HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Duel Citizenship
October 20, 2009 by Jen
Are you ready to talk aboot last night’s episode, eh?
Tonight was all about what people may have to let go. For Robin, she had to decide what to do regarding her citizenry in order to avoid deportation. Meanwhile Ted had to come to terms with his place in Marshall and Lily’s relationship.
Let me take a moment to gripe then we can continue on.
I know Lily and Marshall always had a freakishly close relationship. What I don’t understand is why at this point in their relationship are they even more completely glued to one another? They aren’t newlyweds any more. Heck, they aren’t even that young of a couple. They’ve been together for a dozen years. I’m also having a hard time grasping how Ted can be unaware of some Lilyisms. Not only has Ted known Lily as long as Marshall has, but he has also lived with her. There is no way he didn’t know about Lily’s bladder issues.
We’ve learned that he and Robin never double dated with Lily or Marshall and now that he has never taken a road trip with both of them nor know about her constant need to pee. This all rings so false to me. I’m playing the “Friends” card here. While I loved “Friends,” I had issues when they would just randomly come up with a new trait for characters that was not there before, just to fit in with the episode they wanted to write. I feel like this has been happening a lot on HIMYM lately. It’s pulling me out of the story.
OK, rant over. No more complaints from this sentence on.
I loved how they showcased Robin’s differences in certain situations due to her Canadianess. From wearing a skirt to go ice skating to an insane tirade in a language I can only dub “Canuck,” to her leisure time at The Hoser Hut that includes wielding a chair, the Canadian jokes just kept a-coming last night!
Unfortunately due to the aforementioned chair wielding, Robin was facing legal action. She had to decide to either become an American citizen or face deportation. In typical fashion, Barney decided to rise to the occasion and teach Robin not only to pass the naturalization test but to also become a true American. If that was only to allow NPH to list a bunch of studying double-entendres, so be it. The show has taken many punches to Canada, but this time around they also poked fun of America.
Meanwhile Ted was experiencing the worst road-trip ever. Constant pee breaks, an audio book rather than fun music, a stop at a couples’ B&B…his Marshall and Ted time was seriously encroached with Lily being there. So what could Ted do to salvage this road trip? Kidnap Marshall! Taking a page out of Barney’s handbook, Mosby, I like it!
Robin ended up on her own road trip, landing in Toronto after meeting a women’s curling team at the Hoser Hut. Barney had to go save her from herself. Actually, he ended up needing to be saved because the Canadians did not appreciate the speech he gave while at Tim Horton’s. In the end Robin realized she can be both Canadian and American and was going to become a dual citizen and Ted realized Lily didn’t completely ruin his trip with Marshall and that the three of them were in a different place than they were in college.
Things I loved in this episode:
-The “Shrimp Fried Rice! Shrimp Fried Rice!” chant and how Ted eagerly joined in
-Everything having to do with Tantrum
-The “Goodbye Sparky” audio book –read by Kenny Rogers!
-“Do you enjoy sitting on a bench?”
-Barney’s American test
-The Lily and Marshall glob
-Revisiting The Proclaimers biggest hit
Jen is our resident HIMYM guru. She is dang proud to be an American. She also likes to boast about how many actors and comedians Hollywood has poached from The Great White North. To name a few: Dan Akroyd, Evangline Lilly, Joshua Jackson, Michael J. Fox, Ryan Reynolds, Alan Thicke, Sarah Chalke and Cobie Smulders; the last three all having appeared on HIMYM.
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Kinda off topic and refers to last week:
Question: did Ted and Robin ever date when Lily and Marshall were married? I seem to remember that Ted and Robin broke up before their wedding. I think that in the earlier episode when Barney and Robin went to Marshall and Lily’s, it was pointing out that Marshall and Lily had never double-dated when there were MARRIED. If true, this would help with the “Ted and Robin never double-dated with Marshall and Lily.” Maybe they double-dated when Marshall and Lily were just engaged. I hope this is the case because I am still not believing that Marshall and Lily and Ted and Robin didn’t double-date.
As a Canadian and a huge fan of HIMYM, let me say THANK YOU to the writers for finally turning their hilarious humour on America. Don’t get me wrong, we Canadians have a pretty good sense of humour and probably love Canuck jokes more than anyone, but it was great to see some shots fired at the other side. I loved Barney’s “you’re wrong and belligerent and insulting” line when he finally deemed Robin “an American”. Not to say I think that’s an apt description of American culture, no more than the totally over-the-top accent of the Tim Horton’s employee is anywhere near accurately Canadian (sounded like Minnesota to me), it’s just funny.
Btw, is Tim Horton’s a recognizable reference for Americans? I know they’ve expanded into the States, but I was shocked to see it play such a big role in the ep, like most Americans would know what it was. And yes, the coffee is pretty damn good – most of us inject a catheter of it at least once a day here (when we’re not cheating on them with Starbucks).
Loved the Tantrum bits, so funny. And I felt for Ted, man. I so know that feeling – I’ve been on a few “couply” field trips as a single and it’s no fun. Best ep of the season so far, in my opinion. Great recap, Jen!
Ted and Robin were definitely over right before the wedding (they told Barney during the wedding). Ted said that Lily and Marshall have been looking for a couple to double date with for some time. I took this as not only during their marriage but during their engagement and during their dating. To that, Ted and Robin should have definitely double dated them at some point and for them to not have just seems completely off.
Did anyone else remember that we’ve already had a “Robin might be deported” episode? Barney proposed to her then. But now that they are dating he only helped her become an American.
Nicole: I’ve personally have never heard of Tim Horton’s before this episode. And I agree HIMYM’s Canadian accent seems more Minnesotan, which is odd since Marshall should be the one with that accent!
Jen and Nicole: I live in Minnesota and I am from North Dakota (Fargo is in ND). And I don’t agree that the accent sounded Minnesotan/Fargoan. Just sayin’…
I did love this episode, though!
I don’t want to find things to be annoyed about, but in addition to Ted not knowing about Lily’s bladder issues they also showed Ted and Marshall eating AND drinking in the Fiero during those flashbacks!!! What happened to the no eating/drinking/groceries rule? Were they just too pumped up on the Tantrum to care? Or maybe beef jerkey doesn’t really count? Since this show is normally so good with continuity, when they start missing things like the double dating stuff, and now these details, it really stands out to me.
That being said….There were a lot of funny lines and bits that worked for me and I really enjoyed this episode overall.
ITA that the Canadians sound like “fake” Minnesotans. I’m a Canadian with two roommates from Minnesota and none of us sound like the Canadians on HIMYM, but it’s almost like someone took all our different little inflections and put them into one character… at least they didn’t sound Irish like Jame van der Beek sort of did.
After living in the US for a while I can relate to what Robin was going through in last night’s ep. I thought it was a little unbelievable that she could just go take a citizenship test the next day though, although maybe after almost getting deported she had already got the ball rolling.
Diana: You are totally right! Ugh, now I’m upset about that.
Jenn: I know part of the citizenship thing is being sponsored, as well as a lot of legal paperwork. It seemed like a spur of the moment decision on her part. Here in Boston they do the citizenship tests almost monthly, it occurs right across from my work and the line wraps around the convention center. But I would think one would have to make an appointment and have to submit paperwork in order to get the ball rolling. She didn’t seem to be thinking of dual citizenship last time she was going to be deported. She got a job in Japan instead. The easier solution there would have been to become an American.
Here’s my question: what country was the person suing her from? The person that was hit at the bar would also be a Canadian, being that Americans don’t seem to frequent the bar. Or maybe that person has a dual citizenship? Just curious of all the little details of the night.
Sorry about the accent thing! Someone on ANTM attempted to do a Canadian accent and if I can say so myself, it was even worse than what HIMYM does!