Whoa. Since when does How I Met Your Mother make me tear up? Last night’s episode felt like a big departure from anything the show has done before, but in a good way.
Most of the episode felt like any other. It was a good episode with lots of laughs, good plot development and an appearance by Barney’s doppelganger. What could be better? But the final twist was completely heartbreaking – and amazingly well played by Jason Segel. We don’t get to see him go dramatic very often and he really pulled it off.
The episode was focused on Lily and Marshall’s struggles to conceive. They’ve been trying to get pregnant for months now with no success, so Lily went to get checked out. The humor in the storyline came from the fact that her doctor looked exactly like Barney, and the heart came with Marshall confronting his fear of infertility and letting down his parents. It was a very touching moment when Marshall told his parents there was a chance he might not be able to have biological children, and their response was so sweet.
A hilarious psych-out came when Marshall was told that he wouldn’t be able to conceive, not by the doctor but by Barney dressed up as the doctor – it was all part of a ploy to get Marshall to agree to enter a laser tag competition. Marshall went to celebrate the good news with the gang, and then Lily showed up with some bad news.
I don’t know about you, but I really didn’t expect Marshall’s dad to die. Sick, yes. In the hospital recovering from a heart attack. But I didn’t expect a half hour sitcom like HIMYM to deliver such a blow. It was such a sad scene, to see Marshall go from total elation to total despair. I seriously choked up when he said “I’m not ready for this”.
Balancing out the episode, Robin had a really funny storyline. I’m glad her character finally feels back to normal. Watching all her past embarrassments come back to haunt her was hilarious, and watching her struggle to be taken seriously at her new job was a realistic storyline for her. Robin is smart and hot and confident and probably isn’t used to having a room of people laugh at her. It was a good arc, and I really like this new job for her.
I’m interested to see how this episode will color the rest of the season – it’s not like everyone will just be back to normal and laughing next week. However, I think this could be exactly what the show needs. Balancing humor and sadness means they’ll have to write good material, and in this episode I think they proved they can still do that. What do you think – will Marshall dealing with the death of his father hurt or help the show?
Since the episode wasn’t all tears, here are some funny moments and lines from “Bad News”:
- Apparently there was a thing with numbers going on. I only vaguely recognized it – did you get it?
- Robin’s montage of mistakes – but where was the owl clip?
- The return of Sandy Rivers – and the fact that he wears a toupee.
- Marshall trying to produce a sperm sample – especially while his mom repeatedly asked him to picture her in her new two piece swimsuit.
- The montage of Marshall calling his dad with good news – “I found a guy to fix the viking lamp!!”
- Lily and Marshall’s high five when they mentioned how many times they’ve had sex in the past four months.
