(S05E18) Ever come across an episode of one of your favorite shows that just felt half-baked to you? Sure, it had its funny moments, but there was something about the main story that begged to be explored a bit more. Or maybe one of the B-stories looked like it had more potential but it just ended up being either a one-note joke or dropped altogether.

This episode had both. I wanted the main story of Ted always bringing around his "skanks" to group celebrations to be tied in a little more to his search for the all-exalted mother. And I also wanted to see more about both Barney's and Marshall's relative abilities in front of a camera lens. Both left me dissatisfied.

There was something to the "Barney looks the same in every picture" plot, even if it was just an opportunity for Robin to try to catch Barn in increasingly silly poses. There could have even been a flashback -- in super slo-mo -- to examine how he manages to get himself in position so fast. But it was just passed off as fact that Barn never takes a bad picture... until he's fed cliantro, that is. Since that was the only thing for Neil Patrick Harris to hang his Barney hat on this week, I'll give his picture-posing prowess the Best Barneyism this week.

I was OK with Marshall's inability to look anything other than "dead, stoned, and cold" in his photos as the one-note joke it was, mainly because the writers didn't call attention to it as much as they did the Barney gag. And, anyway, it was much more realistic; how many people do you know manage to somehow look drunk in even the most posed photos you take of them?

So the lack of real meaty stories for Barney, Robin -- who was there mainly as a line-spewer this week -- and Marshall left room for a lot of exploration of Ted and why he keeps hoping that the next woman he brings to a gathering of the gang is "The One." We could have tied it back nicely to some of his previous serious relationships. Instead, the only really identifiable past girlfriend was Laura Prepon as the insufferable Karen. Why did we need to see a rehash of how she always treated Ted like crap? I would have gladly sacrificed Marshall's "My balls were bleu! Bleu!" line to not have to see Karen again.

But, then again, it was supposed to be a procession of anonymous women. But the joke got old after a while. And, considering Lily is the one who was complaining about Ted's habit, the fact that she was the one who was originally invited into a group photo by Ted (OK, the group was just him and Marshall in college, but it counts) at least tied the story up in a nice bow.

More fun stuff:

-- Is "Name That Bitch" going to take over from "But Um" as the big New York drinking game?

-- It is interesting that all you need to see is a 'fro and a stovepipe hat and you immediately think "Slash!"

-- Even Lily and Robin knew that Robin and Barney were on thin ice as a couple. "You two aren't gonna last!" she tells them while taking the picture while celebrating Robin's US citizenship. Robin felt they were "on fumes" as a couple at that point.

-- Marshall can be such a sap sometimes, can't he? But, then again, his sappitude helps the writers come up with birthday games like "Lilial Pursuit" and "Gilding the Lily."

-- When did photographers stop using the laser background for kid portraits? I'm guessing somewhere around 1991.

-- Lily's sign greeting Marshall in Paris: "Bienvenue, Marshmallow." Awww...

-- As Ted and Lily were going down "Random Skank Lane," you knew that Robin was going to be brought up at some point, because she was "The One" at one point. I liked Robin's reaction to being dragged in: "Hey, I'm crying a little bit!"

-- All together now: "*Her name was Strawberry!"

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