HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Sexless Innkeeper
October 13, 2009 by Jen
Hey HIMYM fans, it’s Jen here, not at all ready to talk about last night’s episode. Please be advised that I would like to have “more than words”** with the writers of this episode.
I read a few articles and Tweets before this episode aired, raising my excitement for what was to come. After watching this episode, I felt like Ted, the episode’s titular sexless innkeeper – used. This is the one show I praise for keeping up with the mythos of the series and always delivering but tonight’s episode left enough plot holes for Whiskers the cat to lose many of his nine lives and left me unable to sit still.
The majority of the episode centered on Marshall and Lily being the over-eager couple during double dates. While this doesn’t totally ring untrue, I have two major issues with this. First. We know that Lily and Marshall had a wine and cheese double date at the apartment they shared with Ted and they were actually the ones annoyed and bored by the other couple (S1 “Okay Awesome). Second, how could Robin never have experienced a double date with them during her entire relationship with Ted? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
After a night of gourmet food and charades, the couples separate, each having an entirely different notion of how the night went. While Marshall and Lily thought it was the best night ever, Barney and Robin felt the complete opposite. Barney wiping away Robin’s brains after she pretends to shoot herself was one of the very few highlights in this rather lackluster episode.
When Robin and Barney finally come clean with Marshall and Lily on how they feel, they end up regretting their decision to break up with them when they see Marshall and Lily move on. We watch as Barney and Robin go through the stages of being dumped, including Barney in sweats (they’re Armani) and a rain-soaked scene begging for forgiveness reminiscent of the season one finale when Ted won Robin back. The finale scene of the night had Ted proving to Barney that his professor ensemble does attract the ladies, leaving Barney mystified and upset. Is he regretting the decision to be in a relationship with Robin?
Come on! Is every week going to be one of them regretting the decision to date exclusively? Last week Robin thought Barney was cheating when he was actually trying to make things work. The week before Robin was regretting the decision because Barney lied and thought it was OK to go to a strip club. And in the premiere they were lying to each other that they were in a relationship in the first place.
HIMYM: You made the decision to have Robarney, I beg of you to not spend every week showing us that you (and Robin and Barney) regret that decision. You were able to allow commitment-phobe Robin to be with Ted, why can’t you allow them to be entirely happy for one episode? It was very sad for me to agree with Robin when she said they are barely equipped to date each other, let alone double date.
Meanwhile, Professor Mosby opted not to suit up, but tweed up. On his first night testing out his new professorial look, Ted brings a girl home. Seems the ladies like the tweed…or they needed somewhere to crash. Barney and Robin tried to explain to Ted that it wasn’t the tweed jacket that attracted the hot girl, but rather the close proximity of Ted’s apartment to the bar that attracted the girl. Rather than cab it home or find a hotel, the hot girl opted to seduce Ted under false pretenses and then “pass out” on the couch before any sextivities commence, essentially making Ted the sexless innkeeper.
If you don’t know the tale of the sexless innkeeper…
Originally I wanted to annihilate of this episode. So much of last night’s episode was boring and just not entertaining to me. I was actually brought to rage. Then, like Marshall and Lily, I was going to forgive them when I heard “All By Ourselves” because I thought Cobie and Neil were singing (they weren’t). So I think I’m just going to write down the few things I enjoyed seeing and then hand over the comments to you.
- Ranjit and his wife being one of the couples Lily and Marshall dated, and who told them “we’re just not that into you”.
- The grading papers drinking game Ted jokes about at the bar – I’d be drunk all the time!
- Another website was introduced: www.itwasthebestnightever.com.
- The egg timer dings leading to the rain-soaked apology.
What did you think of this episode? Did you like it more than I did? Are they keeping you interested in the Robarney relationship?
**Extreme’s Nuno Bennencourt played guitar on Marshall’s song and was seen in the online parody of the band’s video for their biggest hit ”More Than Words”.
Jen is our resident HIMYM guru. Due to her overwhelming TV schedule, she had to break up with a few of her once favorite TV shows. She doesn’t entirely regret the decision but sometimes she wonders how they are doing without her.
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Jen every week you say the show shouldn’t revolve around Barney and Robin but every week your review of the show talks about nothing else. There was a whole plot B with Ted but you hardly make mention of it. There were so many great moments that you didn’t even mention because you were too hung up on the Barney and Robin relationship. Do you even like the show or do you just care about them as a couple?
I felt like the B plot (Ted) was really weak also, and I’m not loving what they’re doing with RoBarney either. Make them a quirky and unique couple, sure – but either take them apart or leave them alone without the regret. Totally agree.
I don’t know Reina, I think when Robin and Barney are the A-plot (although nothing REALLY stood out as an A-plot this week, IMO), it’s fair to devote the majority of the recap to them. I’m with Jen–there were funny moments (the wiping fake guts off the face, the video montages, the sexless inkeeper), but the actual episode just didn’t add up to much. It was okay, not great–not terrible either, but just fine, and I think it’s a totally valid opinion to want the show to either commit to Robin and Barney or ditch it, because it is kind of putting a drag on the show. And I’m actually kind of a recent convert, in the last year or two–I saw that romance develop but I still don’t feel really attached to it either way. I’m just a fan of whatever makes the show better, and if this isn’t it, bail, and if it is, make it funnier.
Jen I think you do a fine job with your recaps. I did not care for this episode at all….which is not the norm! oh well , there’s always next week.
NUNO has aged well !
I completely agree, this episode didn’t do it for me: it didn’t bring the funny (except for Marshall’s song) and I thought there were not only plot inconsistencies but old material.
It really bothered me that we had the whole “Lily is so excited about hanging out with RoBarn who is now a couple because Lily and Marshall love couple friends except they’re really annoying so they will get dumped” because that’s basically exactly what happened in the season premiere…Lily got overly excited that Robin&Barney were together and started planning all kinds of things the 4 of them could do, then they blew her off and she cried over ice cream. Why do that again tonight only a few episodes into the season!?
And RoBarn has to know how corny Lily and Marshall can be about certian things…they could not have been expecting a low-key double date. And they hang out all the time anyway so what is new there?
And yeah, the whole reason Robin&Barney risked their emotions and pursued monogamy and walked the tricky line between friends/more than friends is because of how much they like each other and enjoy each other’s company. We haven’t really seen them enjoy that for even a whole episode before introducing a bunch of contrived obstacles like the strip club. Neither of them are the “normal” relationship type of people so why are they going to brunch all the time and dealing with petty jealousy?
oh well!!!
I’m with you Jen. And I would rather Robin and Barney’s relationship NOT be the A-plot one week….meaning I want them together, happy, probably a little dysfunctional and part of the group. Instead, every week we get a spotlight on some form of regret/angst. I’ve been looking forward to this relationship for so long, and it has so much potential, I hate that they are ruining it. As for the rest of the episode….I did laugh at the poems, Marshall’s cheese pushing, the shot to the head and wiping it off, and a few other things. But it’s frustrating to know that this show can do so much better!
I think the focus on Barney & Robin not being sure how to handle their relationship is totally reasonable. They’re both so weird about relationships — it’s only logical that they’d take a long time to adjust to this one. And besides, there was a lot going on other than just them — their storyline was just as much Marshall & Lilly’s as it was theirs (maybe even MORE Marshall & Lilly’s, since there was the bit about Marshall’s song & website), and Ted had his own storyline. Give them a break.
I find that once I notice a continuity mistake I am bothered by it the whole episode and just can’t let it go. That is what happened to me this episode. Right away Ted is explaining how Marshal and Lily have been the only married couple and have been trying really hard to find another couple. They then flashback to 2007. 2007! This fashback takes place in their new apartment, not their old apartment with Ted. In this flashback Marshal tried to lock down New Year’s and the guy says, “It’s only April.” So that means that flashback was supposed to take place April 2007. Too bad Marshal and Lily weren’t married until May 2007, and didn’t move into that apartment until Season 4, episode 4 (Intervention) which took place mid October 2008. The whole episode it drove me crazy! By the end of the episode I found that I didn’t care for the whole thing at all. I’m glad that others felt the same way, and that I didn’t just write the whole episode off for just a continuity error. But, seriously – ususally this show is so much better than that.
I didn’t think it was a great episode either, but I just wanted to make the point that when Marshall and Lily sneaked out in OK Awesome and during most (if not all) of Ted and Robin dating….Marshall and Lily were only engaged. Granted, they were always presented as ‘that married couple,’ but once they were actually married I think there has been a lot of growth shown toward actually enjoying those parties they ran away from years ago. And since their personalities are the way they are, of course they would go over-the-top with it.
It still wasn’t the funniest story, and you didn’t do a disservice to the Ted story, it was that simple and pretty forgettable. But as always, even when the whole thing doesn’t mesh, there were plenty of funny moments, and himym bad episodes are still better than most comedies’ good episodes. I have faith this was just a misstep, not a completely wrong direction.
Reina: This past season the posts revolve around Robarney because they seem to be the main focus. Even during the times when Barney and Robin are not in a scene together, the focus has been about their relationship (Robin talking to Lily about Barney cheating, Barney in Ted’s Robin 101 class, Marshall telling Barney at the strip club that Robin would be upset to find out that they were there). If I didn’t focus on that at all, I think it would make it sound like I wasn’t watching! Quite honestly Ted’s B-plot was barely there. Half of Ted’s plot was telling Barney and Robin that they need to tell Marshall and Lily the truth.
Oh trust me I love this show. I think what I was hoping with Barney and Robin’s relationship was that it would be similar to Robin and Ted’s, NOT meaning their relationship would be similar but rather their relationship wouldn’t be the primary focus of every episode. While Ted and Robin were together each episode wasn’t solely about them, it was about the gang and their friendship. That is the show I love. That is what the show is normally about, how Ted’s friendships and day-to-day life have led him to meet his wife. While certain episodes of course had certain relationships as the main storyline, the following week it was someone’s turn.
c: While I see why Marshall and Lily would like to have other couples to go out with, I don’t see why they would get all excited to “date” Robarney. It’s not as if the night before they weren’t with them at the bar. Or at Ted’s apartment. I like the fact that the eventually did find another couple to do couple things that totally got them and I was actually upset how easily Marshall and Lily gave them up for Robin and Barney. They all have friends outside of the core 5 we see and I like when they show us other sides of our main friends (like how Lily talks a certain way when she’s around a particular friend or when Robin started to hang out with the Woo girls and when Marshall hangs out with Brad).
I totally agree that at least Robin should have understood how hyped up Lily and Marshall would be about their couple date. Robin has spent time with the two of them in their apartment (remember “No Tomorrow”, the episode when they find out that their brand new apartment is slanted?)
Kerry: OMG, you are totally right! If I had had the patience to realize that last night, I would have been beyond mad. This show is normally fantastic at making sure those little details are right but last night it was flawed. “Dowistrepia” aired in fall 2007 and they didn’t move in until March 2008 and at that time they realized the floor was slanted so they stayed with Ted even longer and borrowed money from him in order to fix the floor. So they stayed until October 2008. Dang, you are GOOD!
Steve: Great point. Lily wanted to act all grown up and that’s why they were having the wine and cheese night at the apartment. Marshall felt like he was missing out and was bored so he snuck out. Then Lily snuck out after him. They were still not ready to grow up. They were still living with Ted. I think after “The Duel” when Marshall and Ted fought over the apartment, it was Lily that put her foot down and said that they wouldn’t continue to live in that same apartment. They were getting married and needed their own place to start their lives together. After their separation and reconciliation there was a lot of growth for them.
Now that’s tough love.
I generally hated the episode. Marshall’s song was great. When they let Jason Segal do what he does best the results are always rewarding. Continuing to make Marshal and Lily appear to be psychotic buffoons is not rewarding, it’s stupid.
Fun fact: Jason Segal and Nuno Bennencourt are touring with Maroon 5 this summer.
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