The How I Met Your Mother Blog

Hey guys. Despite many people calling “filler episode” I quite liked Mystery vs. History and wanted to weigh in. I’m warning you now: I go on a hell of a rant by the end.

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Welcome back!  Episode 6 ready to rock!   Jordan Rockwell here, and, I might add, don’t forget to listen to my show this Wednesday night!  Everybody getting fired up for Halloween?  At the moment, I’m planning on going as Marshall’s “favorite college professor of all time”

Anyway, as we know, “Mystery Vs. History” was a quote on the cover of Ted’s New York magazine, where it said, “Mystery Vs. History: Is it Better Not To Know?”  Many of us (present company included) thought that was B&T perhaps hinting to us that we would never actually “meet” the mother…which still might be the case (hope not!), but at the very least, it refers to tonight’s episode.  Here we go!

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You guys all need to buy Jordan a nice bottle of something since he’s been keeping things ship-shape around here. He’s a good dude and at the very least you can all go listen to his podcast. Seriously. Go do that.

When you’re done, watch this video preview of next week’s episode if that’s the kind of thing you’re into:

But wait, there’s more. Pictures of Katie Holmes in her slutty pumpkin outfit leaked. She looks…like a girl in a pumpkin costume. Hardly what I’d return to a roof for every year in hopes of reconnoitering in my own plutonic interest. But who knows? Ted has dated some whack ladies. If you want to see pictures, click through to the full post. If you want to remain 100% spoiler free, keep on keeping on. There’s nothing crazy revealing in these pictures for what it’s worth.

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And we’re back!  Coming up on next week’s episode…

• The gang intervenes in Ted’s business when he fails to gather information online about a woman he is going to date. Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily decide not to find out the sex of their baby, but they are tempted when they are setting up the baby’s room.

Couple of thoughts:

• Take the upcoming episode’s title as a word of advice.  A simple look on the internet gives away plenty of spoilers.  I only post the upcoming plot lines from the closest episode to air, but no further.  Shouldn’t we enjoy the surprise?  I unfortunately know of a minor spoiler I wish I didn’t know simply by looking at a certain addictive online inn-cy-clo-pehhh-dia (I’m not linking it).
• I’m very happy to see everyone commenting and sharing their thoughts and theories in a polite and respectful manner.  It only goes to show how much we love this show, so spread the word about our site here!

See you all Monday night!

And we’re back!  Episode 5 ready to rock!   Jordan Rockwell here, and, I might add, don’t forget to listen to my show this wednesday night!  Everybody having a good October?

Anyway, tonight we have what I would call a “Stand-Alone” episode as opposed to a “mythology” episode (more on that below), and I thought it was pretty good!  Here we go!

what was good

•  Focusing on Robin’s Fear of Abandonment, as well as Barney’s in an abstract way, was quite effective.  This is a running theme with both of these characters, and the writers seem to be handling it in a very proper way.
• Robin and Kevin have great chemistry, Kal Penn is charming as ever, and I loved how the writers found their way around the Doctor/Patient “no fraternizing” rule.  Granted, if the board finds out he’s dating her, he’s done as a shrink, but we can worry about that later.  Very often people get into the mental health profession because they have issues of their own to deal with (and thus wish to help others altruistically) but the writers found a way to make a very real thing really funny.
• I loved how the environmental message of “not giving up” in a way, ties in with the over-all romantic message of the show.  To be certain, Ted has had his moments where he’s been tempted to give up (Stella, Zoe much?) but he can never give up, because if you want something that badly, and your pursuit of it truly defines you, you can’t ever give up.
• Indeed it is true, 99.999999% of kids (God I’m old) in a 101 class have no intention of pursuing a career in the profession of that 101 in particular.  It was nice to see Ted realize that, and keep going, and as we know, this job is “the best job he ever had.”  This will continue, I believe, and he will inspire more kids to be architects than to become a wanna-be lame DJ.
• And lest I forget…EWOKS!!!  I will leave it to all of you to dissect the frame-by-frame, but I just love love LOVE how B&T love Star Wars and continue to use it for comedic fodder.  Check out this video from CBS!  Enjoy!

what was bad

• The only truly false moment for me was Marshall’s boss revealing to him that he had given up.  It was done in such a hammy and unrealistic way that I couldn’t buy it.  It came off as cartoonish and again, once again, whenever this show veers away from Planet Earth and into lame sitcom territory, I am going to pounce on it as a review like a cat on a ball of yarn or Khloe Kardashian on a pound cake (OOPS!).
• The B-story of Ted was decent, but again, didn’t hold a candle to the A-story.  I continue to look forward to them making Ted the main character again, so every time he’s shoved to the background, I will always be a little disappointed.

favorite moments

• “Fish, huh? – SWEET flashback.  Again, love it when they do this, because it rewards long-time viewers as well as keeping character continuity going and flowing.
• The Diner – New Spot?  We’ve seen this location more than once, I wonder why…
• When Kevin comes into said-diner to talk to Robin, he looks very “Harold and Kumar”, no?
• “Finally….”
• What is up with Ted’s, uh, beard?  Happythankyougetashave, dude.
• Ah Vegas, where we all run to after a break-up…but Barney…DON’T BLOW IT!
• 83% comes back again. We all know what that means, right?  All college kids need sex lessons, ones not taught to them in sex-ed, and yet we know that Barney is the last person who should teach them.  Maybe lessons in confidence but not any eduction in learning how to treat a woman properly.
• “Thank you Gina,” and “Thank You Will’s Mom” I love how Barney is always a step-ahead.
• Pregnant chicks and food; guys, get out of the way, just deal.  Let them eat.  You get to drink for 15 months while they don’t.  Feed them and rub their shoulders.
• “Polstered!  five bucks!”
• Marshall can’t resist food, not cake, not even the third piece
• “Skip Season 2″  Still haven’t ever watched Friday Night Lights.  Any good?

closing

I wonder, how will the GNB job for Ted pan out, considering that, again, his professor job is “the best job he ever had”?

I was 5 years old when I first saw, “Jedi” and I’m still not sure how I feel about the Ewoks. I know they helped the Rebellion defeat the Empire, but then again, they are f–king Teddy Bears!  Discuss!

It dawned on me tonight that “How I Met Your Mother” is similar in one fashion to “The X-Files”.  On that show, you had the half-a-dozen or so episodes per season that were all about the alien conspiracy and over-arching series-long plot line, but then you had various “vampires and werewolves” filler episodes that had M&S batting the forces of evil that weren’t necessarily extra-terrestrial.  Likewise, we have the “Mother” episodes that either deal with a rogue yellow umbrella, a hot lesbian roommate or a stray ankle (or at least center around Ted and his romantic quests for the love of his life), or the “everybody else does something” eps like this, which can be fun to watch if done properly, or fail miserably (Last Cigarette Ever sucked, in my humble opinion).  We’ll see.

See you next week for “Mystery Vs. History”!!!

UPDATE: Made some fixes, thanks JD.