How he finally met the mother (Season 9)

That bugged me, too. The final, brief scene with Ted asking Robin if she had wanted him to kiss her at the end of their first date redeemed it a bit, but it would have all been better without the silly bit with Robin floating away.

I did like the resolution with Marshall and Lilly. Marshall finally gets it that even though staying was the best thing for the family, there is an emotional cost to his marriage with Lilly and it could be costly if he keeps making the same mistakes.

 

I thought this was a solid effort, not great, but solid in tying up loose ends.

The green screen, I agree, didn't quite work. I know they were going for the tie in with the red balloon, but maybe instead of Robin flying away, Ted sees the balloon fly away?

 

Hey, so I'm finally caught up. What a difficult task.
Noticed I had five episodes on the DVR and, apart from "How your mother met me," a lot of it was awful.
The slap bet episode was painfully unfunny. I enjoyed the truth serum Barney episode. It was a bit of filler though.
Tonight's episode was decent when it focused on Marshal and Lily but the Barney stuff? Blah. The Robin stuff? Blah.
That being said, the episode on the mother was one of my favorite in a LONG time. I'll finish the run because I've invested this much but I hope they keep the focus on Ted and the mother going forward and get rid of the ridiculous gimmick episodes.

 

By the way, one other call back that was missed in this discussion of last night's episode. The mother says something along the lines of she's had her winning jackpot ticket. I went back and watched the Lighthouse proposal (

) and Ted did the same thing essentially, before telling the kids that "that is the kind of stupid thing you say before you meet the person who hits the reset button on the world."
I also liked the fact that, seeing the proposal again, the mother didn't even let Ted finish before saying yes. Considering all the thought she put into turning that other guy down, I thought that was especially nice to see.

 

Robin floating away like a balloon was cheesy, but I didn't hate it. I thought that it drove home a point. But that could be because I am in the "I can't believe that people actually think that Robin is a good match for Ted" camp.

If Ted had just said something like "I've got to let you go", and just let go of her hand, I wouldn't have bought it. With seven episodes left, I would have been convinced that he rented some scuba gear and got that damn locket. I'm sure that I am not the only one.

 

I felt the exact opposite. The ghost thing didn't work at all, particularly whe they brought in his dad for a cheap laugh.

Also, How Your Mother Met Me was a concept episode.

 

I thought the ghost thing was fine. I took it as a representation of the way Marshall worked through the issue in his own head. Was bringing in the father's "ghost" a bit of a gimmick? Sure. But he had a reason to be there, to remind Marshall that Lilly leaving him (temporarily) was not the worst thing he has ever been through. It also helps hit on the point of the whole sequence, which is that Marshall needs to take a more mature approach to his marriage.

 

I'm now convinced that this flashback/forward thing is the only way this could've possibly worked. Without some flashes forward to the mother, there's no way any rational human being could stomach going over this nonsense with Robin AGAIN. So in that sense mission accomplished?

How could Robin not have herself on Ted's top 5? Or is she in denial about how much she meant to him too? Surely the folks on her Ted-relationship-discussion-email-chain must know since all his other ex's do?

 

Seriously? You needed that much clarification on what the episode was trying to get across?

I couldn't disagree more. I prefer not to be treated like a third grader and told over and over what they're trying to say.

 

I think the reason the past two seasons have been so hit and miss is because the main characters are stale. There is nothing new to learn about their personalities, etc. The how your mother met me episode was great because we actually had some fresh character development. This show and its writers are great at character development, but the struggle is when there isn't much more development to be had. Generating laughs when the audience already knows how the characters will react to different situations is much more difficult.

 

After nine years of this, absolutely.

 

I don't think I agree with that sentiment. The episode was focused on one specific character for the purpose of enhancing the overall plot of the show. This season's previous "concept" episodes (I.E. gimmick episodes) of the rhyming episode and the newest slapbet added nothing to the overall point of the program.
Take those two episodes out and you're not missing anything. Take the mother episode out and you lose a key component to the central concept of the series ... that these two people were meant to be together.