Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) getting his heart broken last week sets off this week’s rather bizarre notion of a story for Ted (Josh Radnor) and Barney. Lamenting their love lives Ted and Barney contemplate how awesome it would be to be gay or as they call it “the sacred bond between man and bro.”
Not only would being gay allow them to watch football and play videogames all day but they could adopt a baby together and then use the baby to pick up chicks. This idea occurs, naturally, while they are drunk at McClaren’s. However, the idea somehow still seems like a good one the next day and the wheels are set in motion.
Meanwhile, Marshall (Jason Segal) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) are trying to sell their house on Long Island, left to them by Lily’s grandparents. Or at least they were trying to sell the house. After spending an afternoon at the cozy suburban home suddenly their New York City apartment is super small; literally. To express the inner feelings of Marshall and Lily toward their apartment, the set was shrunk.
Marshall and Lily are on the verge of making the major decision to move to Long Island. Robin (Cobie Smulders) however, is not ready to let them leave the city. Robin’s life is in a major state of flux. Last week, Kevin (Kal Penn) told her that he loved her and she chose to stay with him rather than leave him for Barney.
This week, the idea of her closest friends moving to Long Island set off deeper emotions related to another major life change coming her way; one that will change the course of her life and the lives of either Kevin or Barney (probably Barney).
Talking with Robin and Lily about the baby, Ted realizes that it’s bad idea. Then again, when Barney shows up with a baby, suddenly Ted is back on board. Never mind where Barney got the baby, which they have named Hurricane, the approach of dozens of attractive women to complement the baby has Ted completely back on board, for a moment.
The baby belongs to Barney’s brother James (Wayne Brady) who, along with his husband, is joining the gang at Marshall and Lily’s Long Island home for Thanksgiving. As he did earlier this season in “Noretta” James offers sage advice that resonates deeply with Ted. James and his best friend nearly adopted a baby together and now they are thankful that they didn’t go through with it because they found real happiness with people they love.
After Ted breaks it to him that there will be no bro-parents Barney decides to go for a walk. He ends up in the bathroom talking to Robin instead. Robin, in her childish attempt to keep Marshall and Lily from moving, has locked herself in the bathroom and is refusing to come out until they promise not to move.
The reality, of course, is that Robin doesn’t haven’t a problem with Marshall and Lily moving to their beautiful Long Island dream home. Rather, she’s acting out because of her own major, life changing event: Robin is pregnant.
The How I Met Your Mother crew is pretty good with game-changers and Robin being pregnant is a good one. In hindsight, we probably should have seen it coming but the story was so well executed that it arrived as surprisingly for us as I am sure it must have for Robin.
Now, the question becomes: Who’s the daddy? Barney is the most likely suspect, but there is an outside chance for Kevin. For now however, it seems that when Barney goes down the aisle at the end of this season it will be a shotgun wedding, in the colloquial sense and maybe in reality when Robin’s nutzo dad finds out she’s pregnant.
Random notes:
- Hurricane is a kick ass baby name.
- I have a gay friend who married his best friend and they do watch sports and play videogames most of the time. Their life totally rocks.
- Wayne Brady’s How I Met Your Mother cameos are so relaxed and well performed that I wonder why he hasn’t been given a chance to lead his own show. Based on Brady’s cameos in this season alone I think he could pull off a lead on either a comedy or a drama; gay or straight.
- So, did you buy into the idea of two male friends adopting a baby together? I kind of did, at least for Ted and Barney. Josh Radnor and Neil Patrick Harris did a heck of a job selling their emotional commitment to the idea. Yes, there was never any real chance that it would happen but these two talented actors invested in the idea well enough to make this plot work.
- Give How I Met Your Mother credit for this, when you read the title “The Rebound Girl” you probably didn’t imagine that the title referred to Barney adopting a baby girl.
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