How I Met Your Mother: The Platinum Rule
By fred | December 11, 2007
(S03E11) Well, you all know what the golden rule is, don’t you ? Yep, that’s right : no good deed goes unpunished. And as sure as it goes, I did love very much my Platinum rule, but unfortunately I’m afraid it didn’t came free. Alas, this was the last episode of How I Met Your Mother CBS still had in store for us, due to the writers’ strike, and there shall be no more this year. About next year, nothing can be said at this point…
But at least we got one thing to comfort us, a little : it did end on a high note. This show has always been a really great - and hilarious - sitcom and I’ve loved it for years now, but there also was something special about it, something that made it different and unlike any other sitcoms out there, and that’s not just because they have Barney Stinson.
No I’m talking about the way they deal with time. This show has this very special basis that the main story, that we (usually) get to witness every week, what they might reference as “present day”, is actually the past, in a way. Because what we see are (mostly) stories future Ted is telling his kids, and this little time device has been greatly used by the writers, never afraid of using flashbacks as well as, well, let’s call them flash-forwards.
And this is part of what makes this show so unique, that it’s able to go into the past, or the future, in order to tell its stories. In fact, the beauty of it all is not the device itself but how brilliantly it’s being used by the creative minds behind this show : for instance, on a few occasions already we’ve first only seen a little detail, a couple of seconds of “something”, only to (seasons) later find out about the whole story. We’ve already have episodes in which a past events was just mentioned or referenced, only to find out about it later on in one of those flashbacks.
This is this way of conducting things that also contributed in making this show so special, and today we got another perfect example of this, and how they can use this device to tell many stories at once, all of which occurred at a different time in the past. This week Barney was telling Ted about the big mistake he was about to make, as he was preparing his hair to go on a date with the doctor who will remove his tattoo, and to illustrate his words Barney used a few stories : when he went out with Wendy, waitress at the bar, when Robin dated “The Ironman” and when Lily and Marshall couple-dated their new neighbor couple.
Each of those stories were actually the main meal of this episode, and they all were linked with each other in a very awesome way : in the first one, the second one was referenced, which itself referenced the third one, which led to the present day. And we got to travel in time and go through each of all stories using same “catch-phrases” and the eight phases of the Platinum Rule, which are: Attraction, Bargaining, Submission, Perks, The Tipping Point, “Purg - wait for it… keep waiting… keep waiting for all eternity only to discover there’s no escape - atory“, Confrontation, and Fallout. Also, Ted eventually added a ninth phase, called Co-Existence.
It may sound complicated to keep track of everything, but the writers are talented enough to make it very easy to follow the whole thing, so much that you never actually wonder when you are, nor do you need Lilly’s hair to know it. (PS: I really like her as a redhead.) In fact, the best is that after a while - and by that I mean very soon, even before the credits in fact - you’re already accustomed to that whole thing, so much that when we go through every story, and inevitably each and everyone goes “And it was a HUGE mistake. - Yeah, well, I think it will be okay.” up to Ted, declaring in present day : “Yeah, well, I think it will be okay.” I’m sure I wasn’t alone to already envision the next flash-forward of a future Ted going “And it was a HUGE mistake!”
Sure, it didn’t actually happened, as the story eventually went another direction for them, but that’s the beauty of it : we all saw it happening anyways, so while unsaid this joke made us all laugh the same way !
It was all as smooth and flawless as it can be, a real delight where each story on its own was good and funny enough to stand on its own, but mixed so perfectly with all the others they formed what can only be described as a great episode of this unique and hilarious sitcom that is How I Met Your Mother. Boy will 2008 not be the same without this one…
Other things to say :
- It was great that Barney didn’t actually had a Fallout in his experience (yet), and got paranoid instead of admitting the truth. It perfectly fits the characters, yet call me crazy but when Wendy told him they could just be friends, my first reaction even before she left was “don’t drink that thing!” Also I feel like it might have been even more awesomeness for Barney to still be throwing away free drinks years after it happened… so maybe that last scene should have took place in a more recent past (e.g. when Lilly wasn’t still a redhead).
- Barney running and jumping slo-mo style to throw away Marshall’s burger, with for only explanation a “you’re welcome!” was pretty cool.
- Lilly, when learning Ted was having his tattoo removed : “How’s everyone gonna know you’re a stripper from Reno with daddy issues ?”
- Love how Ted is still incredibly obsessed with his hair. Loved even more how Marshall immediately gave Barney some tissues after he’d messed with Ted’s hair.
- “Don’t kill the bar, dude!”
- “He used to play Hockey, and I’m a Canadian. I can’t help it! If he were missing some teeth I probably would have already hit that!” Yeah, she’s just made for Barney. I mean, did you see how he said “Submission” diving into her eyes ? Come on… (plus, I’m jealous.)
- Okay, so this episode was mostly setin the past. I’ll use that excuse to explain why they still haven’t moved to their new apartment.
- “You want to go antiquing with them, don’t you? Oh yeah, you want to antique the crap out of them !”
- Making fun of Robin for being Canadian is always fun. So, “What’s the opposite of name dropping ?”
- “Don’t kill the bar, dude!”
- Robin’s date : from “It’s our first weekiversary!” to “The Knicks lost because they’re afraid of getting hurt, so they didn’t even try ! Well you know what I think, I think the Knicks didn’t deserve my love to begin with… The Knicks suck!”
- Ah Barney and his memory problems… but hey, remembering you’re in a relationship, and with whom, that’s not easy to do. “Hey Wendy, do me a favor and send a glass of champagne to that pretty young thing over there!”
- You gotta hand it to him though, he’s honest, I guess. Confrontation : “I don’t like you. I mean, I don’t like you that way. I used to like you that way, but now that I’ve seen everything there is to see, I don’t know… I kinda want to see those same parts, just, on other girls. Other girls and you, if you’re into that, but the other girls have to be there too. That’s the important part.
- Gosh! You’re just terrified of ever being close to anyone, aren’t you ?
- Or that! Let’s say it’s that! So, Can I get a Gin and Tonic ?”
- “Don’t kill the bar, dude!”
- So there’s a rule that prevented Ted for Dating Stella, and it’s not the Platinum rule. (BTW, despite him mentioning it I don’t see references to that rule on Barney’s blog… how disappointing!) So that was the end of the story between Ted and Stella… “at least for the time being” !? So that, does she own a yellow umbrella by any chance ?
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Shows: How I Met Your Mother
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