How I Met Your Mother Recap: Season 7, Episodes 1+ 2 "The Best Man" and "The Naked Truth" (9/19/2011)
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I have two important things to tell you:
1) We're starting full-time recaps of this season of How I Met Your Mother, and
2) This is probably the longest headline I've ever written for an Ology post. Yay, me!
This fall, HIMYM promises to deliver even more of its signature tantric comedy, stringing us along with clues about the bride's identity while distracting us with more hilarious antics from Robin, Barney, Marshall, Lily, and the rest. Will this show ever just come clean and tell us who the mother is? I'm not sure. What I do know is that, at least according to Future Ted, the Powers That Mosby are planning to jerk us around for a while longer, at least. Not that we mind. I commend HIMYM for staying funny and never losing sight of its essential buddies-in-New-York magic. On to the summary!
The Best Man
This episode starts out as Barney's preparing for his wedding. (This is the important wedding, we figure, where Ted's supposed to meet The Mother.) He's struggling with some cold feet, and he summons Ted to help him through his pre-wedding jitters. To give Barney some perspective, Ted takes his bro--and the audience--through his memory of Punchy's wedding, which Marshall infamously ruined. The main drama here is that Lily and Marshall haven't told anyone that they'll soon be having a baby, but they're finding it tougher and tougher to hide, for both personal and practical reasons. Plenty of shots are going around at Punchy's extravagant reception, and Lily can only hand so many over to Marshall before he transforms into the more awesome, less predictable Drunk Marshall. Meanwhile, Ted's hoping to break a pattern his friends have started to notice by getting through his entire toast without crying. The past few times he's spoken at a wedding reception have been tough times for him--post-Stella, after his fallout with GNB, and after the failure of Mosbius Designs. He's determined to turn things around for Punchy and co., and he's armed with some good news to keep him from falling on his face. What's the good news? Well, it's... his face. He's made the cover of New York magazine as the youngest architect to design a skyscraper in NYC history. Marshall and Barney want him to press the advantage to impress women, but he's reluctant... until he sees one of Punchy's friends stealing the attention of the gathered crowd by showing off his newborn baby.
Ted tries to play the architect card here and there--a strategy in pretty sharp contrast to Barney's, which is to try out new tricks for his playboy playbook. He does everything from the Escaped Manslaughterer to the Guinness World Record Holder (for longest fingernails), and Robin looks on with a measure of jealousy: She has feelings for Barney once again and doesn't know what to do. When she hears he hasn't called Nora back, she gets a confidence boost and delivers one of the greatest dance sequences in sitcom history (srsly, YouTube that sh*t)... only to be cockblocked (can that happen to girls?) by Nora, who calls out of the blue. Robin dictates the message that Barney uses to win a chance to see Nora again... heart = breaking.
Anyhow, Robin and Ted end up talking over cigars (well, Robin does, anyway), sharing their doubts about the future and reaffirming their single-at-40 marriage pact. Then Lily shows up and breaks the news of her pregnancy, causing Ted to cry (with joy) during the toast. Someone calls him on it and he stammers an explanation only to have drunk Marshall get up and speak in his defense. Marshall points to Lily and declares "that little lady is pregnant," but the whole wedding party thinks he means Punchy's bride... who's also pregnant. The family feud that results ruins Punchy's wedding, and there you have it. The whole story makes Barney feel better about his choice. Lily appears to tell Ted that the bride wants to see him. HMMMMMM...
The Naked Truth
So Marshall's plan to work at the environmental law firm of one Garrison Cootes is going pretty well, and Ted's love life has taken a definite upswing--after standing at the newsstand and posing with his magazine cover, he's secured not one, not two, but... oh wait, actually yeah, two dates with two different girls. Problem is, he likes them both equally--one is brilliant, talented, and engaging, and the other is... willing to pay for dinner. Ted has to choose because the Architect's Ball is coming up, and it's kind of a big freakin' deal. Lenny Kravitz is gonna be there! He spends most of the episode trying to decide while Marshall freaks out: He's worried Cootes' background check will reveal a video he made in college in which he streaks around campus while announcing that he is the mighty Beercules. Marshall tracks down Pete, the guy who talked him into streaking, to convince him to take the video down, but he just ends up making a new one. He even mentions Cootes by name! In the end, he realizes that he can still be the awesome guy he is and be a good father--not to mention get the job. Cootes apparently thinks Beercules is a good potential employee and officially brings Marshall on board.
At the same time, Barney's trying to get Nora back, but she's still angry that he lied to her. She makes him go through every lie he's ever told to get a woman to sleep with him... which takes a while. Nora says it's too much for her, but Barney calls her bluff--she spent the whole night listening to his stories and could have left anytime. She still leaves, but he vows to stay at the diner where they spent the evening until she agrees to give him a second chance.
Ted ends up taking Robin to the ball after he sees how dedicated Barney is to Nora and wants a similar, un-ambivalent love for himself. (Lenny Kravitz, it turns out, is a famous architect; Robin, a dedicated fangirl, is a bit miffed.) Here's the kicker: The Architect's Ball is where he reunites... with Victoria! LE GASP! Thoughts on Victoria, everybody?
SumOlogy: A great season opener that gets us right back into the swing of things.
Grade: 8/10
Leftovers
More Robin/Barney dances, please. You know what, scratch that. More Robin/Barney everything.
The tie metaphor!
VICTORIA! AHH!
Robin's truth voice!
WE OUT!
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