Halloween, NQA

Another Halloween week, another Halloween-themed How I Met Your Mother episode.

Although this episode gave of a How I Met My Maker vibe…for Marshall.

Marshall, the owed of No Questions Asked’s from the bride, groom, and best man: Robin, Barney, and Ted.

No Questions Asked (NQA): One favor, asked of a friend to another friend, with one simple caveat—no questions asked. Once completed, the friend may reciprocate with their own No Questions Asked at some point in the future.

We got to sit through an episode where we saw exactly how Marshall rung up all his NQA credit, and how he gained the opportunity to cash it all back in.

When Marshall’s carpool ‘buddy’ sent the text message accidentally last week, Marshall subsequently called Barney, Robin, six other people, and then Ted, to go steal Lily’s phone and delete the text. The episode entailed many a flashback over the course of the stormy evening and, to give you an idea of how patient Lily felt for friends invading her room, these all took place in Room 13.

The Haunted Room, according to a hotel-haunts cable TV special. You know, That One Time.

Barney, Robin, and Ted all plotted on the best courses of action—and CBS decided to make us doubt the strength of Barney and Robin’s relationship again—before Ted finally completed Marshall’s mission.

Then Marshall called Lily and told her the news about the judgeship anyway, because he’s a nice guy; a nice guy with a death wish on HIMYM’s Halloween special.

We’ll discover next week what grisly end he’ll meet—and we’ll get to see the Mother once more! It seems the band arrives, just in time for November!

"And I'm not sure anyone died in our room...but someone's going to."
--Lily

"You owe me a No Questions Asked."

--Marshall and Ted

“It’s going to be avi—wait for it—ary. Aviary.”

--Barney (about doves)

"Is That Shakespeare?"

I’d hedge a bet that this was the most endearing episode of Big Bang Theory this season—and can you believe we’re only on Episode 6?

Everyone got a touch of romance. Well. Raj got his vicariously through Howard’s enjoyment, but. Anyway.

There were many plots, twists, and a whole lot of quotes I feel like sharing (seriously, the writers were on their game tonight!). And so, excuse me while I relegate the rest to bullet point format:

• ·      “When did we get to the Cheesecake Factory?” – Sheldon
• ·      Howard’s writing a song to celebrate his first date with Bernadette, Sheldon’s headlong into discovering a super-heavy element, and Penny still works at the Cheesecake factory.
• ·      “Can’t talk, in the zone.” – Sheldon…and Amy
• ·      Penny feels like she needs to latch onto that one romantic bone in her body, to prove to Leonard it exists, and discovers she can actually be romantic just by being her; without really trying at all.
• ·      “I feel like my mind just made a baby.” – Sheldon
• ·      Bernadette isn’t shy about her pharmaceutical endeavors. Nor is she especially careful. When she quarantines herself the night of their first-date anniversary, Howard brings the date to her—along with the carefully crafted and totally sweet song he wrote. Everyone played a part and I grinned at the TV like a small child.
• ·      “Congratulations, Dr. Fowler. You just made the fort.” – Sheldon
• ·      Sheldon’s snagging all of tonight’s quotes.
• ·      I’ll never be unhappy for Dr. Who references in The Big Bang Theory.
• ·      I remembered partway through the episode that we haven’t heard one peep from CBS about the gang’s Halloween costumes this year. The gang…I just made them sound like they piled out of the Mystery Machine.
• 
  

Don’t forget! For this year’s Halloween, use the codes on the Cool TV Props Facebook page to secure $5 off one $40 purchase, or $10 off one $60 purchase!

Happy Halloween…see you next week!

Wedding at Barney's

Just as Indy chose the Grail that didn’t shine as brightly on the outside, Ted might have picked the woman with a bit more to offer than he could handle.
Unlike Indy, however…Ted is not Indy.

Partway into the wedding and everyone’s coupling off. Barney gives his purported wise recommendations, but, on the other hand, he isn’t exactly the world’s best truth-teller.

While Ted carts around Cassie’s emotional baggage (and didn’t Ellie Kemper do a great job?), Barney and Robin have to face the reverend with one more surprise out of their fedora: that to secure the church, they stole Lily and Marshall’s wonderful “how they met” tale, in order to wow the man. It worked, they found their in (and all it’s ‘cute’), and Lily didn’t make the best first impressions with the Father.

Somehow, they manage to tie the theme of first impressions and lies and withheld truths in Marshall’s segment of the plot; maybe he proves their “how they met” story was fit to be tied anyway. His car-partner helps coach him (“What the damn hell?!”) through how he’ll ultimately tell Lily about his judgeship…only to text Lily the news in a fit of her own rage. We didn’t see the outcome of the choice, however. We’ll need to see what The Convincer can do next week, and see if he picks up any more nicknames in the process.

In all honesty, I spent a bit of time eyeing the clock while the episode tick-tocked. Not sure what made it crawl, but next week’s Halloween special looks like a real treat.

Yes, I went there.

Favorite quotes include!

“The Holy Grail.”
“Of CUPS, exactly!”

--Ted and Barney

“It was either that or writing our vows. Ugh, gag.”

--Robin

“You tip…poorly.”

--The Knight

“Unless…wedding at Barney—“
“We’re not having Wedding at Barney’s!”

--Barney and Robin

I dunno kids…there’s still time, don’t you think?

If You Do That, I'll Scream

Two couples strike out in this episode of The Big Bang Theory. Unrelated to the title. Howard could work on his backbone, and Sheldon could give some of his away.
I feel like they should trade.

Amy switches her lab work over to Cal Science for a few months, bringing those adorable monkeys back into the picture. And, at first, she raises the potential for some workplace discrepancies. After all, she and Sheldon never spent so much time together at once; a reasonable concern.
Don’t know of anyone that can tolerate spending so much time with Sheldon Cooper at once.

Sheldon Cooper saw no reason to fear…until Howard, already strained by Bernadette’s recent season-long behavior (much exacerbated by his own antics, don’t get me wrong), suggests that maybe couples sharing workspaces wasn’t such a good idea. He…may have added one or two unfavorable comments about Bernadette that certainly landed him in every bit of trouble he deserved.

Namely, crashing on Raj’s couch, braiding his hair, eating cookie dough and watching The Princess Bride. I wonder which one of them wished.

Honestly, though, Sheldon gives me the worst secondhand embarrassment sometimes. The ways he incessantly told on Howard and embarrassed Amy over lunch, especially. He was in rare form tonight, for sure. The writers didn’t close his dilemma like I thought they might’ve. We’d been doing so well with Sheldon’s Self-Revelations.

Unless they’re gearing up for a plot twist. Wouldn’t that be frightening?

I am glad Howard and Bernadette came back together (if only for five minutes) by the end of the episode. If something happened to their marriage, I might cry.

Next Week: is Sheldon up all night, just to “get lucky?” Will Amy make any more cracks about her contact-less relationship? Find out via Cool TV Prop’s live-tweet, next Thursday!

Just...Pizza?

I sat here for five minutes after the episode aired and tried to think of how it could metaphorically parallel pizza.

I just made myself very hungry.

Lily made her angry face because she and Marshall, for the last six years and eight seasons, assumed Ted never got them a wedding present. Ted thinks, conversely, he got Lily and Marshall the one-tier-down coffee maker for their wedding present, and that he never received a Thank You Note.

But I mean, who really writes thank you notes?

As it turned out, Marshall owed him the note, after an error by Stuart, and Ted walks away from the debacle gift guilt free.

I don’t think I’ve ever followed through with a thank you note before.

More costly than a half-year’s passive aggressive battle, however, seemed to be James’ divorce and Robins quest to come first. Speaking of non-confrontational, Robin, rather than tell James to quit harping on her upcoming nuptials, gambled her way into his former wedding ring.

And Barney’s mother’s bluff. I mean blouse. Blouse.

It took a spring awakening for Barney to realize that sometimes, no matter how faithful his family, he needs to team up with his (future) wife now and again. He might have taken the point a little too far, but that’s the other plus to family: they never go away. Never ever.

Quotables from this episode include:

“Just…pizza?”

--Marshall, a.k.a. how I feel about pizza always.

“When you’re bluffing…you say the word “bluff”.”

--Robin

“I learned a fun and useful lifetime skill.”

--Marshall, on sewing.

"I'm always gonna have your back. No matter what."

--Barney, because I can’t get enough of Barney and Robin sweetness.