Friday night of the Stinson-scherbatsky wedding weekend, we are presented with outfit changes, Pitch Perfect’s Anna Camp and Gilmore Girl’s Edward Herrmann as guest stars and a running Indiana Jones reference. Barney deems the night as Ted’s last chance to hookup with someone at the wedding and sends him on a mission to find the right girl for Friday night drinks. On the road, Marshall and Daphne get into a discussion of how he will tell Lily he took the judge position.
Lily is introduced to the wedding minister, Reverend Lowell (Edward Herrmann) and learns her cute, “how Marshall and I met,” story was stolen by her soon to be married friends. Strict Reverend Lowell (he doesn’t allow sport logos, gum or pets in his church) is angry when he finds out Lily and Marshall have the same story and confronts Barney and Robin. The two eventually come clean about how they actually met; causing them denied use of the church.
Although they’re understandably upset at first, they soon realize they actually love the way they met even though it wasn’t as classy and cute and Marshmallow and Lilly pad. It was sweet to watch them realize that after years of friendship and ups and downs, they are in fact in love for who they are. In the process of explaining their love for each others quirks, Reverend Lowell says, “you’re killing me,” and then actually dies in his seat.
Ted is presented with a choice of women from Barney and Robin’s mutual friends. He quickly chooses Cassie (Anna Camp) and is then followed around by a Knight ghost from Indian Jones who judges all of his decisions for the night (most of course being poor.) At first it seems as if the night will go as planned for Ted, but then Cassie’s life starts to fall apart; literally, she lost her job, got sick and ran into her ex-boyfriend. Instead of spending the night “doing crazy things,” Ted spends the night comforting Cassie. Later, Ted reflects on the nights “poor” choices and decides they may have been the right choices or else he would have never met the Mother that weekend if he had been with someone else.
Daphne and Marshall rehearse several scenarios in which he will break the news to Lily about his job and anticipate her reactions. Daphne is shocked when she learns Marshall already took the job without talking to lily first. The two share a heartfelt moment when Daphne tells the story of how she never had someone supporting her career and has had to sacrifice a lot. It is then clear to Marshall he is doing the same to Lily, but before he has a chance to feel bad, Daphne reveals she is a lobbyist for an oil company. Marshall abruptly stops the car yelling, “what the damn hell,” (a phrase commonly used by Daphne) and refuses her advice since it is clear she doesn’t want him to be an environmental judge working against her. The episode ends after Daphne tells Marshall she already texted Lily a confession about taking the job without telling her.
This episode finally didn’t drag on for me and had a more classic, HIMYM feel to it. I am also a fan of Indiana Jones so that was of course a nice addition to the episode.
Photo Courtesy CBS