How I Met Your Mother: Sunrise (9x17)

There were three very distinct plot threads in this episode. I had some serious qualms with all of them, to be honest. I just keep thinking about how stagnant this show is. We're given the same stories again and again. Or, if they start to push it in a new direction, everything still comes back around to where we left it. Maybe that's not quite fair... there were a few moments of actual significance hidden in here, and there were some bits that were quite funny. Let's look at each plot thread in turn.

Barney: Still drunk, Barney wanders the streets, staggering around until he meets two men and declares that he's going to teach them how to live. He takes them to a strip club, and then later to a party where he uses his "haaaave you met ____" trick to hook them up with girls. At the end of the night, he gives them a stack of napkins on which he has penned "The Playbook," and disappears before either of the boys even find out his name.

Okay, this was the thread that made me seriously roll my eyes. This show cannot seem to make up its mind about Barney's character. Is he really changed? Well, he's marrying Robin, and he got rid of The Playbook. But, in this episode we see him joke about how he'll only go to strip clubs once a week (even though we know Robin doesn't approve) and he bequeaths The Playbook to someone else. I've been willing to overlook a lot of sexist crap in this show, but the point is, Barney's sexcapades are sexist. And I thought the show was growing Barney's character away from that sort of behavior. Instead, he's just passing it all on to someone else. How annoying. Also, this thread did absolutely nothing to further any overarching plot. You could make an argument that Barney was saying goodbye to his old way of life, but... hadn't he already done that? This plot was the shallowest of the shallow, and when contrasted to the other two, felt very out of place.

Next we've got Ted and Robin's plot. They're out looking for Barney in the early hours of the morning, and they start discussing Ted's ex-girlfriends. Robin mentions Victoria, Stella, Zoe, etc. and asks Ted if he's spoken to any of his exes recently. Ted lies and says no. We are then treated to a series of flashbacks wherein Ted talks with Stella, then Victoria, and then Jeanette, all in an effort to track down Robin's locket. The locket wasn't with Stella, apparently. It was with Victoria in Germany. However, when it gets sent to Ted, Jeanette signs for it, pretending to be Ted's wife. When Ted goes to meet with Jeanette, she throws the locket in the river. Ted admits to Robin that she's the one girl still on his mind, after all these years, and he tells Robin that he's moving to Chicago. Robin is nice about it, and as the two stay on the beach, watching the sunrise, Ted is finally able to let Robin go.

I liked some things about this - namely, Ted's conversation with his exes. I think it's so funny that he was able to joke around with Stella and Victoria in that way. Despite all the crap they went through, these conversations show that these women are part of Ted's past, not his future. Victoria was particularly hilarious, what with Ted asking her to send baked goods along with the locket. And Jeanette is delightful. She's totally insane, and yet she tells Ted his love for Robin is crazy and pointless (which it is). But... there were also things I didn't like. The show seems to be romanticizing Ted's weird obsession over Robin. It's not okay. That dramatic speech he gave to Jeanette about the power of love was... well, for one thing, it wasn't very well acted (sorry, it needs to be said) and for another, it wasn't very well written. I just found myself so fed up with the whole Robin thing. Haven't we been harping on this since the pilot episode? I also thought Robin accepted the news that Ted was still hung up on her with remarkable nonchalance. It was unrealistic to me that she could take this news with so little reaction.

Then we've got the third and final plot of the night: Marshall and Lily. Lily, as you may remember, ran off during a big fight with Marshall. So, Marshall has a hypothetical argument with "Ghost Lily" and "Ghost of 2006 Lily." "Ghost Lily" tells him that of course they'll stay in New York, because it makes more sense for both of them. Marshall declares that he has won the argument, but Lily says that he's got a lot more at stake than that. If Marshall continues to cut Lily out of decisions, and continues to look at their marriage in terms of winners and losers, he's going to lose Lily. Then, the real Lily comes home, and the two of them make up, after agreeing to stay in New York.

So, this was probably my favorite of the plots, because it took itself pretty seriously while still throwing in some jokes. In particular, all of Lily's 2006 jokes were spot on and so funny. I also like that Lily told Marshall off for his "winning" and "losing" attitude, but I like it even better that it wasn't Lily that told him these things, but rather the Lily inside Marshall's head. Even though it took him some time, Marshall really understood what he had done wrong and what he had to do to fix it. However, there were things about this plot that were a bit eye-roll worthy, as well. For example: all of that drama, this fight drawn out over the whole season, and Lily storming away... and now it's all fixed, just like that? I wanted to know more about where Lily went when she left!

So, there you have it. Not the worst episode or anything, but certainly not the best either.

5.5/10