How I Met Your Mother Season 7-10 ‘Tick, Tick, Tick’ Recap

When last we saw Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) they were making out in the back of a cab, despite the fact that both are/were in committed relationships. This week’s episode, “Tick, Tick, Tick” finds Robin and Barney waking up in bed together.

This should lead to the end of Robin’s relationship with Kevin (Kal Penn) and Barney’s with Nora (Nazanin Bodiadi) but first, they have a double date, the four of them together, on a boat. This question has popped up on a number of shows lately with at least one drama making the argument, quite reasonably, that telling someone that you cheated on them is more about you feeling better than you being ‘honest.’

How I Met Your Mother doesn’t delve quite that deeply. The choice to tell or not to tell is a device used to delay the storyline and carry out over a few more weeks. I’m not complaining; truly I’m not. This was actually a strong move on the part of the How I Met Your Mother writers to get this story to a different and more interesting place: Where does Barney go now that he knows how he really feels about Robin?

If you recall the end of Robin and Barney part one, they weren’t ready for each other. Now, after having gone headlong after Nora only to give her up for Robin, we’ve seen Barney come to a different place in his life. The fork in Barney’s road is does he pine in silence or act out by reverting to the old Barney? I for one am intrigued to see where this goes.  The montage of Barney and Robin together was, for longtime fans of the show, a really sweet and moving moment and demonstrated why we all want to see them together, eventually.

The less said about Ted (Josh Radnor), Marshall (Jason Segal) and Lily’s (Alyson Hannigan) story the better. This was an entirely throwaway story, as if the writers had thought of nothing and threw this together at the last moment. Ted and Marshall’s bad trip was the sitcom equivalent of an ‘I guess you had to be there’ anecdote. Luckily the Robin and Barney thread made up for it.

Random notes:

• Did Alyson Hannigan miss a team meeting and get suspended for a week?
• Nora was a complete failure. It wasn’t Nazanin Bodiadi’s fault, the How I Met Your Mother writers simply never committed to her being part of the show.
• Was I the only one busily imagining the smug hippie bands of the 90’s at Groove-A-Palooza? Big Head Todd and Monsters maybe? Widespread Panic? Phish?
• The goateed guy making out with Lily in Marshall’s nightmare was none other than actor David Neher aka Todd on Community.
• Todd wasn’t the only Community crossover on How I Met Your Mother this week; the singer on the boat was Jerry Minor, Troy’s janitor mentor on Community, was the singer on the boat.
• Anyone else missing the Ducky Tie?
• Finally, anyone know a good sandwich guy?

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