Jason and Lily contemplate a move to Italy in a subpar episode.

This week’s episode of How I Met Your Mother came off with a resounding “meh” as we realize yet again that the writers are grasping at straws to move the plot forward and also tie everything up nicely in time for the big mother reveal that we are all expecting in the season 8 finale.

Yes, there were some giggle-worthy parts of “Romeward Bound.” Like Barney’s joke about bird-watching and attractive women that leads us on a path to the so-obvious-we-never-saw-it-coming Robin joke. (Seriously, birds… Robin… this is really the first time they’re using that connection?) Or the imaginary Italian Marshall on a Vespa with baby Marvin in a matching jumpsuit wearing cool shades sitting in his lap. Or a quintessential Marshall and Lily scene, in which Marshall repeats the only Italian phrase his perpetually high college self was able to learn — “Come on, bro, don’t bogart all the Funyuns!” — and yet Lily (and we, by way of captions) is able to understand he’s really proclaiming his love for her, his excitement for the future and his desire to go to Rome. (Either that, or Funyuns might be the most versatile word in the Italian language.)

But these few jokes ineffectively masked two very subpar plots — Lily and Marshall planning to move to Rome, and Barney and Ted trying to see the body of a yoga instructor who inexplicably always wears a puffy coat.

The former plot was entirely disappointing. It’s frustrating that Lily, who only recently attained some job happiness and self-confidence, already seems to have another problem that is hardly made clear at any point before this episode: her reluctance to leave home. Even worse, Marshall’s dream job at an environmental law firm has suddenly been downgraded to two guys sitting in a weirdly festive office drinking beer and using bad wordplay to lie to Lily about how miserable their lives at the office are. What happened to Marshall’s dream to become a judge? And if his job really did fall apart that badly, I highly doubt he would hide it from Lily or handle it so calmly. It is unfair to the viewers to continue to randomly manufacture issues for the couple and half-heartedly wave them away with a magic problem-solving wand. Somewhere deep down I know they’re giving them such a sudden life turnaround so they can whisk them off the show for most of the next season, since Jason Segal has expressed a desire to move away from the show and pursue other ventures in his career.

Conversely to Marshall and Lily’s plot, Barney and Ted’s moment rehashed issues that seemed to have already been laid to rest. Ted brings up the idea that he may still not be over Robin even though he’s quashed that thought so many times the mere mention of a Ted and Robin pairing leaves me feeling mostly irritated. Barney makes us doubt yet again his commitment to Robin, though he’s already proposed, hashed and rehashed feelings of insecurity, and had a talk with Robin about it. Though it was weird, I was grateful for that moment when Ted confronted Barney about his behavior and Barney got indignant about it, if only because it will put that conflict to rest.

The bit about the puffy coat yoga instructor, however, was excellent, in that it reminds us that deep down, Barney and Ted (and Robin) are still the same people — even as they “grow up” and settle down they’ll still find themselves in strange situations, still be on the same quest for the most ridonkulous of bodies spouting the weirdest of wisdom, such Barney’s belief that women can sense a man who is totally in love with a woman and therefore won’t be offended if that man asks her something that would otherwise come off as inappropriate. They’re the same people we fell in love with way back in the first episode when, just with a few more complications.

Tidbits

– Marshall never actually lied about what he was doing at work. “Wait, when you said you were about to get reamed….” “Sometimes for fun, we throw reams of paper at each other.”

– Marshall’s Italian dream: take care of Marvin, make pasta and watch Italian Price is Right

– “They’re like WBDs… weapons of bra destruction.”

– “Indiana Jones wouldn’t look at this body. This is a body that would melt a Nazi’s face.”

– “And it was, indeed, ridonkulous”

– “Y Funyuns Lily, y Funyuns!”

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