How I Met Your Mother: Three Days of Snow

Do you ever feel that sometimes the writers of your favorite shows have secret footage of you, watch it over and over, research every minute detail and then craft an entire episode that revolves around just you? This episode seemed handcrafted just for me. Travel ritual – check. Snow – check. Bar – check. Even the title of the bar/band “Puzzles” has significance to me!

Ted and Barney
Barney and Ted meet some college girls on the street and ask them to meet up with them the next night at McClarens. The girls warn of snow, but the guys don’t seem to be too worried.  Fast forward to the next night and the blizzard of 2009.

Carl wants to close up McClaren’s but Ted and Barney insist that the girls are meeting them and the bar can’t close.  In what would turn out to be a foolish move, Carl turns the keys of the bar over to Ted and Barney and tells them they can stay there until the girls arrive, but then they’re going to have to leave.

Big mistake.

Flashback to five years ago when Ted and Barney thought it would be a great idea to own a bar. Everyone that has never worked at a bar and has seen “Cocktail” thinks that running a bar would be fun and easy. I work in the industry, let me just clarify something for all of you people that think it is easy – It’s not!

While waiting for their dates, the boys practiced their bartending flair with the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo” as their background. Pure genius. The bar is slowly but surely getting wrecked by their lack of Tom Cruise-ness.

The girls finally arrive, but bring with them an entire marching band full of drinkers.  The bar scene turns chaotic and Ted and Barney are forced to announce last call (something they swore they would never do if they owned a bar).  Not to be defeated, the guys decide to invite everyone up to Ted’s apartment for a party. Yeah, they’re are still cool.

Marshall and Robin…and Lily and Ranjit
Ever since their college days, Marshall and Lily have had an airport ritual.  When Lily is traveling, Marshall always picks her up form the airport and in turn Lily brings an ironically named six pack from where she was traveling.

But on Lily’s latest trip, they decide that it’s not worth it to have Marshall cab it all the way to the airport, so they decide to end their ritual.  But after some soul searching they both realize that the other is probably going to still hold up their end of their tradition – so Marshall enlists Robin to quickly drive him to the airport, while Lily fortuitously runs into Rajit and the two drive all over the Tri-State area looking for some beer for Marshall.

Unfortunately, because Marshall allowed one of Lily’s calls to go to voice-mail, he failed to learn that her flight was cancelled and she wouldn’t be returning for two more days.

But in the end, the two finally did meet up, with a full marching bad in tow serenading Lily (think the wedding scene from ‘Love Actually’). AWWW. Ritual in tact!

I love how the show is really starting to explore the dynamic between Marshall and Robin. We got a big taste of it in “Little Minnesota” and now in tonight’s episode with the two of them debating the need for cute and adorable love rituals.  They make a fun twosome.

What this episode signified to me is that the characters are hitting mini-milestones in their lives, a small point where their stories change. While it doesn’t always seem like it means something as it is happening, it means something in the end.

Barney and Ted realize that at a certain age the dreams you wished for just five years ago aren’t the dreams you want for yourself now or just don’t fit in with the life you are leading. Granted, those two didn’t necessarily learn their lesson by conjuring up another dream to start a band but as the viewer, I like to believe that they came to a turning point. Barney is still sleeping with every girl he can but that still hasn’t taken Robin out of his head. Ted is coming full circle, still searching for what he wanted in episode 1, to have a relationship like Marshall and Lily’s relationship.

Marshall and Lily are trying to preserve that exact relationship that Ted has strived to have all these years. Their relationship is evolving. They are married now. Marshall has a job that takes time away from their daily lunch calls and they are both too exhausted to even stay awake long enough to kiss at the stroke of midnight. While they wanted to make it seem like they were OK with the changes that were happening like they were making the decisions rather than life making those decisions for them, ultimately the couple came to the realization that they both need to work to continue to be the couple they have been.

I will say that for a show that plays with time significantly, I didn’t entirely like the time-twist of Marshall and Lily missing each other at the airport my first watch-through. I know Future Ted mentioned that the story takes place over three days but the reveal of what was happening on which day left a bad taste when I first got to that part in the episode. After a couple more times watching it, I got it. Maybe I’ve been preparing too hard for “Lost” and got tripped up. I did love the call back to the gang’s ability to telepathically talk to each other. Neil’s faces were hysterical!

I also want to mention the commercial for “I Love You, Man”. I love Jason Segel but my love for Paul Rudd exceeds Jason exponentially. This movie looks straight up hilarious and I’ll be at the theaters in March.

What are your feelings towards this episode? Were you upset there was no Robarn? Do you feel that Marshall and Lily’s relationship wouldn’t be as special without all their rituals? Were you as happy as I was upon seeing Ranjit?

Jen is our HIMYM aficionado. She was very dismayed to not partake in her travel ritual of ordering pizza or Chinese when she got home from her recent vacation last week. She was also upset to be welcomed back by snow. While many moons ago she dreamed of having her own bar, she has learned to leave that to the experts and stay behind the desk rather than behind the bar. Though, she does make a mean drink.