As in many an episode of How I Met Your Mother, this week's opened at MacLaren's with the whole gang sitting in their usual booth. Barney is in the middle of regaling everyone of his recent sexcapade, but suddenly, he can't go on. He has more important news: his mother is selling her house--the one he and his brother grew up in. So of course, being the Barney he is, he talks everyone into helping him clean the house out in Staten Island. Here, we get into a fun bit with Robin and Ted, were Robin--according to Ted--oversells him to a co-worker she's trying to set him up with. Apparently, the rule is that you're supposed to undersell people so they ultimately wow the other person. In life, I follow this rule. I'm a big underseller. Whenever I took a test in school, I told myself I did terribly, so that way, if I got a good great, it'd be a pleasent surprise--and a relief. I take underselling with me in everything I do. But enough about me and my self-esteem!
The main storyline brings back two guest stars, Wayne Brady and the great Frances Conroy, as Barney's brother and mother, respectively. Everything's going swimmingly with the task at hand. But then once a lie about why Barney was taken off the basketball team comes out, it seems that Barney's entire childhood starts to unravel. We basically learn that Barney's mother lied to her kids--of course with their best interests in mind--but she still lied to them. She made Barney believe the following:
- The coach asked him to quit the basketball team because he was too good for the other players (he was actually cut).
- The post master general wrote him a letter apologizing for the invite mix up that occurred which caused all the kids he invited to his birthday to not come (oh those kids got those invites).
- Every girl in class gave Barney a valentine on Valentine's Day (his mother actually wrote all of those valentines).
But the one lie we all knew of was the one about how Bob Barker is Barney's dad. We'd heard this before. And, OK, I'll admit that I secretly wanted this to be true--it'd make sense and it'd be a great cameo, right? But sadly, it too is a lie. And of course, Barney won't face it. Any of it. He just goes right along believing everything he's been told. But then a letter addressed to a Mr. Sam Gibbs is found, with nothing but a photograph of Barney and James. On the back, is written, "Your son." Now, we know that Barney and James are not blood-related. James is black, Barney is white. They come from two different fathers. So as the entire bunch (save for the mother) drive over to the listed address, they know that only one son will find his father, they just don't know which one it will be.
At the father-to-be's house, Barney finally admits that he knows he's been lied to, and he knows that Bob Barker is not his father. After he confesses that since he was such a lonely kid, he needed to believe that lie, James finally knocks on the door of the possible father. And it's Ben Vereen. BEN VEREEN! I love Ben Vereen. Jesus Christ Superstar is one of my favorite musicals. I've listend to "Heaven on Their Minds" way too many times on my Ipod. And that's all I'm gonna say about that. But I'll also say that I liked his absent-father character on this show, much more than his absent-father character he played for his guest stint 0n an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Though, that episode made me cry, which I enjoyed. And I confess that it made me cry just now, rewatching it. But no, Ben Vereen in this episode; much different. It was a wonderful moment--for Sam and James--but Sam was not Barney's father...OR WAS HE?! No, he was not, but Barney didn't let that stop him. No, in obvious desperation (and yes, thanks to Neil Patrick Harris, it was funny) he acted as if Sam was his father. Barney trying to get in on James' and Sam's duet of Stand by Me was hilarious--and I couldn't help but wonder if Robin's reactions were Robin, or Cobie Smulders herself trying not to crack. Either way, I'm sure the scene is bound to end up in the blooper reel.
In the end. James found his father. Robin turned out to be overselling her co-worker (when she said she looked like a movie star, she meant Robert DeNiro). And Barney was still looking for his father. But when the lovely Frances Conroy walked into his old bedroom, carrying the answer to the question, Barney had flashbacks to all those moments where his mother lied to him to make him feel better. She wanted to be both the mother and the father to her boys. And then the tears began to form and well up in my eyes. And when Barney ripped up the the piece of paper containing the name of his father and accepted that his single mother was both, tears fell out of my eyeballs. It was a lovely moment. And not to get all "afterschool special" on you, but I really did think it sent out a great message to those people who've grown up with single parents.
Great episode. How I Met Your Mother is 2 for 2 in my book. Can't wait to see what next week will bring us.
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