1. Barney’s gonna teach you how to live… The very drunk Barney stumbles upon two young men who have no idea how to get girls. He takes them to a strip club and shows them how important the free meatballs are. Despite the fact that it is five a.m., they visit Tim Gunn to get some suits. They finally go back to the original party, which is still popping, even though by now it must be seven a.m. They play a good round of “have you met Justin/Kyle?” And Barney turns over the playbook, which is now just a pile of sticky notes. He reminds them that nothing in life is legendary unless your friends are there to watch you do it. It’s the only genuinely nice sentimental moment (and there are far too many) of the episode.
2. The ghosts of Lily past… Lily runs out of the hotel room, so instead Marshall starts arguing with a ghost of Lily from 2006. A ghost of his dad appears, as does a ghost of Robin at one point. It is all beyond weird. Eventually, real Lily comes back and they decide to stay in New York. The moral of the story is: don’t lie to your wife or her ghosts will come and haunt you for an hour or so.
3. Ted and Robin watch the sunrise… Ted and Robin walk down the beach, pretending to look for Barney while having a fake, little closure for their nine season–long romance. Ted admits that he broke up with Victoria because of Robin, and he divulges his plan of moving to Chicago. We get to see his frantic search for the locket he wanted to give to Robin, which forced him to call both Stella and Victoria (awkward)!
4. Metaphors on metaphors… At the end of the episode, some crazy special effects are employed to make Robin look like she is floating away, in a weirdly literal translation of the old saying “if you love someone set him/her free.” Between this and having two Lilys in the same room, the special effects guy got paid way more than he ever should for a show that is supposed to be a sitcom.
5. Overall, eww… Ted and Robin watch the sun come up together and it should be cute, but it just made me nauseated. You guys are not together, and even if you were, this is all way too forced to be even slightly romantic.
Check out our other HIMYM recaps!
"How Your Mother Met Me" (Aired on 01.27.2014)
"Unpause" (Aired on 01.20.2014)
