How I Met Your Mother: ‘Ring Up’

 I’m beginning to think that the good episodes of How I Met Your Mother, or what qualifies for “good” these days, are dependent on whether or not Marshall is getting enough screen time/getting quality jokes. For whatever reason he’s pretty much been on reserve this season(*) and has existed as a sounding board to Robin, Barney, and Ted’s love problems. A lot of this is because he and Lily have a newborn but the newborn related humor has been lacking to say the least until last night.

(*)The notable exception being the episodes where he fought Brad over the pond filled with toxic chemicals. But I do think those were two of the better episodes of the season.

Now ‘Ring Up’ wasn’t the most fantastic showing HIMYM has ever served up, but the risks they took were low, the jokes were good enough, and there wasn’t much to complain about in terms of character and story development. I really enjoyed Marshall’s dedication to swoon Lily by wearing the wrist band that he was highly allergic to, as well as his quick descent in personality to match his wristband. Not to mention how the wristband was introduced with Ted walking into the bar explaining how he miraculously saved an elderly woman’s life but all the gang cared about was making fun of how ridiculous it looked on him.

The main story though revolved around Ted’s new date who is both only 20 years old and Barney’s half-sister. After hanging out at places(**) and with people  that Ted would otherwise have no interest associating with, he’s all but ready to call things off, until of course Barney convinces him to hook-up with her as he’s going through “withdrawal.” This one kind of got out of hand as Barney tries to forcefully wed Ted and his sister, but at the end he comes to the conclusion that meaningless hook-ups are not what he’s about anymore and he simply makes Ted *wink wink* promise to never get with his sister again.

(**)Including a club in Chinatown that is somehow located under a manhole cover. I’m just about 100% sure Bill Hader’s Stefon knows exactly where that is.

Robin meanwhile is going through similar withdrawal as Barney since she loses her “get whatever she wants, whenever she wants” status once the engagement ring is on her finger. I’m glad this story didn’t much time devoted to it because it had a few good moments but it could have gotten annoying fast had it been the main focus of an episode. I will say though that I have hard time caring about the Robin and Barney moments of clarity when they realize how much they want to be with the other person for the rest of their lives seeing as how we already know they both get cold feet at their future wedding.

Other favorite moments:

• “Okay normally New York is the friendliest, most affordable city in the world. Now it’s a rude and expensive as San Francisco.” – Robin’s delusional interpretation based on her pre-ring observations.
• “Better the sore weep than I.” – Marshall’s sad justification that a giant hand is his best chance to have sex with his wife.
• Barney didn’t have a dog as his wingman.

What did everyone else think? Comments are always welcome.