How I Met Your Mother: Dowisetrepla
By fred | November 6, 2007
(S03E07) Despite its name and the obvious “mystery” that goes along in this show, who is the mother and wife of Ted Mosby, the show has never made his main focus to reveal this piece of information. Probably because, obviously, the idea of the show is to be about the journey that will take us there, more than the reveal in itself. And I really have no problem with that, because finding out who she is isn’t much of a concern to me.
I mean I want to know, but I’m not obsessing over it like I could for questions relating to that mysterious Island or the people apparently coming in. And along with the mother of Ted’s kids, there’s another mystery the writers have been throwing in, one that we got to see & learn more about and that’s maybe even as exciting if not more : finding out what happened to the cutest couple of all time, what made Lily more of a “hard-ass” and Marshall loose some air.
And like the previous one, this episode did provide some development on that mystery. Last week we learned how Marshall eventually took the job from the dark side instead of his dream of saving the nature, and this week - as we learned about the biggest of his third worst mistakes in life - we found out how it got stuck with it for longer than he originally intended.
This was a good episode, but I don’t think it was a great one. It was funny, but not hilarious.
Once again the backbone of the episode was a story about Lily & Marshall, which makes sense. But to go along with it, there was no real other stories mixed in. Instead, only little bits were build around it. Not that it’s necessary a bad thing per-se, and when you have Barney using the apartment only to trick a girl, nail her and never see her again, it works.
But I felt some things were a bit weak, and for example I’ll put here the Ted Mosby, detective. I just found the whole thing not very funny, especially because - as many other things during this episode - the way it went down was highly predictable. It wasn’t all bad, I liked Robin putting Ted down (”The Mosby Boys ? You mean you and your sister ?“), Barney trying to get his hands on Lily’s bra (”I’ll just take this down to the lab“) or the scene it lead to, but it was just not that funny overall.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a good and enjoyable, funny episode, but I found it low on hilarious, laughing out loud moments.
I mention things were predictable on that part, but it wasn’t restricted to this detective story. For instance, when Marshall first yelled at Ted over the opened peanut butter jar. Because you knew right away it wasn’t him but Lily who was guilty, and many moments felt that way : not bad, but would have probably been better if there was a surprise element to it, but it wasn’t there.
Or when Marshall and Lily went to try to get a loan, you could tell Marshall would found out, and not from Lily - despite her too late admittance, “Marshall! There’s something I have to tell you, and I want you to hear it from me first.” Surprise element lacking here again, making things a little less funny.
Not everything was like that of course, and for instance the recurring “or that’s what he/she/we should have said” joke did not get old, or even after three or four times they still got me every time. Now those were great, and very funny.
But, I feel some of them were a bit too forced. Most of the times what should have been said would have fit the character(s) perfectly, just as much as did what was actually said. Except for Marshall. I mean, imagine the scene where another couple is mentioned, if he would have reacted like he eventually did right off, “Another couple!? No!! We want it! Sell it to us, we’ll give you so much more money!!”
Now I get it: funny, even funnier because of the huge contrast between what should have been said & what was actually said. But had he actually replied like that right away, wouldn’t you have wondered what was wrong with him ? I mean the guy isn’t a moron, he can be childish at times, but he’s also a lawyer, a pretty damn good one given how far some companies are willing to go to make sure they have him on their side, and as such I find his “we’ll give you so much more money” line and eagerness to buy an apartment too much out of character to be fully funny.
Not everything was bad though! No really, despite all of that I enjoyed this episode, and the very fact that it did not go in loop to end right back like it started. I liked that Lily & Marshall eventually did get the apartment. Because while it will be a huge deal : will this place become the new main place? Will someone move in with Ted, or will he move? And obviously this settles Marshall in his evil job for good.
So all in all I see this episode more as a good episode, that for once focused a bit more on character development than on being hilarious, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But next week should be back to hilarious, with or without (major) character development.
In other funny stuff :
“
- My name is Lily and I’m a shopoholic.
- Hi Lily! Oh, you guys don’t do that here? Sorry…
”
- I always loved it when they pick on Robin’s Canadian side :
“
- You have a debt the size of Mount Waddington!
- Waddington?
- It’s the tallest mountain in Canada. It’s like 4 000 meters high!
- Meters?
”
And from now on she should use Mt. Rushmore instead…
- Sometimes it’s almost as if Robin doesn’t pay attention :
“
- Tell him you saw a ghost, tell him it’s haunted!
- You really don’t know Marshall at all.
”
- Lily is a real addict, and they should keep an eye on her at all times. “I’ll slowly work down my debt. Right after I furnished the apartment! I saw this amazing leather sofa today!… - You should be a reality show.”
- “There’s a reason your name is Robin and not Batman.”
- He might hide it as much as he can, but we all know Barney is a sentimental deep (deep) down inside. Just like he cried at their wedding, he couldn’t help it at the thought at their divorce either : “The world needs Marshall and Lily, together! I’m not crying, there’s something in my eye…” Seeing his face has he tried to talk them out of it was hilarious, it really was.
- Speaking of which, it was nice of Lily to offer a divorce, and even sweeter of Marshall to refuse it. They are great for & with each others. Although I wonder what big dark secret Marshall holds. He’s got to have one, too, right?
- Still on the cute couple. Both of them have very different ways of seeing their future, even though it always involves some kind of chocolate cake. We’ve only seen even further ahead in their future, and it didn’t look as cute and bright as what they envision…
Posted in Reviews
Shows: How I Met Your Mother
