Robin continues therapy, and conquering her fear of abondement and then her therapist, Kevin (Kal Penn), tells her he can’t see her anymore.
She then runs into Kevin at a diner, and he tells her the reason he can’t be her therapist is because he’s attracted to her, and even if he’s not her therapist anymore it would still be inappropriate to ask her out. They have breakfast “alone, side-by-side” every day for a week, but then one day Robin comes in late, and he he says “let’s just go on a real date”, and everyone in the diner claps and says finally.
—
Marshall comes into the bar and tells the gang about his day at work. Marshall tries to act like he’s tough at work, because that’s the type of person his boss, Garrison Cootes (Martin Short) is supposed to be, but Marshall says he’s afraid Cootes has gone soft. Nora then shows up at the bar, and Barney tells the group he has to break up with her, because she hates Ewoks. Robin then says it’s not a big deal like dating your therapist…and this news surprises the group. Ted then says that he’s taking his intro to architecture class to the GNB building, to try to get at least one person interested in architecture.
Most of the class doesn’t show up, and when he tells them it’s not archeology (so they won’t be doing anything Indiana Jones related, more of the students leave. He’s about to take them inside the GNB building, when a worker says no one can come in wihtout a pass, so they move on.
Marshall is at work, and thinks Cootes is going ot show his tough side, but each time he does it the “soft” way (easily agreeing to negotiations, cleaning up the messes of other companies rather than going after them, etc.).
—
The class goes into GNB, where Barney attempts to presents them with a slideshow about sex. Ted reminds him he has a girlfriend, with Barney replying, “But she doesn’t like Ewoks.” He then explains the significance of this is Ewoks split Star Wars fans into 2 groups…anyone born before May 25th, 1973 loved Ewoks because they were young enough to be reminded of their Teddies, anyone after was to old to see the connection and therefore it means Nora is 37 because she was born after May 25th, 1973 which means she was too old to like Ewoks.
Ted then takes the class to his apartment, where Robin and Kevin are sitting on the couch. Barney and Ted say it’s creepy to date your therapist, the class agrees, and Robin kicks them out.
Barney said with the way the class voted on the Robin issue, he came up with an idea because of the diversity of the group they can solve disputes they had for a long time (macaroni salad really a salad?, is David Hasselhoff awesome, etc.)
Robin and Kevin are trying to get romanic, and they decide it’s creepy.
Marshalls company is celebrating, but Marshall hates it, and people keep bringing cakes to celebrate. Marashll tells everyone they should be ashamed for not helping the environment. Cootes takes him in his office, and tells Marshall it’s too late to save the planet, and they should just sit back and wait for their inevitable doom, so they might as well celebrate while they can….Marshall then goes back out to the party very upset eating cake.
—-
The group complains about the day they had, and when Ted asks his class (who are all in the bar) if anyone is thinking about becoming and architect, one person raises his hand and says he’ll think about it (future Ted says he becomes a DJ).
Kevin walks into his office, and Robin says she’ll be the therapist…if they are uncomfortable because she had two hours of talking about personal things, then she will listen to two hours of his personal things.
Marshall walks in and tells Cootes that he came close to giving up after their talk, but then he went to the doctor with Lily and after seeing an ultrasound, he decided he can’t give up. He tells Cootes that if he’s going to work there he is going to go down and reject the offer they received.
Barney tells Nora he knows she’s old, but he doesn’t care. Nora then reveals that she hadn’t seen any of the star wars movies till last year, and Barney celebrate that she’s still 29.
Kevin is still talking about his mom after the two hours, and Robin says she can’t be his therapist because he’s too cute.
Marshall is doing his presentation to the pharmaceutical company, and not doing so well, and Cootes then walks in and says the offer is not good enough and walks out. Marshall says where are we going, and he repiles we are going to war…and future ted says, “and kids we now know, they did.”
Thoughts:
I’ve loved How I Met Your Mother since the day it premiered, but this season (and some of last season) have just not lived up to my expectations. I know the characters have to grow up and evolve, and can’t feel lost forever, but I miss classic episodes like ‘The Pineapple Incident’ and ‘Slap Bet’, and I just don’t feel like the five episodes we have seen this season are going to become what I consider to be ‘classics’. I’m not going to say I dislike this season because there are many times where I am less than impressed with episodes of any TV series, but then I re-watch them later on, and I can love them for certain moments or lines, and sometimes you watch an episode expecting one thing from previews, and get disappointed because it doesn’t meet your expectations, but then after you’ve seen it you know what to expect and you can appreciate it for what it is. Maybe the issue for me is HIMYM used to be much more about being stand alone episodes, but now the episodes since Marshall’s dad died, feel much more story-arc driven, which doesn’t always work as well in sitcoms in my opinion.
The Robin/Barney/Nora love triangle isn’t doing much for me. Robin and Ted had great chemistry, but I feel that Robin and Barney work better as “bros” than as a couple, and I’m not sure why (knowing Barney’s history) Robin would be pining for him so badly. I also see no chemistry between Robin and Kevin, and could definitely do without that storyline…maybe it needed to be build up more, but I saw more chemistry between her and Donald than I do with Kevin.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m bashing the show, because it’s still one of my favorites, but I think the show feels much different from what it originally was. Again I know shows have to evolve, but I think it needs to take a step back. That’s why I loved Victoria’s return in ‘The Ducky Tie’ it really allowed for a callback to season 1 and say “look at where you were, and look at where you are now.”
