'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: "The Stinson Missile Crisis"

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'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: "The Stinson Missile Crisis"

On Oct 04, 2011

How I Met Your Mother Recap: Season 7, Episode 4 "The Stinson Missile Crisis" (10/3/2011)
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Tonight's How I Met Your Mother episode, "The Stinson Missile Crisis," has one of my favorite HIMYM frame stories ever. Robin's landed in court-mandated therapy for assaulting another woman, and, over the course of the episode, she gradually explains why. It seems she's taken a page from the Ted Mosby Book of Storytelling, since she has to get into a convoluted narrative about Marshall and Lily in order to finally arrive at her curbside brawl, but the journey is pretty hilarious.

The fire fueling Robin's violent act is, of course, Barney's ongoing relationship with Nora, which has just experienced a major upshift--we'll get to that later. Though Robin helped set Barney up with her co-worker, she's now going through a major Stinson relapse, and there's nothing she can do to win Barney back. Nothing, that is, except help to dismantle his girl-ensnaring empire. See, Barney's got a series of automatic courtship engines in place--they're called Bimbo Delivery Systems, and include ads for free breast reduction consultations, ads for lawyers exposing fradulent breast reduction ads (among other things) and a machine known as the Cold Call 5000 that puts Barney in contact with the city's foremost glitter/pasty enthusiasts. Sounds great, right? It is, until Nora's on her way back and Barney's still hooking women through his various schemes. That's when Barney decides he has to turn off the bimbo machine for good--and he'll need Robin's help to do so. Of course, Robin only takes the job to get closer to Barney, hoping to win him back during Nora's absence. By the time she gets to the end of the task, however, she's no closer to Barney's heart--he still considers her his very finest bro. A frustrated Robin sends the last BDS straggler to interrupt Barney's date with fresh-from-the-plane Nora, who's back early, then talks to Ted and rethinks her decision. Hence the beatdown outside Cafe L'Amour... and the mandatory therapy.

How did Ted know enough to set Robin straight? He learned the same reason--trust your friends to get it right, and be happy when they are, even if leaves you out--when he tried to intervene in Marshall and Lily's pregnancy. Lily's doctor has allowed her "just a little bit" of no-no food and drink items like wine and Cheetos, and Ted fears for the health of the unborn Eriksen. He insists on visiting the doctor's office and interrupts an appointment, then convinces Marshall that he should be taking a more active role in the pregnancy (mostly because Marshall feels bad for him). Marshall decides to withhold sex, so Lily skips a birthing class Ted's arranged and Ted and Marshall end up there, acting as an expecting couple in one of the best Ted-Marshall bro scenes in recent memory. At the class, both Ted and Marshall learn their valuable lesson. Ted starts giving Marshall and Lily some space and thus says what Robin needs to hear when they finally reunite.

SumOlogy: A great stand-alone (thanks Barney!) and a nice episode for the season's overall plot arc, "The Stinson Missile Crisis" has all the makings of a Mother classic.

Grade: 8.5/10

Leftovers

Remember that one time Barney serenaded Nora?

NOBODY ASKED YOU, PATRICE

TEAM BABY SHIRT

'It's fascinating how profoundly little... I know... about vaginas."

"We've always been a trio! We're right up there with Batman and Robin and Alfred!"

stinsonbreastreduction.com is a real website. Go to it!

"Who says that two bros can't rock a birthing class?"

"My next patient thinks he's God. On the off chance that he's right, I don't wanna keep him waiting."

"Don't lose hope, Ted. That slut is out there!"

FORESHADOWING: "Where the hell is Marshall?"