I wasn’t sure what I would think about How I Met Your Mother introducing another “serious” love interest for Barney so soon. He’d just come off of a relationship with Nora, and another aborted attempt at being with Robin. Does the Barnacle really need to be weighed down so quickly? You’ve got to let Swarley be Swarley! My reaction to their pairing, though, came as a great surprise. Something you should have seen coming, however, is my reaction to the Ted/Robin kerfluffle, and more so to another weak Marshall and Lily C-story.
I’m not sure where this came from, but I actually like Quinn and Barney together. As a card-carrying member of the Barney and Robin ‘Shipper Fan Club, I didn’t think I’d ever appreciate another “manufactured obstacle” to my favorite ‘ship. But they just work together. Maybe it is a byproduct of them being so alike and being such an excellent evil-scheme-team. Or maybe it is because they’re both incredibly good looking. Or, it could be because I hate the direction of Robin’s current story (more on that in a second). Regardless of why, I’m on board the Quinn-Train, woot woot! Even the awkward conversation they shared about Quinn “hanging up the G-string” wasn’t as nearly weird or condescending as it could have been. She is obviously the tease for who we’re supposed to think Barney will be marrying in the season finale, but that doesn’t mean they’ll walk down the aisle together.
When you can take the whole “Legend … wait for it … dary” bit and turn it on its ear as succinctly (and sexily) as she did, how can you not get behind Quinn? (That set up, for dirty-minded readers out there, was brought to you care of Barney Stinson).
Sometimes I really hate future Ted’s hints, especially when they aren’t exactly positive. Case in point, hearing that present Ted wouldn’t see Robin for a very long time. I don’t know what that means, and I don’t like the implication. I wasn’t a fan of Ted and Robin revisiting the idea of their relationship, nor do I like the fallout the storyline seems compelled to follow. When Ted and Robin broke up originally, they handled things so much more smoothly than they’re handling this. HIMYM has a wonderful ensemble dynamic – it doesn’t work nearly as well when there is real conflict within the group.
I know there were good intentions with Marshall and Lily’s whole “sex stories” storyline, but it just didn’t work for me. Fortunately for both of them, this gag really did:
As did this one:
What do you think? Am I being a little harsh on the Ted and Robin dynamic? Do you like Quinn as much as I do? Chime in in the comments, and let me know how you feel!
Notes & Quotes
I actually thought this episode was pretty funny … shhh! Don’t tell anyone! ;-) The puns slayed me — Quintervention, all the Bro ones — very clever. Marshall and Lily are always annoying and the whole manufactured Ted and Robin thing, blah, but the Barney stuff was hystercial.
I like Quinn too. I kinda hope Barney marries her. Who else is it going to be? It’s not going to be Robin.
I have a feeling Robin is going to be off on her award winning journalism career that has been mentioned before, triggered by her promotion. That will suck for the show, because she’s one of my top 2 characters, but I have faith they’ll make it work, like they did when she was in Japan. And I hope that her departure will give Ted the chance to finally meet the mother. Please. I expect there to be a few more red herrings, and maybe even meeting the mother and not working out and him dating someone else, etc., and that’s fine. But seriously.
Marshall and Lily make me sad right now. They are not interesting, at all. And I would think that Lily’s pregnancy would be a gold mine of comedy, but they haven’t been utilizing it all.
I enjoyed Quinn and Barney together but I think that’s partly because Robin and Barney have had barely any stories together in a long time, so one starts to forget how good together they were. TBH Quinn is kinda of a 1st-2nd season “wingman” Robin staying toe to toe with Barney. That’s probably another reason they look good together to Robin/Barney shippers like us.
Other than the Robin-Ted storyline (I laughed at the apartment fights but why did they have to go back to the “lets act like normal” thing…) I thought it was a pretty decent episode.