Twenty-two hours before the wedding revolved around the planning, annihilation and execution of Barney and Robin’s rehearsal dinner. At first we are tricked into thinking Barney is being arrested and held in laser tag jail after being convinced Robin was throwing him a surprise laser tag rehearsal dinner.
Barney was convinced Robin was throwing him a surprise laser tag rehearsal dinner after promising he would get her back for tricking him into the best bachelor party ever. He did this by pretending he was calling off the wedding and sending her to pack her suitcase only to find it packed with puppies. PUPPIES! Even though it was a sweet surprise, Robin declared their nice surprise war over.
Of course nothing is ever over for Barney so he took this as Robin had another surprise in store for him. The entire episode is spent around him figuring out how Robin planned the laser tag dinner and begging her to admit it was a surprise. In the end, even I assumed he was right and she had in fact planned an amazing surprise laser tag dinner, but it turns out it was Barney who had a surprise for Robin.
In a flashback, we see the group discussing where the couple’s rehearsal dinner would take place and robin mentioned she wanted it in Canada. Of course, the group laughed the idea off in a series of Canada jokes, ”Canada? What are you going to do, hire a regular dog sled or a stretch?” — Marshall, “Canada? Are you registered at Tim Horton’s?” — Ted. This gave Barney an idea and in the end, he reveals he brought Canada to her through an ice skating rink that turns out, wasn’t a laser tag jail. The jail office walls lift with a push of a “let’s get the party started,” button and reveal a rink full of dinner invitees, actors dressed as Canadian heroes and of course, Alan Thicke (ha!) and the signed photo of Wayne Gretzky. Just before pushing the button, Barney tells her he will only ever lie to her when it brings a smile to her face. How adorable! The Canadian skating dinner was sweet, but went a little over the top at some points, but what else is to be expected when it’s a Barney surprise?
A subplot in the episode was Lily’s sadness over Marshall taking the judge position and cancelling their move to Rome. So far in this season, we have only seen moments of rage revolving the situation, but haven’t seen her actually address the situation. It was a heartfelt conversation instead of a couple broken glasses and a “thank you, Linus” scene that revealed Lily’s sadness. This was another favorite, Ted-Lily moment for me because in her sadness over Marshall (and a running joke that Lily can’t keep a secret) Ted brings her a moment of happiness by letting her in on the surprise Barney had for Robin and also letting her announce the change of plans to the guests.
Another highlight of this episode was Ted dressed as Liberace attempting to play the piano and then later Ted dressed as Liberace attempting to figure skate, “kids, it takes more than two months to learn how to figure skate.”
Photo courtesy CBS