How I Met Your Mother season 9 episode 12, “Rehearsal Dinner” can best be summed up as relationships are like “honesty and trust and all that Lily and Marshall crap.” On to the recap!

The entire episode was about the planning, demise, and execution of Barney and Robin’s rehearsal dinner. Viewers are initially duped into thinking Barney is being held in laser tag jail after being convinced Robin is throwing him a surprise laser tag rehearsal dinner.

We get a nice montage of Barney’s laundry list of bad ideas, gluten free edible panties, running for Mayor, single malt scotch tape, all culminating in his suggestion that they have laser tag rehearsal dinner.

But, planning a wedding is about comprise. When Robin suggests Canada as their location for their nuptials, the gang predictably shoots off various cut-downs about Canada. Such as:

  • Canada? Are you registering at Tim Hortons?
  • Canada? Are you going to walk down the aisle wearing snow shoes?


    • The one thing they can agree on? Ted can preform the piano dressed as Liberace (as pictured above), showing off his piano-playing skills that he has been acquiring every Sunday night over the past few months.

    We all have seen how Barney and Robin’s relationship often revolves around the long-play pranks, Barney’s arduous proposal, the terrible bachelor party that was really great and planned by Robin, and most recently: Barney’s fake break-up with Robin.

    We know this isn’t legit, but we also know Barney has a fear of commitment, so it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility. He says she should move out, and then presents her with a suitcase – full of puppies. Ha ha? Robin looked awfully distraught momentarily and made him promise they would stop the escalating prank war.

    Side note: The most important part of this episode is probably Neil Patrick Harris holding a puppy.

    This all comes back to Barney thinking Robin is pulling some reverse psychology. That she’s going through the hoops of planning a real dinner at the Inn when she’s really planned a laser tag dinner. We’ve seen Robin play laser tag, and we know she’s not the girliest of girls, but she really was planning a nice dinner, complete with booze and bacon-wrapped hors d’oeuvres.

    Meanwhile, Barney has been trying to get Ted and/or Lily to fess up to the plan. Lily is notorious on HIMYM for not keeping a secret – don’t tell her the sordid tale of your dramatic break-up with your gay husband whom you cheated on with, and subsequently got pregnant because of.

    So far, though, she’s kept Ted’s secret about moving to Chicago. However, she reveals Marshall’s deceit in taking the judge job and woefully says “Italy’s off.” It’s interesting – she hasn’t even talked about it with Marshall, but she’s already conceding that she won’t go to Italy. They wouldn’t do the long-distance for a year? Sure, at the start of this series she escaped to San Francisco to get away from him, but now, years into their marriage, you’d think they could work something out – compromise. Marriage is about “honesty and trust and all that Lily and Marshall crap,” but what happens when the former and the latter suddenly have dissenting meanings?

    A word about the fashion: Robin is wearing an incredible dress. The gold/white thing really works for her.

    In a “lady doth protest too much” moment, we realize Barney has planned all of this from the beginning. He lures Robin to the laser tag location under the premise he’s being held in their jail, escapes from his handcuffs, appears with skating rinks, hires an actor to play the security guard, and brings Canada to the Farhampton Inn and reveals the fact that they’re in the midst of a Canadian-themed rehearsal dinner at an ice rink.

    A lot of things suddenly happen at once. A massive Canadian flag falls from the rafters, James and Alan Thicke appear, singing, with James dressed half as Robin Sparkles. Barney presents Robin with the Wayne Gretzky photograph, and there are hockey players swarming around. Ted, Lily, and all those attending the wedding are on skates – and for the record, Ted knew about this plan, Lily did not.

    Barney then presents a list of everything that originated in Canada, among the listed, himself, and “best of all, [Robin].” Barney admits that he did have to lie to Robin but promises, “every now and then I’m am going to lie to you… in the interest of an awesome surprise.” That’s sweet, we suppose.

    ‘HIMYM’ MVP of the Week: Barney

    We have to admit, it was frustrating seeing him so incredibly delusional the entire episode – convinced Robin would throw him a party so different than the one she was actually planning – but the last few minutes, after the grand reveal, made it all worth it. Would you like it if your significant other did something like that to you?

    Next week is a repeat, and presumably HIMYM has gone on break until the new year. We’re halfway there, folks! Until then, be sure to keep up with all your HIMYM news.