HIMYM 6.10: "Blitzgiving"

“Dude, you walked out of the room, the laws of physics stopped, and the laws of awesome tripled.”
-Marshall

“Blitzgiving” was a wonderful episode of HIMYM. In the Thanksgiving episode of HIMYM lexicon, it is really only surpassed by “Slapsgiving,” which is in a class all its own. “Blitzgiving” comes close that that level, though, with a funny new gimmick (the curse of “The Blitz”), more silly singing in harmony by Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel, and a thoroughly entertaining and appropriate guest appearance by Jorge Garcia (Hurley on “Lost”). It was joyous, silly fun, but it also had heart. As I’ve said before plenty of times on this blog, that combination can be found in all the best episodes of HIMYM. It had a vintage HIMYM feel, even down to a drawn out “legendary” from Barney, something I don’t think he’s done in ages. I’m a little wary of where the show may be going with the character of Zoey at the moment, but I’m willing to forgive that for this entertaining episode.

Ted is hosting Thanksgiving this year, and he’s really excited about it because he’s making what he calls a “Tu-turkey-key,” where he’s going to stuff the turkey with a smaller turkey. It’s like a Turducken, but boring. When the rest of the gang hears about it during an evening at MacLaren’s, they just think it sounds gross. Ted wants to call it a night because the bar seems to be dead, but Barney says that this time of year, college chicks should be home. The bar should be a happening place any time now. Marshall throws in that Ted doesn’t want to be “The Blitz.” “The Blitz” is a guy Ted, Marshall, and Lily knew in college, and he’s played by none other than Jorge Garcia. He’s actually the latest in a long line of Blitzes at Weslyan- the curse has been passed down through the student body, from the original Matt Blitz. The subsequent Blitzes weren’t related to Matt, but the nickname stuck. What the Blitzes all have in common is this: when they leave a room, awesome things start to happen.

Ted does not heed Marshall’s warning, and while he’s sleeping in his apartment, he receives the curse of the Blitz. When he wakes up the next morning, the apartment is in shambles. Awesomeness definitely went down the night before. The entire gang is still there, and they’ve been sleeping on the floor and the couch. Barney and Marshall sing “My Blitzey Lies Over the Ocean” in harmony, which was such good fun. All his friends accounted for, Ted heads into the bathroom to wash up and is greeted with quite the surprise. Zoey, his nemesis/love interest is sleeping in the bathtub. It turns out Zoey was hanging out with the rest of the gang all night, and now they have an inside joke about something they all call “The Gentlemen.”

Ted gets really indignant and wants to know why his so-called friends are spending time with his sworn enemy. Lily says that they had every intention of getting revenge on Zoey when they first saw her walk into MacLaren’s. Then Zoey was really sweet to them and said she loved Lily’s paintings, so they started hanging out with her and had a lot of fun. At one point, Zoey dared Maarshall to text a photo of his junk to a random person. Marshall agreed, and when the gang is trying to choose a phone number, the Blitz appears, and naturally, his suggestion is “4 8 15 16 23 42.” That was just one of many awesome “Lost” shout-outs.

Ted, still peeved, goes into the kitchen to start cooking his Tur-turkey-key. That backfires, though, because the night before, Robin kind of danced on the oven door and broke it. They’re going to have to find an alternate place to have Thanksgiving. Lily mentions that Zoey offered to host all of them at her place, but Ted isn’t having any of that. What follows is a very funny sequence of the gang taking a cab to everybody else’s apartments and finding problems that prevent Thanksgiving from happening there. At Dowisetrepla, there was an explosion at the sewage treatment plant, and the smell is unbearable. Barney doesn’t actually have an oven. And cats have been living in The Blitz’s oven. Lilly suggests that they take up Zoey’s offer, and Ted finally agrees.

The gang had all been really smushed in the same cab, and Barney ends up taking his own cab to Zoey’s apartment. This, of course, leads Barney to be the next recipient of the curse of the Blitz. When he arrives at Zoey’s building, he finds out that the other cab made a wrong turn and they all got to be part of the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Barney spends the rest of the afternoon frantically trying to pass the curse on to anyone else. At one point, he offers to pay Robin to take on the curse. Eventually he gets so frustrated and upset that he goes to another room to cool down. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang wants to know if enemies can ever become friends. The person who Marshall texted has sent a similar return text, and Robin suggests they ask “Wang Guy” for his opinion on the subject. Turns out Robin has a little crush on Wang Guy, which is kind of squicky. Wang Guy replies that enemies can be friends, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for Ted and Zoey in the near future. They get into a bit of a food fight with the cranberry sauce, and Zoey kicks everybody out. Barney accidentally gets left behind, and still being the Blitz, misses Zoey walking around the apartment half naked because he was too busy pouting.

On the cab ride back to his apartment, Ted finally pieces together why Zoey got upset enough to throw everyone out. She had mentioned that the Captain was spending Thanksgiving with his daughter, and Lily had come across a stuffed animal turkey that was supposed to be a gift from Zoey to “Hannah.” Then Ted remembers the just before he was thrown out, he called Zoey an “evil stepmother.” Ted realizes that Hannah must be Zoey’s stepdaughter, and Hannah must not like Zoey. His comment hit a little too close to home. He asks the driver to turn around the cab and go back to Zoey’s place. Zoey is extremely surprised to see everybody sitting at her dining room table. Barney let them back in the apartment. Ted apologizes to Zoey, and the two seem to have reached an understanding, at least for now. At the end of the episode, Barney catches an elevator as the door is closing and leaves the Blitz behind. The curse is then transferred back to the Blitz, and all is as it should be.