(S05E02) If there was ever an episode that demonstrated how creative Bays and Thomas and their writing staff can be, it's this one. Not only did we bend time and space -- Ted even had an alternate universe-ish goatee -- but we got a doppelganger and an elaborate fantasy about hiccup disease thrown in for good measure.

What's interesting about it is, the bending-time-and-space A story, while fun to watch, turned out to be not much different than what we may have seen in the past. The B story was much more entertaining, and it gave us some insight to how the two currently active HIMYM relationships are going to run for the time being.

Let's get the "double date" out of the way first. Sure, it was cute to see Ted and Jen slowly realize that they had gone out on the same exact date seven years ago. It was even cuter to see them go back over what each of them had done wrong the first time around. I even thought that at some point this date would work out and we'd be seeing more of Jen down the line.

But two things didn't sit well with me, and one of them wasn't the fact that Ted didn't call Jen back in 2002 (that seems like a Ted thing to do). The first thing was that, even after the mediocre date, 2002 Ted and Jen would still kiss at the end of it. The second thing is that at the end of the second date, 2009 Ted would suddenly realize that he likes being douchey and lame, and wants whoever he's with to like his douchey lameness. That seems more like something season one Ted would say, not the older, supposedly more mature season five Ted.

And while Old Ted told his kids that their mother laughed at his "mighty shelfish" joke (with only 30% pity, according to Old Ted), I'd still like to believe that 2009 Ted has grown beyond his storybook notions of love.

OK, on to the funny part. Man, I laughed hard at Marshall's way of fantasizing about other women. And the funny parts were both broad and detailed: Lily's hiccup malady; the fact that that both she and the priest at her funeral give Marshall permission to find "that delivery girl from that one time" and "plow her like a cornfield"; the tiny doll furniture Marshall takes to making during his "appropriate" time period of mourning... it was all funny as hell. And I loved Lily's reaction when she found out: she wasn't upset that Marhsall fantasizes about other women, she doesn't like that "you have to kill me off" to do it.

But the interesting stuff didn't end there. We got to meet Jasmine, otherwise known as Stripper Lily. And we also found out about the other doppelgangers in the group: Lesbian Robin (not a stretch) and Moustache Marshall (also not a stretch... he's known as "Señor Justice"). The twins do seem to represent some aspect of each of the gang's personalities, don't they? Robin's the alpha male, Marshall wants to be a hero lawyer, and Lily's always had a bit of the stripper in her. The fact that she bought Marshall a private dance with her twin is sick and funny and cool all at once. What are the twins of Ted and Barney going to be like? I guess we'll find out, as Old Ted mentioned that they met the other two doppelgangers at some point.

Here's the kicker of that whole B-story, though: while Lily is fine with Marshall going to strip clubs and fantasizing about other women, Robin is decidedly not fine with it. And the Best Barneyism of the week is Barn's insistence that he's got such a cool girlfriend that he can go to strip clubs with impunity. He's either in denial or is trying to convince both Robin and himself that there's nothing wrong with it. The funniest part about all this is that Robin and Barney are acting very boyfriend-girlfriend in this scenario, and not even trying to pretend that they're not that serious. Have they dropped the pretense with each other and just admitted it to themselves that they're in a relationship? Or is this what they think is all part of the elaborate ruse they concocted last week? Only time will tell.

Other fun stuff:

• Barney to Marshall: "I will be the wingman of your mind."
• Marshall's fantasy is so elaborate, he's already fake-created a foundation to research Lily's hiccup malady. "We're this close to finding a cure!"
• Ted's description of the "check dance" is so true it hurts. I've also been on dates where the woman talked too much about her cats and/or her ex-boyfriend. Very painful to relive those memories...
• In the tag at the end of the show, Lily and Stripper Lily change places. Real or a Marshall fantasy?
• Wonder where the Origins of Chewbacca exhibit is going to be in 2010?

[Watch clips and free episodes of HIMYM at SlashControl.]