“Guys, we’ve had some pretty legendary nights, but we’ve also had some nights that weren’t so legendary. Looking at you the night Ted made us watch ‘Norbit.’”
-Barney
I think “Now We’re Even” is one of the more enjoyable episodes of HIMYM I’ve watched lately. Minimal Quinn, minimal drama, and some really great laughs. Pairing up Josh Radnor and Neil Patrick Harris is never not funny, and this episode was no exception. The Ted/Barney escapades were the best, funniest part of the episode. Okay, Robin got to be pretty awesome too, but Ted and Barney made me laugh. Not only did they make me laugh, but we saw their genuine friendship, too. It’s always nice to be reminded that these characters actually like each other. One thing I didn’t especially love about the episode was the Marshall and Lily plot, because it was yet another variation on the “pregnant people are stupid” meme. At least this time it implied that expectant dads could go a little nuts too instead of just demeaning women. Overall though, my happiness with the Barney/Ted humor outweighed by annoyance with the Marshall/Lily plot. The episode made for a legendary night indeed.
The cold open of the episode features just Ted and Marshall at MacLaren’s, and they’re talking about Ted living alone for the first time in his life. Marshall first seems to think it could be kind of lonely, but then Ted starts enumerating all the things he can do since nobody else lives with him to judge him. Ted especially loves drinking beer and eating ribs naked in front of the television. While I’ve never done that specifically, I can attest to the fact that the lack of judgment inherent in living alone is indeed pretty awesome. I could especially relate when Ted said how nice it was to just be able to leave the laundry basket right in the middle of the living room. Once Marshall hears all this, he agrees that living alone does indeed sound pretty awesome.
We next see the whole gang, minus Robin (who is still not speaking to Ted) at MacLaren’s. Marshall sends Lily away by making her realize she needs to go use the ladies’ room, and when she’s gone, he tells Ted and Barney that Lily had a strange sex dream the other day. She got really red (he describes it as “vermillion”) when he asked her about it, so Marshall is convinced she was dreaming about somebody they know. Ted’s first instinct is that it was Robin, but Marshall can confirm that’s not the case, because he and Lily went to visit Robin at her new World Wide News office. Robin couldn’t find her ID, and the guard wouldn’t let her pass through, even though there’s a big picture of her on the wall. Robin kind of wants to be famous, so this is a bit of a letdown.
When Lily returns, Barney wants to turn the conversation to himself, so he proposes that the gang try to “make every night legendary.” That’s his new philosophy. Ted is the only one to get roped into the “legendary nights.” Marshall and Lily hightailed it out of MacLaren’s to cheesy sound effects that made me think I was back in Morocco watching “Radio Wak Wak” instead of a modern American comedy. Anyway, we see the first couple legendary nights, complete with really humorous descriptive title cards. The first night involves Barney and Ted pretending to be a Mariachi band, and the second night involves them eating everything on the MacLaren’s menu. As the episode progresses, the titles Barney gives for their legendary nights get longer, and the time for which the title card appears on the screen gets shorter. It’s pretty much the funniest bit of the episode. Ted finally draws the line when Barney proposes bungee jumping off the Statue of Liberty. Ted keeps shooting down other ideas such as stealing from the Natural History museum and befriending Phil Collins. To keep him from becoming really lame, Barney locks Ted out of his apartment. Ted says he’s going to use the MacLaren’s phone to call his super to let him back in.
The night Barney proposes bungee jumping is also the night that Lily and Marshall are supposed to go out for a super fancy dinner. Marshall even hired a limo for the occasion. Ranjit shows up at the door, ready to drive the Eriksens to their dinner, and Lily suddenly turns vermillion. And we now know who she was fanaticizing about in her dream. Lily and Marshall argue about this on the limo ride to the restaurant, and Ranjit keeps being creepy and rolling the divider down so he can hear what is being said about him. Lily eventually gets fed up and leaves the limo. She ends up at the Lusty Leopard to vent to Quinn, and they talk about how expectant dads generally go crazy. I wonder why she didn’t call Robin instead at this point. It would have been hilarious, considering Robin was on a rather precarious helicopter at the time (more on that in a minute). Marshall and Ranjit end up eating at the fancy restaurant together, and Ranjit tells Marshall that now that he’s going to be a father, he doesn’t get to be crazy ever again.
Robin is still having trouble getting past the security guard to get to her office. Now there’s a vending machine in front of her picture in the lobby. Sandy ends up meeting her at the security desk, and he implies that he has a big, important story for her to cover. He even asks what she thinks of helicopters. This of course leads her to become WWN’s traffic reporter. How can a cable news network do traffic anyway? The whole country has a whole lot of highway to cover! Anyway, while Robin’s up in the helicopter, the pilot has a stroke. Robin is going to have to land the bird herself. Which can’t possibly end well, but it will at least make her famous.
Barney and Ted are at MacLaren’s, and Barney claims that he’s beating Ted in the “game of life.” Barney’s game has points and everything. The two debate points for a while, and once Barney awards Ted 9,000 points for having sex with Robin before he did, they’re almost tied. There’s just one difference. Several years ago, Barney succeeded in getting a woman’s phone number while wearing a dress. Barney says that’s worth 500 points, and until Ted manages the same feat, they won’t be tied. Fed up, Ted is about to go home when Barney tells him to look at the television. It’s a news report about Robin trying to land the chopper. The whole city watches and waits together as Robin is eventually able to land safely, and after she lands, Robin gets tons of phone calls and texts, including one from Ted saying he’s glad she’s okay. Ted wants to go home from the bar, but Barney says that when he goes home in the evening, he can’t stop thinking about how Quinn is at work stripping for other men. The next night, realizing that Barney needs a distraction and a pick-me-up, Ted puts on the green dress we saw in last season’s “The Mermaid Theory” and gets a woman’s phone number.
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