Nicholas Sparks

Time for another How I Met Your Mother bullet-point recap because, as I noted just a few times throughout the episode, this plot line seemed a LOT like the plot we know and love (love?) from Season 8. Except, this time, the other side of the spinning coin. It would have annoyed me, had it not been for Barney’s big ending.

•        Barney accepts the challenge to console Robin from last week’s dilemma, where she discovers her mother won’t be attending the wedding. Lily then calls into question his challenge-faithfulness; he’s missed one challenge in his challenging career! How do they know he’ll complete this one? Well,
•        Barney explains that the only, the only, challenge he failed six months prior (after a fourteen-challenge streak from Robin and Lily), happened to be the challenge that led to him drafting his final playbook play: The Robin.
•        He meets the future Mother, his last (failed) conquest (“Weirdo alert!”), who—with astounding intuition—realizes right away Barney still hurts for Robin. She gives him the pep talk he needs to quit challenges, quit scoring girls’ numbers, and focus on The One. Robin.
•        Conversely, Marshall spends a globetrotter’s basketball game giving Ted a completely ulterior, and MUCH less helpful, pep talk of his own. Ted “Robin and I are completely platonic” Mosby thinks he’s all right remaining friends with Robin. Meanwhile, Marshall tries to give Ted his old eight-year-old spark back.
•        Eight years?
•        And as much as seeing lonely Ted pains my heart, I did enjoy how Barney managed to finally complete the old, along with the new, challenge. He emerges from the episode with a clean slate; the last girl he picked up was Robin.
•        Oh, right, and there was this tiny part where Ted repetitively turned down a lucrative job offer from Walter White. But, I have to say, Walter fell off the wagon a little bit with his persuasive skills.

Next week, watch Barney reconcile his parents. Or make his own mother flee the nuptials.