How he finally met the mother (Season 9)

It sure looked the same, and Barney walked in on them.

 

I don't see how it was stealing any thunder since they snuck off to do it privately.

 

Given that the room was empty, I had no issue with what Marshall and Lilly did. The problem was the time for the entire episode being off. The room shouldn't have been that empty so close to the start of the ceremony.

 

Vers,

as shown in the Season 6 premiere and a few times subsequently, Ted is also Robin's best man. In "Big Days," Ted tells the kids the day he met the mom was the day of a wedding, then it cuts to a scene of Ted and Marshall drinking beer, with Ted peeling his label off, and Marshall says it's about to rain. Lily comes out and says the best man is being summoned.

 

When Ted says he's not that guy anymore......

Has he changed? Did he need to change in order to get the mother and everything he always wanted? He said something similar last week when he was walking away instead of professing his love on the first date.

Or, has he not truly changed, he's just still hurt and scarred, and its the mother that brings him back to who he used to be, who he's supposed to be, stealing horns and being a hopeless romantic and a cheeseball?

I'm really fascinated by this and over thinking it. Is the message of the show that there's someone out there for you and you keep the faith because you'll find 'em, or is it that you have change at some point to get there?

 

I thought the chapel scene was fine. No one was in there and it was a private moment that neither Lily or Marshal were using to detract from the wedding. It also served as a nice growing up moment for them and for Barney. They admitted to each other (and in Barney's case, himself) that they aren't perfect, they are going to fall short, but they're going to work on it. It was an extension of the broader theme of the episode that none of them are the people they were when this whole thing started. Ignoring all that for a moment, it was a nice tie off before we get to what the last seven years have been building to.

As for the timing, either the writers forgot about that whole thing and hoped to gloss over it all or the count down was actually to when people were starting to arrive at the chapel. It quite possibly was 15 minutes before guests arrived for the service rather than 15 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. I'm hoping it was the later, but it was probably the former.

 

They listed the time at the start of the episode as 5:28, 32 minutes before the wedding.

 

If we're being that literal about it, it wouldn't be at all unusual for someone to have announced a "short delay, please enjoy a complimentary drink at the bar" for some unknown reason (but in truth possibly when they realized Robin was gone).

But is that necessary? I mean, John Mahoney couldn't have been Frasier's dad, because he was the hack jingle writer Sam Malone hired to create a Cheers radio ad. But I let it slide.

 

I think it is a little of both. There was someone out there for him, but he also needed to grow up a little to be ready for that person.

 

I caught Inside the Actors Studio with the cast tonight. It replays on Bravo at 2 a.m. It was a lot of fun. They showed the favorite scenes of each of the five main actors and had each of them answer questions in the voices of their characters.

 

Thanks for the head's up on that.

 

That was a great "Inside...", lots of fun. I think Lipton hasn't seen much of the show, or else he was just playing along.