How I Met Your Mother: Daisy (9x20)

Let's dive in.

Robin asks her mother how she flew to New York, since she's so afraid of airplanes. Apparently, Genevieve had to be restrained with duct tape, but she made it in the end! She asks Robin about Barney, and then starts talking about Robin's father, and all of the warning signs that she had before marrying him. Robin, horrified, starts to notice lots of similarities between her father and Barney.

Marshall admits to Ted, Barney, Ranjit, and Billy Zabka that he feels guilty that he and Lily won't be going to Rome. He's also suspicious of Lily's abrupt change of heart. After she stormed out during their fight, she seemed very willing to stay in New York. Ranjit tells Marshall that he saw Lily at a nearby convenience store, getting into The Captain's car. Marshall and the rest of the guys go to The Captain's house to figure out what happened. They learn that The Captain is now engaged to Becky (Boats, Boats, Boats!) Ted puts together a bunch of clues and decides that Lily has been secretly smoking lately. However, it is then revealed that Lily is pregnant. Ted had the clues right, but not the outcome.

Lily, it conspires, has been drinking non-alcoholic beverages all weekend, she was chewing gum to cover up the smell of her morning sickness, and she sneaked off to The Captain's house to take a pregnancy test. Back at the Inn, Marshall and Lily celebrate together, and Marshall tells Lily that they're going to Italy to give Lily her dream, since Lily is giving Marshall his dream, again.

When Barney comes in to meet Robin's mom, he gives her a hug, causing Genevieve to declare that he is nothing like Robin's father. Out on the balcony, Genevieve asks Robin if she has someone she can really count on in her life, because that's all that really matters in a marriage. Robin says she has that.

In the episode tag, we flash forward a year and see Marshall and Lily in Rome. It turns out that Mickey and Judy (Lily's dad and Marshall's mom) are there two. Little Marvin now has a little sister, whose name is Daisy.

Okay! What did I not like?

The comparisons between Barney and Robin's father were just confusing to me. I feel like they can't decide what to do with Robin's dad as a character. One minute he and Barney get along, the next they don't. One minute he's emotionally distant, the next he's reformed. I can't tell. And there's already been a lot of uncertainty about Barney and Robin's relationship. It's like I can't tell if the show wants me to root for them or not. Why all the back and forth?

Speaking of back and forth... Lily and Marshall are going to Italy? Well, come on - make up your mind! For such an encouraging plot thread (what with Lily and Marshall's huge dramatic fight) I've been very disappointed with the wishy-washy nature of the resolution. I guess I'm... happy for Lily and Marshall that they're taking such an exciting step, but why all the confusion?

However, there were things I liked about this episode, as well.

The Captain and Becky. Yeah, it might have been a bit forced, getting them into the episode like this, but it was still really funny to see them.

Ted's detective skills. I always find the most clever and creative part of this show is their way of jumping around in time and making random details significant only with retrospect. Lily's gum chewing, the way she never seemed to get drunk no matter how many "Thank you Linus" moments we had... it was all very cleverly executed. Plus, this detective moment had the funniest line, where Ted commented on how crazy it is how much has happened in the past two days, since this whole season has in fact taken us over only 48ish hours.

I also liked Robin's mother quite a lot. The part with the plane at the beginning had me chuckling. And yeah, I think that Robin's freak out about her dad and Barney is silly, but Robin's mother is actually a very endearing introduction to the show. I loved her accent.

The Italy scene at the end! All of the Italian. And what are Mickey and Judy doing there? I'd love to hear that story.

So, there you are! I feel like I always need to mark episodes down when they don't have The Mother in them, but this was still pretty good.

7/10