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?

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.