(S04E04) The first three episodes of HIMYM season four have been uneven, as you might expect at the beginning of a new season. The last two episodes have been funny, but it was mostly missing what made the show so special and attracted such a rabid set of fans. This episode, however, had everything every Mother fan could hope for: Huge laughs, time shifts back and forth, clues big and small about where the story is going to go, and Barney unrepentantly trying to hook up.

Oh, let's just get the Best Barneyism out of the way right now: it's his Future Barney / old man hookup Daily Double. Sure, his not-so-subtle references to his shrink's assessments were funny, as was his continued dalliance with fire-based magic. But Barn (and Neil Patrick Harris) really sold the old man bit, from his voice, to his shaky hands. We knew Barney had a bit of the thespian in him, but he used that skill to its maximum this week.

On to the interventions. My favorite was the one that Marshall got for his Cat in the Hat style chapeau. "I do not like you in that hat / I want to hit you with a bat," said Robin. Not the same Dr. Seuss book, but close enough. Cobie Smulders was a comedy machine in this episode, wasn't she? From Robin's drunken uber-Canadianness ("I'll give you summerteeth... summer over here... summer over dere...") to her matter-of-fact assertion that she's hotter than Stella, it was a very Cobie week.

In fact, everyone had funny things to do and say this week, rather than just kind of be in the background. A good Mother episode incorporates all the gang's personalities into the story, and this episode did a good job of it. Marshall's rant about the old apartment being home, Barney's anger at the breakup of a girl fight, Lily's assessment of the Dowistrepla apartment: "It's a black hole where dreams go to die!", Ted's insistence on calling it an "encyclopaedia," and Robin's lack of sentimentality towards moving were all funny moments.

But, of course, everyone wants to know why in 2009 they still have an apartment that's upstairs from McLaren's, and who exactly lives there. I think at this point, we all wanted to give Ted an intervention regarding his relationship with Stella -- my note would read, "the two of you have less chemistry than siblings!" -- but it looks like Bays and Thomas have beat us to it. Barney thinks marriage is stupid and Marshall and Lily think Ted was going too fast (as does one of Lily's kindergarteners and his mother, apparently), but we all by now that Stella isn't the mother, and this isn't going to end well. It's just the beginning of the end of that relationship.

Of course, there are subtle signs: We know that during the goat incident cited last year, Ted and Robin were somehow living together. We can also see that Ted's not wearing a wedding ring in that 2009 flash-forward (thanks to the McDuffees for that observation). We also know someone is still living in that apartment, despite the fact that they all got together to drink the top-shelf scotch just like Ted proposed ("I want to cut mine with Red Bull," said Barney, who should be used to drinking top-shelf stuff by now). So, is it Ted and Robin? Are they back together or just roomies (we can see Japan not working out for Robin and her needing a place to stay)? Ah, conspiracy theories and more questions than answers. Old-school Mother, how I missed you.

More fun stuff:
- The explanation for the burn mark on the wall led to a nice unraveling of the whole Intervention tradition, which led to the re-thought intervention everyone wanted to give Ted. Very nice piece of writing.
- "That's what happens when I skim the evite..." Only Barney would bring booze to a real intervention and not feel guilty about it.
- What the hell was that accent of Lily's? I guess it's some combo of all the actors who played James Bond combined. And, yes, I do include George Lazenby in there.
- Where can you get the robotic cookie jar, R2SweetTooth?
- Ted really is "douchae," isn't he?