By Meryl Gottlieb| mg986611@ohiou.edu| @buzzlightmeryl
How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBS
The HIMYM finale will air March 31st
Rating: 4/5
Last week’s How I Met Your Mother was monumental. My head is still spinning from the possibility that the dead Mother theory is accurate. However, after more thinking, I have begun to doubt that theory for the fact that it’s now too obvious. Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the creators and executive producers of the show, have had the same plan for the finale since the beginning. The amount of secrecy surrounding the show is insane, so I can’t entirely believe they would just throw the ending out there like that. There’s now a theory that the Mother (Cristin Milioti) is dying but will recover. In a show that’s mostly had us laughing for nine years, that seems like a more plausible ending. I guess we’ll just have to wait three more weeks to find out. Seriously, get those tissues ready.
While last week’s “Vesuvius” was all about informing us — in a way — of the future of Ted (Josh Radnor) and the Mother, this week’s episode, “Daisy,” let’s us know what our favorite couple, Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan), will do in the near future.
It’s 2 p.m. Sunday; only four hours before the wedding.
I don’t know much about weddings, but I’m incredibly surprised with how much down time these people seem to have. My sister is getting married in a year, and I highly doubt I’ll be able to sit around, watch a movie and have a couple of drinks only hours beforehand.
Marshall finally brings up the issue I’ve had since the “Unpause” episode: the fact that their huge argument just fizzled so quickly once Lily came back. William Zabka mentions he saw Lily leaving a convenience store — naturally, he was out riding his dirt bike at 3 a.m. — and get into a car with the license plate, “Ahoy.” Obviously, we’re now led to The Captain (Kyle MacLachlan), who just so happens to have a home in Farhampton. I can understand how they run into everyone in New York City; that’s a big place. But how does everyone all of a sudden have ties to Farhampton?!
Because they believe the Captain and Lily were having an affair, Marshall and the boys all go to the Captain’s house to punch him in the face and then do the wedding. Solid plan.
But they find the Captain is actually engaged to Becky (Laura Bell Bundy). Boats, boats, boats girl! Omigod you guys (Legally Blonde the Musical reference, I don’t actually talk or think like that); I love Laura Bell Bundy and was more than thrilled she returned. Fun fact: Her boats commercial from season six was actually for a Farhampton boat show; I am always amazed at how the writers tie everything together.
Ted thinks he’s solved the mystery of why Lily has been acting so strangely. After a long pause, Ted goes in depth about Lily’s return to smoking, which she does whenever she and Marshall are apart for long periods of time. She left Ted in the car ride over so she could smoke on the train. She then needed to chew gum because her breath would give her away, even though she never chews gum. After having a big day and a half, she needed another cigarette and needed the Captain’s car to go buy them. She went to his home but didn’t want him to know she’s smoking, so she went to the bathroom and left the evidence in a daisy’s flowerpot.
However, when Ted reaches in the pot to retrieve the cigarette buds, he instead finds a pregnancy test. Lily was sick in the train’s bathroom, not smoking, and chewed gum because of it. The Kennedy package is actually non-alcoholic beverages. When Marshall asked if Marvin and any other future children were just “consolation prizes,” that’s why she ran out crying. The test is positive. Lily is pregnant.
The second they showed Lily at the convenience store, I knew she was picking up a pregnancy test. However, watching the parallels was quite interesting and I find it hilarious that Linus knew Lily was possibly pregnant before anyone else. Journalists should double as bartenders; I feel like our jobs would be much easier.
My heart then melts as Marshall and Lily embrace now that the truth is revealed. Marshall then insists they go to Rome so Lily can live her dream because she’s already given him his for a second time. And you really wanted to argue before that Marshall wasn’t thoughtful or a good husband?! Please. I’m in love with these two and am at such peace knowing their wonderful relationship is safe and steady.
Cut to one year later, they are in Rome arguing about Funyuns in terrible Italian accents before Mickey (Chris Elliott) comes out with Marvin and the baby so they can all get gelato. We learn their daughter — yes, the daughter who can never be president because she was born outside of the U.S. — is named Daisy, after the flower that ended up revealing the pregnancy to Marshall.
I love this. I was never satisfied with how their argument ended before. It was an incredibly unbelievable ending to what was supposed to be their biggest fight. I’m also surprised it wasn’t Ranjit (Marshall Manesh) who drove Lily; that seems more logical than calling the Captain. However, I loved seeing what happens to Marshall and Lily. I’m thrilled when I simply get thirty seconds of Ted and the Mother together because I want to know how these characters end up, but I think we often forget about the importance of knowing what happens to the rest of the gang. We are so used to wanting to know Ted’s future that we forget to wonder what happens to Marshall, Lily, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin (Cobie Smulders). I need closure with all the characters, and I can sleep well knowing my favorite couple is A-ok.
On a more disappointing note, the storyline involving Robin and her mother Genevieve (Tracey Ullman) did not deliver. There was a terrible bit about being afraid to fly in an airplane in the beginning that just fell flat, and the rest of the episode consisted of Genevieve — weird choice of name — freaking Robin out by coincidentally comparing Barney to her father.
The list pulled from too many classic Barney things to be believable. I highly doubt Robin’s father also dressed up as a Russian aristocrat and stood next to the painting to get girls. Nevertheless, Robin is panicking that she is marrying her father. But everything seems settled when Barney greets Genevieve with a hug, something she said Robin’s father never did. For one last piece of advice, Genevieve assures Robin marriage is fine as long as you are with someone you can depend on and is there for you. Robin looks dramatically into the distance and answers that she does have someone like that, prompting me to think she’s not talking about Barney.
I really thought we were done with the Ted and Robin storyline. Ted literally and figuratively let go of Robin a few episodes ago, so why can’t we be done with the storyline that can never be. They aren’t Ross and Rachel on Friends; they aren’t mean to be together. We know they don’t end up together, so why is this still being pushed on us?
What do you think will happen with Barney and Robin's wedding? What kind of gelato would you get in Italy? Let me know @buzzlightmeryl
