How I Met Your Mother: How I Met Everyone Else

(S03E05) Finally.

We finally got an episode this season that was not only really funny, but had all the time-bending and multi-threaded elements that made people enjoy HIMYM for the first two seasons. It's the first episode where all five cast members are present, accounted for, and together, and it's the first one where we're not concentrating as much on Ted and Robin (well, at least Robin) and getting back to having Lily, Marshall and Barney be more than just bit players. Yes, we need to find out more about "the mother," and soon. But for now, I'll take more episodes like this one as we get back to the mythology of the show.
Wasn't it great that the the episode all took place at the booth at McLaren's, more or less in real time? It served as a nice base from which Bays and Thomas were able to shoot back in time to examine how everybody in the group met each other. But I'll get to that in a second. First we need to talk about Blah Blah.

I'd like to think that Carter and Craig are Greg the Bunny fans and they used Count Blah as inspiration to name the hot-crazy woman Ted brought to the pub. But that's just wishful thinking on my part. Anyway, Blah Blah was bringing the crazy something fierce, wasn't she? She makes handbags! That's not at all crazy, is it? But the way Blah Blah immediately latched onto whatever Robin said was scary as hell.

Barney was right; she wasn't above that Vickie Mendoza Diagonal on the Hot-Crazy Scale (HCS). Even if what she whispered to Ted sent her up there temporarily, her threats about telling Marshall about how Lily and Ted really met truly sent her crashing into the Shelly Gillespie Zone.

Can you guess that the highly scientific HCS is the Best Barneyism of the week? Just like the fantasies men have of riding the tricycle, almost every man has his own mental HCS. It's a given. Now do I agree with Barney that any hot woman who meet men online are either crazy, men or have some weird hidden secret? Not quite. But it's interesting how the usually snobby Ted has resorted to asking people out while playing World of Warcraft (and his choice of character is also interesting).

My favorite meeting story has to be the Ted-Lily story, mainly because Ted was so convinced that "Unreasonably Small Mouth Opening Girl" was Lily, and he was, as Lily thought, "Too Much Tongue Guy." The story showed every aspect of why Ted needs a comeuppance every so often; we tend to forget that he's always been obnoxious, it just that he controls it more now. Lily and Marshall's story is next, mainly because of how idealized it is and how, in Old Ted's words, it's like a "choreographed dance." Of course, after the whole story of how Lily knew to go to that particular dorm room, Marshall's desire to hit that "black-haired goth chick" seemed much more satisfying to me.

Then, of course, we have Barney finding his wingmen sometime in 2001. It's amazing how, despite the fact that Ted thought he was kind of a jerk, he did shave off the goatee after Barney told him to. And, notice that the top of Marshall's head was a bit curlier in 2001? Those little details are fun to see, as was the bright red poofy 'do on the 2001 version of Lily.

Other fun:

• Sandwiches. What a great substitute. And a good way for Old Ted to tell the story to his kids. But why he'll skirt the pot issue with them but have no problem describing his threesome is beyond me.
• Marshall was so "full" from that "sandwich" that after Ted introduced himself as his new roomie, Marshall still thought Ted was the dean, only now he was the dean and his roommate.
• Interesting how we didn't really see how Robin met anyone, probably because we've already seen it; she did meet the other four at pretty much the same time. She really wasn't a big part of this episode, was she? Well, except to be a "foil" for Blah Blah. "Look at how she's laughing at me!" BB tells Ted, as we flash on Robin disinterestedly staring and eating popcorn.
• Ah, so good to see Combover Marshall and Lily Rodham Clinton again. Now we also see the 2020 version of Ted, who seems to look exactly the same, but has neater hair. "Where is my wife?" Ted asks as they consume a communal "sandwich" (conveniently placed in a Ziploc bag) at the reunion. I really want to see more glimpses of the gang in the future. Can snapshots of Barney and Robin be next?
• It's fitting that the first meeting between Slappy Brothers (Marshall and Barney) involved a burn on Barney. If Barn didn't challenge Marshall by having him hit on Lily, thus temporarily making Marshall a hero to Barney, would they have become friends? Hard to say...
• Robin's assurances to Blah Blah that she was a lox in bed when she was dating Ted. "I just laid there."
  
• Ted breaks out the sign language to burn Barney on their first meeting, while at the same time giving Barn the impression that Ted's the best wingman ever. Typical of Barn that the fake number he got never even aroused suspicion. He must get a lot of those.
• Robin's 16 nos when Blah Blah thought she and Barney were a couple.

As you can tell, I liked this episode. A lot. It's a return to form, and I hope there will be more like it this season. Just add Robin into the mix a touch more, and we'll be back to the show that I spied across the room and fell for two years ago.