HIMYM 7.11: "The Rebound Girl"

“Why wouldn’t I be alright? Barney’s single again. It’s what America’s been clamoring for!”
-Barney

So I’m back in my own country’s capital now (instead of Morocco’s), and it’s high time I finish wrapping up MTVP’s coverage of the fall TV season. We begin with HIMYM’s penultimate fall season episode, “The Rebound Girl.” When I first watched it, I found the ending quite shocking, and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. It certainly seemed to take Barney and Robin in an entirely new direction. Even though all is not as it seems, I have to believe that the twist at the end of the episode will have some sort of repercussions going forward. It’s patently obvious that Barney and Robin are endgame now, nd it only remains to be seen how they finally, ultimately get back together for good. I only hope that the rode there isn’t too unbearably tedious. As for other events in this episode, I still find Marshall and Lily’s desire to move to Long Island improbable. Well, maybe for Marshall it’s believable. He’s a country boy at heart. But Lily is most definitely not, and I didn’t really see a baby changing that. I did like that we got a brief appearance from Wayne Brady as Barney’s brother James in this episode, along with Jai Rodriguez as James’ husband.

The major plot for this episode is that Lily and Marshall’s Realtor has finished staging the Long Island house Lily’s grandparents gave them, so Lily and Marshall want to take a trip out to see it. When they get home, Dowisetrepla seems quite small and cramped in comparison. This leads Marshall and Lily to think they might really want to move to Long Island after all. When they tell Robin this news, she is not at all pleased. Marshall offers a compromise. He and Lily will let the universe decide whether or not they should move. To Robin’s chagrin, that sign comes quickly. A rich neighbor shows up at Dowisetrepla wanting to buy Lily and Marshall’s apartment so he can turn his own into a duplex. It looks like the Eriksens are moving to Long Island.

Meanwhile, Barney and Ted are both in a rather bad place relationship-wise, which leads them to make a rather rash decision. At the beginning of the episode, they’re commiserating at MacLaren’s about how they’re done with women. They have a hilarious conversation about how it would be awesome to be gay, and they’re both kind of sad to confirm when a really hot chick walks by that they are definitely straight. The conversation evolves into talking about how awesome it would be to co-parent with your best bro instead of a woman, and of course this leads to Ted and Barney thinking it might be a good idea to adopt a kid together. They realize that they’re drunk, so they decide to sleep on the idea and it still sounds great the next day. Ted and Barney then go on an adoption website and start filling out an application. This leads to the first airing of differences between the two. They work out some things fairly easily, like where they’re going to live (in NYC during the week and Ted’s Westchester house on the weekends), but then Barney mentions that he thought Ted would quit his job once they adopted the baby. I know this was supposed to be like a parody of a bitter married couple, but it was too much and didn’t work for me.

Ted and Barney do end up getting past that first fight (they would get two nannies, and Barney would get to have sex with both), but then Barney starts really going off the deep end talking about pet cobras and week-long parties and ninja stars and swords lying about the house. Ted finally realizes that co-parenting a child with Barney would be a really, really bad idea, and he calls of the plan. Barney isn’t one to take no” for an answer, though, so later he shows up at Ted’s apartment with a baby strapped to him. When Ted asks where the little girl came from, Barney just gives his trademark “Please” in response. Barney takes the baby (named Hurricane) outside and places her in a stroller. Ted is amazed at how much of a chick magnet a baby can be. He and Barney are swarmed by adoring women.

Meanwhile, Robin is kind of desperately trying to convince Marshall and Lily to stay in Manhattan. She rattles off a whole list of things she can only get in New York City (and brings examples along too). There’s also a funny sequence about the last time Marshall wanted a sign from the universe, and the sign told him he should be a Ghostbuster. There was even an Ernie Hudson cameo, which was pretty great. Later, Marshall, Lily, and Robin all arrive on Long Island to prep for Thanksgiving, which is to be held at Marshall and Lily’s new house. Robin completely can’t deal with the fact that her friends are probably going to be moving, and she locks herself in the bathroom. She says she won’t come out until Marshall and Lily say they won’t move to Long Island.

Barney and Ted (and the baby) show up at the Long Island house, but it isn’t long before Hurricane needs a diaper change. There are no diapers at the house, so Barney goes off in search of some. While Barney is out, Ted tells Marshall and Lily the whole story about why they have a baby, and just as he’s wrapping that up, James and his husband arrive. It turns out that Hurricane is actually their daughter, whose real name is Sadie. The fact that the mystery baby was his niece makes Barney’s behavior somewhat less disturbing. James tells Ted that he once thought about having a child with his best friend too, but hes glad he waited and so is she. Just as James is finishing up this speech, Barney comes back. He ended up getting products for Sadie from a pet store. It’s probably a good thing Barney doesn’t actually have children yet. Barney and Ted agree that they aren’t going to adopt a baby after all. Barney is kind of upset about this, and he goes to talk to Robin about it. He has to climb in the bathroom window to get to her. Much to his surprise, Robin says she’s pregnant.