How I Met Your Mother: Bedtime Stories (9x11)

Alright, it’s 25 hours until the wedding. I really enjoyed this particular installment, as it focused on Marshall in some ways, but also provided a lot of flashback material. I’ve talked before about how I ultimately really enjoy the idea of having the entire season take place over one weekend, but that at the same time, some variety is needed in some places. In this episode, we got it, in more ways than one.

The plot is as follows: Marshall and Marvin are on the bus on their way to Farhampton Inn. Marshall speaks in rhymes to Marvin to keep him quiet, since the rhymes make him tired. He discovers that Marvin’s Mother Goose book is missing, so he has to improvise rhymes in order to appease Marvin and the rest of the bus, all of whom don’t want to listen to Marvin’s crying. The framing device just constitutes Marshall telling Marvin three different short stories about his friends. Gus, a passenger on the bus, helps out with the occasional rhyme. Then, a blown tire on the bus forces the group to wait for aid. Marshall, upon learning that Farhampton is only five miles away, decides to try walking. Ted, in his narration, reveals that Marshall would live to regret that decision.

The three stories are as follows:

Ted, while still a professor, is approached by a new physics professor, Lisa. Lisa asks Ted out to dinner, ostensibly to ask him advice about giving good lectures. Ted is at first convinced that it’s a date, but after talking to his friends in the bar, he’s worried that maybe he misread the situation. Barney tells Ted about the “Date Line,” which differentiates between an evening as friends and a date. Ted is unsure what side of the Line he is on with Lisa, as she constantly sends him mixed signals. The story ends when Lisa reveals she dated one of the Yankees, and Ted demands to know. When shown a picture of “Derek Jeter,” he sees that it’s Barney, and laments the fact that he can’t go through with his date with Lisa.

The second story is called “Robin Takes the Cake.” Shortly after Robin breaks up with one of her boyfriends (Marshall can’t remember who), Robin is stuffing her face in a bakery when she runs into Simon, her ex from Canada. He’s looking all cleaned up, and at first Robin is hopeful about getting together with him. He then reveals that he’s engaged. In a panic, Robin does something stupid – she steals Simon’s wedding cake. She brings it back to the apartment, and when Ted tells her to return it, she instead begins eating it. Lily later encourages her to finish the entire cake, because then the night will be remembered for awesome reasons, and Robin won’t be remembered as the loser who freaked out after seeing her ex. Robin manages to devour the entire cake, and then tops it off by drinking an entire keg. Marshall remembers fondly that they had to get Robin’s stomach pumped.

The third story is Barney’s. He sees a girl at the bar and goes to make his move, but Lily says that the girl is way out of his league, and seems way too classy to go for Barney. Barney announces that no girl is out of his league, since he is the “Player King of New York City.” He tells a story about a time when he accidentally slept with a girl outside of his “territory,” and is called before the council of players to discuss his transgression. He talks to all of the other players (each of them played by Neil Patrick Harris) and they agree to let Barney off the hook, as long as one of them can sleep with Lily, and the other with Robin. Barney saves the girls from this fate by poisoning and killing all of the other players. We then go back to the bar, as Barney finishes his story. However, to his chagrin, while he was talking, Ted made his move on the woman from the bar, thus preventing Barney from bringing her home.

So that’s the plot. First, let’s talk about the framing device. I loved it. The rhymes were hilarious, and I loved the character of Gus, and of the bus driver and the other passengers on the bus. Everyone was in on the rhymes at the end, to the point where the bus driver makes his announcement about the blown tire in rhyme. There was a great moment where Gus said that the subject matter of Marshall’s stories were inappropriate for a father to be telling to his kids, and then we zoom out and see Ted’s two kids sitting on the couch. That had me laughing out loud. I also loved it when Gus broke out into a rap to find something to rhyme with Canada (“Janitah”).

Then there are the three stories. Ted’s story was fine, nothing special. It was sort of predictable that the Yankee ended up being Barney, but it still got a bit of a chuckle out of me. Robin’s story was hilarious. Everything about it had me laughing. It was obviously exaggerated for effect, but something about Robin eating that wedding cake had me grinning. I particularly loved that Marshall couldn’t remember which boyfriend Robin had just broken up with. Whenever this show references how complicated the story is, I really enjoy it. It’s true to real life – the details are bound to go fuzzy after so many years. Then there’s Barney’s story. I didn’t hate it, but I also had some problems with it. As we get closer and closer to Barney and Robin’s wedding, I get more and more uncomfortable with the fact that the show can’t seem to let go of the idea of Barney as a playboy. We already did a whole arc around Barney giving all of that up because of his love for Robin, and every time they bring it up it worries me that they’re setting up some big betrayal or something. Or if not, then they’re just way overusing a very tired concept. However, I will say that I got a big laugh out of all the Neil Patrick Harris’s at the player’s council. That guy is a comedic gold mine.

So… yeah, I guess that’s it! As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed this one. How I Met Your Mother seems to hit its highest points when they do something unique and special as a framing device. The rhymes were very clever. While the individual stories were not always brilliant, they still all had great moments, and I could see myself going back to re-watch this episode a few more times.

8/10