What's it about?
Ted and Barney argue about who has "dibs" on a hot girl at the bar, and discover that she is there with Cindy. Cindy and the girl at the bar eventually get married and have a daughter. Robin is still heartbroken over Don, but a challenge from Barney pushes her to get over him.Marshall's closeness with his father and desire to start a family gets him into trouble with Lily. It is revealed that Ted meets his future wife at a wedding in which he is the best man. It starts raining at the wedding and he forgets his umbrella, which connects back to the past references that a yellow umbrella is what got Ted and his wife together.
What We Saw
This season HIMYM picked up almost exactly where it left off at the end of season 5. Robin (Cobie Smulders) has broken up with Don, the co-on her breakfast news show and is struggling with her new single status. Marshall (Jason Segal) is preparing for a night of passion with wife Lilly (Alyson Hannigan) with a view to getting pregnant and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Ted (Josh Radnor) are still Barney and Ted as some things will never change.
This episode was about bringing us to the point where Future Ted (a forever uncredited Bob Saget) tells his kids exactly which day he met their mother. As he tells the kids at the beginning 'There are two big days in any love story, the day you meet the girl of your dreams and the day you marry her.' this episode is about neither of those days.
Review
I have been a rabid fan of HIMYM since the days of squashing in to the back of a taxi driven by Marshall Manesh in order to deliver a blue french horn to the first of many non-mothers to the Mosby kids and like so many other watchers I find the eternal search for mommy to be secondary to my enjoyment of the show.
It's no great secret that Neil Patrick Harris has become a worldwide superstar thanks to his role as Barney and the audience have clearly warmed to the now Emmy award-winning Alyson Hannigan as Lilly whilst both Colby Smulders and Jason Segal have crafted amusing and likeable characters out of Robin and Marshall but this leaves Josh Radnor left somewhat out of the limelight and judging by the storytelling shift in 'Big Days' the writers have come to realise that it's Ted's turn to enjoy some of the praise. After 6 years of chasing after the mythical mummy we have now not only been told the events of the day that Ted met her but we have even seen scenes of that very day.
But what does this mean for the future of the show?
At this point I can only surmise that we are beginning a descent towards the end of HIMYM. Though no finale point has been set for the show the fact that we know exactly when mommy will be met (or do we?) sends a clear signal from the writers to the viewing public: they have not forgotten about mommy and she is coming soon.
Though Ted's shortening search for his future wife is the A story in this episode the crutch is still the relationship between the supporting cast, in particular Lilly and Marshall. Their quest to get pregnant brings some much more touching moments to the episode which easily outshadow the misleading talk between Marshall and Ted at the wedding (pictured above). Barney and Robin share familiar banter at the bar and the usual hints are thrown that Barney still has feelings for his ex when she eventually returns the Robin of old, shedding the recently-broken-up look sported for the majority of the episode.
It goes without saying that this is not the place for new viewers to jump in to the show, 6 years down the line the relationships in this show have been through so many changes that the casual viewer could be nothing more than that without returning back to that taxi and taking the ride with the cast along to the present day. But for those of us who have been with this show for more than half a decade we are starting the see pay-off on the original concept and that in itself could possibly be enough to reinvigorate this show before it begins to alienate it's audience by relying too heavily on it's slapstick elements.
Next Week...
The gang comes to help Barney's mom move out of her home, but unravel startling revelations about him. Meanwhile, Ted gets upset when Robin oversells him to a blind date.
Overall rating:
| Story | 4.0 | |
| Mommyness | 4.0 | |
| Barney Moments | 3.0 | |
| Overall | 3.5 |
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