The Rehearsal Dinner

With the mother revealed at the end of last season, it was hard to feel like there were many surprises left. Sure, we might not know when or where Ted and The Mother will meet, but we already know that it’s going to be her, and since we know they’re going to have a happy ending, we’re not left with much else to wonder about. And since we now know that any interaction Ted has with a woman who isn’t the mother is essentially fruitless, our attention is diverted away from him and onto the real stars of this season – Barney and Robin.

With Barney’s and Robin’s relationship, there is still some room for surprise. We know that at some point at least one of them will try to ditch the wedding, as foreshadowed in the previous season. We know that Barney and Robin have struggled through some immense relationship issues, ones they’ve worked over and over almost to the point of tedium. But those problems are still lingering, to an extent, in the back of their minds – and of course in ours, too. I, at least, desperately want the two of them to get married, and the nagging fear that they might break it off at the last minute has been at the back of my mind every episode this season.

That’s why, somewhere deep down during this episode, I was actually afraid that Barney had misconstrued the situation and there really was no surprise twist rehearsal dinner at the laser tag place. I suspected there must be a twist; after all, the hints were all there – the sign in the background at the laser tag storefront that read “ice store 6 miles” and pointed in the opposite direction, the elaborate build-up, the fact that the laser tag people handcuffed Barney to a pole rather than calling in the authorities – it all pointed to a ruse. (Though I thought it was Robin playing a trick, not Barney.)

Still, there was a part of me that believed that this might be Barney’s big moment to screw everything up. After all the work he put into making Robin and us as viewers believe he was ready for marriage, I truly thought it was all going to be reversed with his selfish insistence on crazy fantasy and childish imagination. And when he started reciting all of those conspiracy theories about how rehearsal and laser tag have the same number of letters (they don’t) and how rehearsal dinner has letters that, when rearranged, help to spell, “’Get ready barney for the biggest surprise of your life you handsome son of a…’ and then not enough letters for bitch but good try Robin,” I thought it was the end for them.

But then Barney pushed the button. And boy, was it cornier than I could ever imagine. The sentiment was there – Barney bringing Canada to Robin – and the revival of great Canadian icons such as Alan Thicke, the doctor who discovered insulin, the guy who invented the paint roller and the girl who he thinks worked for the company that probably created Wonderbra. But the four walls that lifted out of nowhere to reveal the ice skating rink? How did that even happen? How did Robin get into that room without walking across a patch of ice?

Still, this level of grandiosity is exactly what we’d expect from Barney, who would never only go halfway, and deception that big could only merit a surprise of equal caliber. It’s exactly why we love Barney, and why this entire episode worked so well – even when you expect the unexpected, he, and the show, will take you by surprise.

Tidbits:

  • Some of Barney’s many failed ideas: Gluten-free edible undies, inflatable sex toy life raft, that time he ran for mayor…
  • The Canada jokes were all great: “Canada? Are you registered at Tim Hortons?” and “If it’s Canada, just say the word. Then say it again in French.”
  • And of course, the gag of the couple who got married, had a kid, sent him to college and got old behind them as they told their many Canada jokes was a great gag.
  • Barney’s says his bachelor party even “included an appearance by my favorite actor, non-porn category.”
  • Brilliant delivery by Ted, talking about Barney’s failed prank on Robin, as he sits in McClarens in a full Liberace outfit: “What a freakin’ weirdo.”
  • “Well dog my cats, what are the chances?”