Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Here we are, a 1/3 of the way through the final season of How I Met Your Mother, and we are still inching ever closer to the Barney and Robin wedding. It’s a strange situation. On one hand, I feel like the overall story of the wedding is taking far too long. On the other hand, each of these episodes has, for the most part, been funnier and better than the last two seasons. We keep getting peeks at Ted and the Mother’s future romance, but I want to see more if it. While these episodes have been good individually, the whole has been somewhat disappointing.
How I Met Your Mother S9 E7 “No Questions Asked” Review
Adding to this conflict comes “The Lighthouse”, which might be my favorite episode of the season so far, at least in a couple of areas.
Hopefully, you still remember the fallout from the bachelor party poker game several episodes ago, during which Robin won a treasured blouse from Barney’s mother, Loretta. A feud was struck between the two that was expected to be picked up at some point. The head to head battle came together over none other then… scrambled eggs. Apparently, Loretta makes amazing scrambled eggs and uses this to compete with Robin. Robin argues that her mother, in fact, makes the best eggs. Something that really struck me immediately about this episode, probably because they point it out, is how little we really know about Robin’s parents, specifically her mother. Since this episode had a lot to do with motherhood, it’s not surprising that we finally get some glimpses into Robin’s family.
For a show that has always had a particular tenderness to it, “The Lighthouse” featured a few moments that were downright heartwarming. They also never fell into melodramatic speeches or undeserved affection. The ending was incredibly sweet without being heavy handed or overbearing. Watching the somewhat predictable ending put a massive smile on my face and a small tear in my eye. Towards the end of the episode, we got another flash forward of Ted and the Mother. Hopefully these flashes aren’t going to be our only connection with her, and she will actually get a couple episodes to develop more, like back in “The Locket”. I think most people really want to see more of her, so it’s high time they got things moving.
If you haven’t noticed, I didn’t mention Marshall and Daphne much. This is simply because I found their side storyline totally flat and a little bit confusing. I kind of forgot baby Marvin was even with them until they added a sound clip of him crying in the back seat. Not to mention, the completely random appearance from Ted’s stepfather Clint, who I barely remember at all. Basically, Marshall and Daphne stop by Ted’s mom’s house for whatever reason, and then Clint comes in to help with “conflict resolution”. It all felt like a bunch of filler, with absolutely no pay off. Luckily, these scenes were pretty short and didn’t necessarily take away from the rest of the stories.
As the title suggests, this episode has to do with a lighthouse. A very romantic lighthouse that Ted is eager to visit, but has no one to visit it with. He ends up making another terrible choice and taking Cassie to the lighthouse. This little side trip was pretty funny and set up a perfect flash forward for Ted and the Mother, which I will not spoil.
Off on her own and reeling from the news of Marshall’s judgeship, Lily basically freaked out, gave bad advice and broke glasses all episode. It was hilarious, and the continuing joke with Linus has been well sustained. I am eager for Lily to be back with Marshall and this wedding to finally get on, but when the episodes are this funny and heartfelt, it’s difficult to get overly angry.
