”

This is what the show has always been about. It is the essence of what community is. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:16, that when one suffers, we all suffer. When one cries, we all cry. When one rejoices, we all rejoice. This is Paul’s image of the Body of Christ – the faith community. This is what the HIMYM gang not only tell us, about show us. When it all comes down in flames – and we all know that it will one day – we have a community who is there for us. Who is your community?

The other story line in this episode was about Robin’s discomfort in holding little Marvin. It has been eight months and Robin has successfully avoided holding the baby. When she and Lily are out one day, Lily leaves Marvin with Robin alone. Marvin starts to cry and Robin isn’t sure what to do. She relies on the kindness of a stranger to help her. It takes Robin seventeen years to tell Lily the whole story, including that the kind “old woman” was really Mike Tyson. The episode ends with Lily handing Marvin off to Robin while Robin is talking, and it takes a few seconds before Robin realizes that she is holding the baby. A first for her. And one that was not as scary as she thought it would be.

Robin is like so many of us, the less we focus on the scary, the less scary it is.

HIMYM 8.14

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Jason C. Stanley

In “Ring Up,” Ted’s new girlfriend is 20 1/2. The gang can already tell that the relationship is doomed. Ted is trying to be someone he is not. Barney encourages Ted to go for it with the 20 year old. Until he finds out that the 20 year old is his half-sister. When Barney finds out that it is his sister, he calls a stop to it! We have been watching Barney transform for awhile now, and it seems that the transformation is complete. He no longer sees a need to pretend to be someone he is not just get with the girl or to get what he wants.

Robin has gotten her engagement ring back after getting it re-sized But after her first day of wearing it, she realizes that things are different. People are treating her different. Marshall and Lily point out to her that it is the ring. The ring has power. Now that she has an engagement ring on her finger, men are not buying her drinks, her coffee is not free, and so forth. At first, this is difficult for Robin, her daily lifestyle is changing. But Robin comes to realize the true power of the ring.

Ted continues to be someone he is not to be with a girl – any girl. Which leaves us wondering how on earth he ever did meet the mother. Who will be the woman who will make it okay for Ted to be Ted? When will the need for the charades end?

In 1 Samuel 16:7, God sends Samuel to Jesse’s house to anoint the new king of Israel who will know will be David. God’s instructions to Samuel is to not look on his countenance or height or stature, but God looks on the heart. This reminds us that what is on the outside is not nearly as important as to what is on the inside. It’s the whole, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” thing.

By trying so hard to be someone he is not, just to simply meet girls, Ted is not giving anyone, including himself, a chance to see the real Ted. Of course, we’ve seen this from Ted before. The pattern is that Ted loses the girl because he can’t keep up the charade, or he has to come clean and be honest with her. Week after week we wonder if Ted will ever get it. Will he ever just be himself? Will he ever stop looking in all the wrong places and see the girl with the yellow umbrella?

But, honestly, when we will ever get it? When we will just be ourselves? When we will stop judging ourselves and others by our covers? When we will start seeing ourselves and each other for our hearts?

HIMYM 8.13

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Jason C. Stanley

cbs.com

This is it! Maybe because the writers were not sure if the show would get renewed for a 9th season, they delivered a great follow-up to “The Robin.” In this episode, “Band or DJ?”, Robin – as she often does – with her relationship with her father. She discovers that Barney did not talk to her dad before he proposed, and Robin is a bit of traditionalist in this way. This sends Robin, Barney, and Robin’s dad into a series of interesting moments at a local pizza place. Robin learns a lot about her dad that she did not know before, mostly all the ways that he has changed. Yet, despite the changes, he refuses to give Barney his permission.

In the meantime, Lily and Marshall are struggling as new parents because little Marvin has been crying almost non-stop. And, in addition, the poor thing has not gone to the bathroom. lily’s code word is confetti. Ted, meanwhile, has a binder full of wedding plans for Robin. Ted and Lily debate over which Robin should have for the wedding, a band or a dj. Lily is all for a live band, while Ted is advocating for a DJ. Ted will even go so far as to book the band Lily wants so she can’t.

Marshall and Lily push Ted to know why this is so important to him. As Ted begins to explain it starts to become clear that band is really Barney. Lily makes Ted go with her to the roof. She demands to know what Ted is feeling, even though we know she knows. Ted is Ted. He still has feelings for Robin.

It is Lily who steals the show in this episode and makes us all cry a little bit on the inside. I won’t ruin it for you, in case you haven’t seen it, but Lily reminds us in the midst of situation comedy, we are still human. We still experience pain and doubt. And we still need the love and understanding of a friend who is willing to go up on the roof with us to help us realize how silly we are being.

And Ted? Ted is grateful that there was a band at the wedding, because it was at the wedding that he met their mother.

HIMYM 8.5

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Jason C. Stanley

This was a mediocre episode. It only seemed to have one purpose, make Ted single again. Which begs the question, why did Ted and Victoria last as long as they did? We know she is not the girl with the yellow umbrella, so why did Ted (much less the rest of us) suffer through this relationship?

We were told at the beginning of the season that this would be the autumn of break-ups. This episode was the another one. While Ted and Victoria try to figure out what is holding them back after all this time, Lily and Marshall gives Ted advice challenging their inner Oprah and Gayle (not Stedman). This offers the most (but not the best) humorous moments in the episode, Marshall channeling his inner goddess to offer the best advice, with his goal to get a “Testify!”

Barney, in the meantime, has found a new wing-man, a dog. But as the episode progresses and Robin shows great concern about how he is responding to his break-up with Quinn, Barney comes to realize that he has become the dog’s wing-man. Robin spends so much time being best friend to Barney, that we wonder if she and Nick, the local cable channel tv chef, will break up too. But at the end of the episode, they are still together.

Back to Ted and Victoria, which was really the focus of this episode. Victoria drops every hint in the book to Ted that she is ready to move on, aka get married. Ted seems to be missing them, but thanks to Lily and Marshall he begins to get them. So, Ted proposes to Victoria and she says yes, but with one condition. “You can’t be friends with Robin,” she says. Robin is what has been holding Ted and Victoria back in their relationship. Ted tried to convince Victoria that Robin is a non-issue. Lily tells Ted he needs to do what’s best for him and Victoria. Marshall tells Ted that he can’t possibly walk away from his friendship with Robin.

For a while it is not clear which Ted will choose, but then we remind ourselves that we already know that Victoria is not the girl with the yellow umbrella, and that this is the autumn of break-ups. Ted calls Robin, and she again leaves Nick at home. The scene of Ted talking to Robin in the bar changes to Ted talking to Victoria. ”I’m not in love with Robin,” he tells her, “but she’s like family.” Basically saying that if he has to choose between Robin and Victoria, he chooses Robin. ”I really hope you get her some day,” Victoria says and she walks out of the bar.

The episode ends with Robin not knowing that the reason Ted and Victoria broke up was because of her.

The fact that Ted chooses his friendship with Robin, is able to voice that he is not in love with her, I think, is huge! Is Ted growing up? Not only that, but he recognizes that his group of friends is like family. Family is so important to the struggles of life, evident in how Robin so graciously comes to to the urgent texts of Ted’s.

Jesus tells his disciples, ” This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-13, Common English Bible) The more time we spend with these characters, the more they fulfill this verse. They take risks for each other, they put each other first. And like Ted in this episode, they are learning that their love for each other is stronger than friendship, but more like family. And sometimes, as this episode reminds us, we find ourselves in these awkward places in life where we have to say goodbye to others. Not all relationships are good for us.

HIMYM 8.1

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Jason C. Stanley

Last week, the eighth season of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother premiered with “Farhampton” without much bang. It was a good episode, but not as strong as some of the past episodes have been. The episode starts off with Barney trying to jump through a window on his wedding day. Ted, Marshall, and Lily talk him out of the window. But as Ted recounts the story to his children, he has to start somewhere else. And here the show tilts back towards Ted. The focus is removed from Barney and it’s all about Ted.

We get to see Ted and Victoria begin to figure things out in their relationship, which as always become slightly complicated. Lily and Marshall are hilarious as new parents lacking sleep, which really serves as a comedic relief in the midst of complicatedness. The Barney-Robin line seems to keep stalling out. Even though at the top of the episode, Robin has cold feet on wedding day, too. We know that the two of them will be together (right?), why must we drag it out so?

There were, however, two great moments. The first is when Barney recaps the entire HIMYM storyline in under a minute.

Seven years ago when Marshall and Lily got engaged Ted saw Robin across a crowded room and I said “oh yeah you just know she likes it dirty,” but Ted really liked her so we played “Haaave You me Ted?” They went to dinner, he walked her home, should have kissed her, didn’t, lame. So he stole the Smurf penis, went back to her place, should have kissed her, didn’t, lame. He threw three parties, they kissed on the roof but decided to be friends, lame. Then Ted wanted to take Robin to a wedding, she couldn’t go, he went alone and met Victoria. Didn’t kiss her either, lame. Not a great closer Ted. Then he finally kissed her, they started dating, she went to Germany. Ted kissed Robin, lost Victoria, Ted did a rain dance, got Robin. Ted and Robin broke up, Robin moved to Brazil came back with a Latin stud. Ted got jealous, got a tramp stamp, not really relevant to the story I just like mentioning it as much as possible. I hooked up with Robin, Ted and I stopped being friends, Ted got hit by a bus we made up…Robin and I started dating and I got fat her hair fell out. We broke up, Robin dated Don, I dated Nora. I cheated on her with Robin, I dumped Nora. Robin dated Kevin but not for long and then I met you and you took my Grandpa’s watch, but I fell in love with you anyway and you let me fart in front of you and I asked you to marry me and you said yes so we came over here to meet little Marvin and that’s everything. Also I went on the Price Is Right and I won a dune buggy.

While Ted is sitting on a park bench, Klaus, Victoria’s finance shows up and he and Ted exchange the following dialogue:

KLAUS: Victoria is wunderbar, but she is not my Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz. She is my Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand you know? It means “the thing that is almost the thing that you want but is not quite.” That is Victoria to me.

TED: How do you know she’s not Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz? I mean, maybe as the years go by, she’ll get Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz-ier.

KLAUS: Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz is not something that develops over time. It is something that happens instantaneously. It courses through you like the water of a river after a storm, filling you and emptying you all at once. You feel it throughout your body, in your hands, in your heart, in your stomach, in your skin. Have you ever felt this way about someone?

TED: Yeah, I think so.

KLAUS: If you have to think about it, you have not felt it.

TED: And you’re absolutely sure you’ll find that someday?

KLAUS: Of course. Everyone does eventually. You just don’t know when or where.

Images of Lily and Marshall and baby Marv looking at each other with love, Robin crying while remembering Barney, and Barney staring out of a window while Quinn sleeps on his shoulder. This brilliant moment reminds us what the show is about. It’s about finding your “Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz”. You’re person in life whom you will love and cherish. And this takes us to the second great moment in the episode, something we have all been waiting for. The girl with the yellow umbrella appears. The woman who will become Ted’s wife, aka the “Mother” that we have waited soooooo long to meet. It’s possible that the show is gearing up for its final season, unless it gets a ninth season. Could this be the season? Could we finally meet the woman holding the yellow umbrella?

The “Lebenslangerschicksalsschatz” that Klaus talks about could refer to more than just finding the “ONE”. It could be one’s vocation – that thing you were met to do or the person you were met to be. “You feel it throughout your body, in your hands, in your heart, in your stomach, in your skin.” It’s the thing that makes you, you. Frederick Buechner put it this way: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

While this episode had some great moments, it wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. But, I’m hopeful for a great season.

together

"will you be my neighbor?"

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