Challenges and revelations, HIMYM season 9, episode 9, “Platonish,” was a refreshing flash-back episode that gives us a break from the wedding weekend. In fact, it’s like it was from an entirely different season.
A note before we begin this ‘Platonish’ recap: about thirty minutes before the east coast airing, co-creator Carter Bays took to Twitter to clear up some areas of confusion we may have about tonights episode.
Most of tonight's #HIMYM takes place between the events of "Splitsville" and "The Stamp Tramp."
— Carter Bays (@CarterBays) November 12, 2013
Hmm… interesting. We went and did some research, “Splitsville” and ‘The Stamp Tramp’ are season 8 episode 6, and season 8 episode 7 respectively. Basically, in “Splitsville,” Robin is trying to dump hot-but-dumb Nick and Barney helps by ‘proclaiming his love’ for her in front of him, pushing Nick to finally get the hint and the two break up. However, we all know what Barney said about loving Robin was true, but when she doesn’t reciprocate the feelings, he tries to hide his hurt too much – enter: “Platonish.”
The episode centers around Lily, Robin and Barney at MacClarens and then the apartment, while Marshall and Ted go to see the Harlem Globetrotters basketball game. Lily takes the reigns and ups the ante after Barney challenges himself to too many easy challenges. He easily picks up a girl while talking in dolphin, but Robin knows most 21st century women’s weakness: Ryan Gosling. Challenge accepted – or, challng accptd, as per Lily’s challenge wherein he can’t use the letter ‘e.’ (We’d like to note that not only was already a bit on the Life and Death Brigade episode of Gilmore Girls, but it is also very hard to do. Try it.)
After Robin tells the woman at the bar Ryan is waiting for her, she stipulates that under no circumstances should she talk to another guy or Ryan’ll bolt, Barney then tries to approach her with no avail. He takes a different approach and to Neil Patrick Harris’s acting credit and the dimwitted character, he convinces her he really is Ryan and has merely gone under extreme plastic surgery.
Finally, the ultimate challenge: Barney must get samosas from that Indian place, diapers from the store and pick up a girl. But when he finds his target, we know her simply as The Mother. Holy plot twist! (Or did you see that coming?)
When he tries to pick her up, Ted’s future wife has none of his antics, and she psychoanalyzes him on the spot – he’s sad and trying to cover up him hurt by doing all these outrageous challenges. This effectively deflates his desire to play the game.
Somethings we now know about the mother:
When Barney sees the Mother at the wedding, will he remember her? She obviously affected his life for the better, but in a situation such as a crazy wedding weekend, who knows. HIMYM will have a lot of questions to answer in the next few months.
Meanwhile: Ted and Marshall at the basketball game discuss his platonic relationship with Robin, and how it’s not simply platonic. The blue french horn makes a triumphantly short cameo! Bryan Craston’s Hammond Druthers tries to get Ted to move to Chicago and after turning him down all night, Ted eventually says yes. At least, that’s what we’re assuming right now, but let’s be real, we wouldn’t be surprised if he changes his mind.
We’d say that How I Met Your Mother finally directly addresses the relationship between Marshall and Robin, or lack thereof, but over the seasons they actually have had a certain kinship grow between them because of this gag – the episode at the New York City-based Minnesota bar instantly comes to mind.
Ted, who argues throughout the entire night Robin has made her decision and won’t change her mind, is proved wrong when Robin changes her mind. This convinces him that there’s still hope for them. Because of hindsight, we know Ted really never does give up on her – and still hasn’t while he sits across from them at the wedding. The sooner he is introduced to the Mother, the sooner he’ll stop pining for Robin, which makes us worried that the producers will wait until the last few episodes to get them together.
‘HIMYM’ MVP of the week: Barney
You really have to give it to him this week – he does some crazy things to appease his friends and try to distract himself from the pain he’s really feeling. But then he does address it and realizes it’s no laughing matter – it’s time to get Robin to think he’s dating Patrice and then drive her insane and all that culminates in his marriage proposal.
This episode definitely proves this show has got some more miles in it – but is that just because this basically happens a year ago? We were blissfully saved from any scenes involving Marshall, Daphne and the car, and only saw the gang sitting in the lounge/bar at the Inn discussing Barney’s challenges.
With the holidays starting to gear up, we can expect (hopefully) another Slapsgiving episode, and the episode that will be entirely in rhyme.
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