Quick Take: How I Met Your Mother, "The Drunk Train"
"Last week I went out with a girl whose favorite band is Glee." - Barney
Review: How I Met Your Mother, "The Drunk Train"
(S0716) Here's the good news: Kevin (Kal Penn) is probably gone from the show. As much as I like Penn as a performer he, like Chris Elliott, has struggled to find chemistry with How I Met Your Mother's core cast and often seemed like he belonged on a different show entirely.
The bad news: the way the show arrived at Kevin's departure did not feel natural at all.
At first, Robin gives him one of the "I'll have to think about it" lines that almost always translate as a "No." Kevin, to his credit, persists and Robin is forced to come clean about the reason behind her hesitance: Robin can't have kids. Not only is she incapable of having kids, she is unwilling to be a parent.
Now, I admit that I've not seen every single episode of How I Met Your Mother. But I've seen quite a few, and I can't recall Robin ever mentioning her infertility or her anti-motherhood attitude. Again, I could have very well missed an episode that dealt with this, but the whole Robin not wanting to have kids business seemed to come out of left field.
The rest of the episode is quite good, until the very end. (More on the end of "The Drunk Train" later). Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) gamely serves as Ted's (Josh Radnor) wingman, keeping Ted's date's friend, Quinn (Becki Newton), occupied despite the fact that she clearly isn't going to sleep with him. Ted returns the favor by accompanying Barney on his latest get-laid-quick scheme: The Drunk Train, which ferries intoxicated Long Islanders home from a night out in Manhattan. Hilarity, of course, ensues.
The episode ends with Barney ditching a sure thing from The Drunk Train. He intimates that he's pining after Quinn, but there is a possibility he could still be carrying a torch for Robin. Speaking of Robin, Ted tracks her down after his ride of The Drunk Train and confesses his love for her. WAIT WHAT? Where the hell did that come from? Even more so than the Robin not wanting to have kids stuff, Ted's confession feels completely out of the blue.
The show seems to be setting up a love triangle between Barney, Ted, and Robin. In and of itself, the love triangle angle isn't so bad. The problem is How I Met Your Mother has already dealt with this issue. I'm specifically talking about the episode "The Goat", in which Ted finds out that Barney and Robin slept together.
Despite "The Drunk Train" having some seriously funny bits (especially the cold open about Marshall and Lily's wedding night), the episode left me questioning the track How I Met Your Mother seems to be on heading into the end of the season.
Yikes, you really haven't seen a ton of HIMYM. Robin's aversion to children has been brought up many times throughout the series. It's been a pretty consistent aspect of her character. While it's never been a particularly subtle characteristic, it was really brought to the forefrunt in this season's "Symphony of Illumination" which is also the episode where she/we find out about her infertility.
Ted telling Robin he loves her isn't so much out of left field (many allusions to this in previous episodes) as it is a rehashing. Though in my opinion, it's a necessary rehashing- a need to finally deal with their relationship, so Ted can really move on and be ready for the titular "mother." I also think Quinn is being introduced to avoid the whole triangle situation. Not that I wasn't surprised by how much I liked her character- wasn't expecting that. I just think these developments are more about Ted, Robin, and Barney dealing with their hangups, so they can move forward.
Kevin proposing was a bit surprising. They've been dating for a fair amount of time, but not really long enough that it was at all expected. But when I think about his character, I don't feel as though it's too contrived. Robin wanting to accept was interesting, though.
And I totally agree on the opening bit about Marshall and Lily's wedding night- I love that they still incorporate those little friend moments. A lot of shows drop those bits that don't move the story forward after so many seasons, but I think they're the favorite moments of a lot of people, myself included.
StarLab,
HIMYM is a show that I pop in and out on, which is kind of why I included a bit a disclaimer in the review. Since posting this review, bits and pieces of old plot lines are popping up in memory. You might be able to answer this: Did the reason for Robin and Ted's original break up have to do with her not wanting kids?
Great Clash reference, lucas !
Yes it is Lucas. It was best portayed when Ted and Robin were trying to work out a compromise between Ted's desire to have kids and Robin's drive to travel before they broke up. With Ted saying "I don't want to have kids in Argentina." followed by Robin saying "I don't want to have kids in Argentina." Italics for vocal emphasis.