How I Met Your Mother: Little Boys

(S03E04) It's funny; as boring as the Ted and Robin relationship was -- from season one's chase to season two's short-lived domestic bliss -- it was one of the biggest reasons why people tuned into How I Met Your Mother week after week. The other was the interaction amongst the ensemble cast. It was the proverbial glue that kept the show together. Now, with Ted and Robin broken up, and the two of them separately groping around until they find the next big relationship, the whole chemistry of the show has been askew.

This week's episode is no exception. Robin has roped Lily onto her island of sitcommy dating misadventures, leaving the boys to play in the sandbox on the other side of the playground. And the result is just as uninspired as the first three episodes have been.

One of the big issues that has contributed to the show's "off-ness" this year is that we haven't really pushed forward the whole "mother" story since the very first episode of the season. And, without any significant Robin-and-Ted interaction, that mythology becomes more necessary than ever. Yes, Robin and Ted hang out a little in this episode -- though Ted still exhibits a little bit of discomfort over talking about his ex's dating life -- but there really is no emotional exploration of their breakup; it's basically the two of them sitting next to each other.

So here's what we've been getting: Wild Ted's not-so-wild life as a single man, and Robin going through the book of sitcom dating cliches. There were a couple of mild twists in Robin's story, but nothing that couldn't be predicted. We knew she'd get attached to the kid. And the "new mommy" part -- that little Dougie got more attached to the other girl Robin's guy was dating -- wasn't that big of a twist, either. I think my favorite part of the entire story was seeing how Robin first interacted with the kid, trying to discuss the Fed cutting the interest rate with the six-year-old. Also, the flashback, where Robin tells her little sister that all she wants to do after a hard week at school is to relax and read her Highlights and drink her OJ in peace, was textbook Scherbatsky.

With Ted, we got a game of... well, "Who's Got Game?" It held a lot of promise, didn't it? A classic opportunity for Barney to pull a couple of switcheroos and deploy his usual mind games. But, even here, it didn't exactly surprise much that Barney would freak Ted out by making him think he's following Barney in the conquest of Mt. Stacy. "Do you think 200 showers is enough?" asks Barney, suggesting that almost a year's worth of cleansing won't remove his scent. But I did like the tiny pith-helmeted Barneys that Ted saw scaling the heights and plumbing the depths of his date.

Really, the best part of either plot was Marshall's pathetic attempts to prove he has game, from calculating the number of times he and Lily have had sex -- he counted the lull when he thought someone looked like a "young Lily Aldrin," but not the six months they were separated? -- to recounting his favorite pickup line: "You a model?"

By the way, was this the most linearly-told episode of HIMYM in a while or was it me? Except for the flashbacks where Barney recounts how he systematically used Ted to work his way into Stacy's heart (but not her pants... he's really gonna have fun at that Sunsplash festival), this seemed to be a pretty straightforward episode.

A few notes:

• Our fearless leader, Keith, IMed me a good observation about the "Aunt Robin" drawings at the end of the episode: "Interesting that 'Aunt Robin' was always without an uncle in those crayon drawings." That is interesting; wonder if that's part of the mythology?
• The cold open -- where the gang discusses the "but" part of any set-up -- got my hopes up that this was going to be a more classic HIMYM episode. I did like the list of "buts" they secretly had for Robin: Ted: "She's afraid of commitment!" Lily: "She's a gun nut!" Barney: "She's Canadian!" Marshall: "She didn't like Field of Dreams!"
• Despite the head games he played with Ted, my vote for Best Barneyism is when he called "shotgun" after Robin uttered the line "I like sports cars but I'm not about to pass a Ferrari through my vagina."
• Second place is Barney's creative eye patch pick-up story. "Patch up!"
• Robin to Lily, who's little Doug's teacher: "Doug's right. You are a pain in the ass."
• More Robin: her onslaught of break-up cliches she said to Doug after she realized that the little guy never got dumped before. Of course, she got them right back when she realized that she wasn't the "new mommy" in the picture.

Right now, it looks like Bays and Thomas are marking time until they get back into the whole mother mythology in earnest. I'm really hoping that's true and that we're going to be seeing some better episodes soon, because right now, watching the show tread water isn't a pretty sight.