How I Met Your Mother: Romeward Bound (8x21)

Ultimately, this episode of How I Met Your Mother was funny but it actually kind of confused me. There were parts of it that felt like they should have been expanded on but then were just jumped right over. There were other moments that just seemed out of character to me. There were two main plot threads this episode, one involving Lily and Marshall, and the other involving Ted, Barney, and Robin. Let's take a look:

So, Lily gets an offer from The Captain to move to Rome, but she's not sure if she can uproot her life like that. Part of the reasoning is that she thinks Marshall is in love with his job, and that if she goes to Rome, all Marshall will be doing is taking care of Marvin and watching soap operas, while Lily is off living the glamorous life of an art consultant. There was a funny set-up here, as Lily imagines the future in a few different ways: in one of them, she is happy and Marshall is miserable. In the other, the opposite is true. In both versions, Marshall ends up married to a super hot Italian woman, and Lily is left behind.  I liked this set-up. It's always funny when this show plays with its formula and gives us flashbacks or flash-forwards or daydreams or speculations.

But, apparently, Marshall's law firm is basically dead, and he spends all of his time at work goofing off with his coworkers. I really didn't like this twist. Marshall keeps the truth from Lily for a long time, but rather than addressing what seems like a pretty big marital problem, it is all played for laughs. Some of the puns in this section were great, as we see how Marshall never technically lied to Lily on the phone when he said he was busy, but rather things like "a lot on my plate" literally meant a lot of food to eat, or "a house of cards" literally meant that he was trying to stack playing cards into a house. But, these funny lines aside, it felt really odd to me that Marshall would lie to Lily this way. I did like the ending, as it looks like Marshall and Lily will be heading to Rome, after all!

Then we have Ted, Barney, and Robin's section of the episode. A girl in a large coat enters the bar, and Ted recognizes her from his yoga class, and insists that she has a "redonkulous body" that Barney simply must see. While it sounds like a relatively simple premise, it actually brought up some more serious themes of the show.

There were some great jokes here, such as Barney's line: "Redonkulous? I've only heard you use "redonkulous" to describe Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol!" When Liddy (the coat-wearing girl) starts talking to the guys, Ted adorably says: "She's talking to me!" Also, when Barney was trying to write down the name Liddy, he delivers this line: "L - I - two D's - double D's - two D's - why?"

But then, there were things here that made me uncomfortable. Barney thinks that he's going to have a threesome with Robin and Liddy, but it turns out that Liddy is the wedding planner. It was a little too weird to watch, and it also raises some real questions about Barney's commitment to Robin. He later has to awkwardly assure his fiance that he loves her as much as Marshall loves Lily. It's an odd thing to play off as a joke, and a rather heavy-handed way to set up the inevitable crisis of confidence that I'm sure will come just before the wedding.

Barney insists that it's alright to be interested in Liddy's body, because he's "engaged to the coolest girl on earth!" Robin seems to back him up, because when she finds out what Barney has done, she responds: "My God. I have been wondering the same thing!" This is all well and good (despite the fact that we have earlier evidence that Robin is not okay with Barney checking out other women, but whatever...) until we have Ted give Barney some warning.

In an oddly serious moment, Ted tells Barney that he's not behaving like someone who's about to get married. Barney replies, quite jarringly, actually, with "Robin's marrying me. Not you!" Wow. That got pretty intense! But, as I mentioned before, it was totally brushed over, and in the end we see Robin and Barney having a sexy time together. So... was there any point in addressing Barney's behavior here? Is it really all okay? Is Robin really fine with it, and is Ted just projecting his own jealousies onto their relationship? Or will there be trouble down the rode for our lovebirds? Either way, it was a clumsy thread in the episode, even if it was the setup for future plot points.

So, what did I think over-all? Some great jokes and great future potential, but a few awkward character moments really made this episode difficult for me to thoroughly enjoy.

6.5/10