How I Met Your Mother: Gary Blauman (9x21)

I'll admit, this episode got quite a few chuckles out of me. There were also some intensely sentimental moments, which kind of just makes me more nervous that The Mother is going to die. I guess we should take a look at what happens.

We have a very brief flash forward, three days after the wedding. We see Ted pick up The Mother for a date. As they talk about finding a restaurant without a reservation, Ted tells The Mother a story about Gary Blauman.

Back just before the wedding, Robin runs into Blauman. She acts happy to see him, but then freaks out because she didn't remember to put him in to the seating chart. Marshall promises to handle it. When he tries to recruit Ted, Ted says that he hates Blauman because they both went after the same girl once at a party, and Ted didn't win. Lily, on the other hand, loves Blauman for stopping her from getting a terrible tattoo.

The story of Blauman is here interrupted when The Mother and Ted almost run in to The Mother's ex-boyfriend. The Mother realizes that even though she really likes Ted, she's not in a good place for dating right now, since she just got proposed to and dumped the guy a few days ago. As Ted and The Mother start walking back to her house, Ted continues his story.

Barney, it turns out, doesn't like Blauman either, since he once stole an accidental curly-fry from him at the bar. Billy Zabka likes Blauman, because he knows Zabka for his poetry, and nobody else ever recognizes him for that. James, however, has the most shocking reason for wanting Blauman gone: Blauman was the man he had an affair with, and is thus the reason for James' marriage falling apart. Marshall ultimately says that Blauman has to stay because the bride wants him to.

At this point, the story is interrupted again, as Ted and The Mother have reached The Mother's apartment. Although neither of them want the night to end, Ted decides not to make a mistake by blurting anything out too soon, and he walks away. The Mother calls out to him, asking him to finish the story, which Ted, relieved, does.

Blauman is just about to drive away when the gang stop him just in time. Ted talks about how even people that seem super important to you at one point, will often times fall out of your life as you get older. He reminisces about some of the recurring characters over the years. Carl keeps running MacLaren's, Jeanette ends up getting together with Kevin, Ranjit gets rich and buys the limo company, Patrice gets her own radio show, Zoey continues to be an activist, Scooter marries Jasmine (Lily's stripper doppelganger), James and his husband Tom got back together, etc. etc.

Blauman ends up staying for the wedding, saying he doesn't want to miss it. The episode ends as Ted and The Mother share their first kiss.

Okay! Like I said, lost of sentimental stuff going on here. That was part of the problem, to be honest. The biggest annoyance in the episode was when Ted was listing where everyone else ended up. I mean, I suppose I can see why it would be nice to know that James and Tom made up... but a lot of these other characters? Who cares about Jeanette? Carl? Patrice? They were funny little side characters, and I think this episode suffered from the knowledge that the show will be ending in a few weeks. It's like they were trying to make every character near and dear to our hearts, and that's just not how it goes.

But let's talk about the good things.

The Mother and Ted! Just three days after they first meet! This is really our first and only look at them as strangers, just getting to know each other. I like it. I like how... normal it all is. They're just going on a date. Nothing too grand. I like how it's a bad time in The Mother's life, but she likes Ted so much that she decides to go for it anyway.

And you know what? I rather liked Gary Blauman. It was so funny to see everyone's differing reactions when they learned that he was there. Barney, James, and Ted all didn't want him there, but for very different reasons. Ted and Barney's reasons seem very trivial once James comes forward with the truth. I also liked the sad but true idea that sometimes people can feel really important to you, but then drift completely out of your life.

And, in further support of the scary "The-Mother-dies" theory, there's this moment right at the end of the episode. Ted has this sort of wistful look on his face, and The Mother asks him what he's doing. He says "remembering this," almost like it's a precious memory of a woman he has lost. NOT OKAY.

This was an episode that was actually about Ted and The Mother more than anything else. It wasn't about petty marriage drama with Barney and Robin, it wasn't about the indecisive future of Lily and Marshall... I think, for a show with only three episodes remaining, this was exactly the right thing to focus on.

8/10