How I Met Your Mother: Bass Player Wanted (9x13)

The Mother returns! Yay! Let's jump straight into the plot.

Marshall is trying to walk to the inn with Marvin, but it ends up being a harder walk than he suspected. Just when he's about to give up, The Mother pulls up and offers him a ride. In the van, The Mother reveals that she met Lily on the bus. The two of them chat about their lives, and The Mother reveals that she's a part of the band that's supposed to play at the wedding, but that she's thinking about quitting because of friction with another band member, Darren, who constantly pits people against one another just to cause friction. Marshall and The Mother both agree to stop being pushovers and stand up for what they want, and they arrive at the Farhampton Inn.

Meanwhile, the evil Darren has indeed been causing trouble. He ingratiates himself in with Lily and Robin, and then starts a fight between the two girls by suggesting that Lily is taking up too much space during Robin's wedding weekend with her own problems, and then revealing that Robin doesn't want Lily to go to Italy. Darren also stirs up trouble with Barney and Ted when he reveals to Barney that Ted is moving to Chicago the day after the wedding. Barney feels hurt that Ted places so little weight on their friendship.

These problems are solved when Robin says she didn't want Lily to go to Italy because she didn't want to lose her friend, and she suggests that Lily take her aggression out on Marshpillow. Ted steals Barney a 30-year-old Glen McKenna to make up for his leaving, and Barney realizes that he's leaving to get a fresh start away from Robin. The two of them hug it out. When Marshall comes in, Lily immediately pauses the fight that they're going to get into, since she's just so happy to see her husband and child again.

Darren is also taken care of - although The Mother was all prepared to stand up for herself and get her spot in the band back, she finds she doesn't have to, since Ted punches him for knocking over the bottle of Glen McKenna. Darren is furious at the best man for giving him a black eye for no reason, and The Mother is delighted to see Darren angrily quit the band. She buys a drink for the best man from Linus, who later delivers it to Ted. The gang are amused and annoyed to discover that this bottle of scotch is actually older than the 30-year-old one they've been going on about for so long.

Marshall offers to give Barney a present as an apology for missing the rehearsal dinner. As Barney goads him on, Marshall winds up for a slap, and we're left with a slaptastic cliffhanger.

I really liked this episode. It was a pretty strong one. Very briefly, I'll start with the cons... at the end of the previous episode, Marshall was planning on taking on this long walk to the Farhampton Inn. I was anticipating a lot of funny moments with that scenario, but instead we just saw him get tired and then get picked up by The Mother. It felt like a missed opportunity to me. I also thought the little argument between Lily and Robin was a bit forced. I liked the idea of Darren the troublemaker, and the conflict between Ted and Barney was great. Lily and Robin's argument seemed rather insubstantial in comparison, so for me that was a weak point.

But, as I said, the rest of the episode really worked for me. The Mother got to be a bit more of a character here. We see that she's not just an infallible goddess who swoops in and solves problems. She has her own insecurities and character flaws, and in this one episode we see her address them and try and do something about her problems. She also had a number of really excellent jokes. I think my favorite was when she started telling Marshall all sorts of specific details about his life, which really freaked him out, before she finally revealed that she'd met Lily and learned it all from her.

I was genuinely touched by the moments with Ted and Barney. Barney was so hurt to find out that Ted was leaving, and when he realized the reason why, he was oddly understanding. For whatever reason, I think it really worked. They hugged, there was really expensive and old alcohol involved, and there's a certain bittersweet edge to Ted and Barney's friendship now. I really liked the way these scenes felt serious without losing the comedic tone at the same time.

The jokes with the Glen McKenna were really funny and had a great payoff, I liked the way the episode avoided use of flashbacks and pushed the story forward, and I'm really excited now that The Mother and Ted are actually in the same geographic space. In all, this episode was a winner for me, and I'm actually looking forward to what comes after the hiatus.

8/10