Thank You, Linus: 'How I Met Your Mother' Starts Strong

By Courtney Enlow | TV | September 24, 2013 |

By Courtney Enlow | TV | September 24, 2013 |

Last night, we began the final leg of Ted Mosby’s nine-year, Whine ‘n Vagina World Tour on “How I Met Your Mother.” And, thankfully, we’re off to a strong start.

This season, the ninth and last, will of course take place during Barney and Robin’s wedding weekend. Sucker for clever narrative devices I am, I’m thrilled. And, so far, so good. Last night alone we had flashbacks, flashforwards, flashall over the damn place.

Let’s start with the most important addition, and I don’t mean Sherri Shepherd (that could get old fast). The Mother. And what an addition she is. She’s adorable, funny, gets along with Lily right off the bat, and makes a mean batch of Sumbitches. I love the way this is being set up, with TM befriending Ted’s cronies before meeting him, so we get that sense of her within the group, while seeing flashforwards to her relationship with Ted. We really do get the best of all worlds.

Speaking of the best of all worlds, we got my favorite thing: Pretentious Ted, replete with driving gloves (“Then why do they call them glove compartments?” is actually a good point.) And very little lovelorn Ted, which pleases me greatly. We are destined to get a flashback to Ted’s trip to find Robin’s locket at Stella’s storage locker, but at least we know it ends with him giving up the ghost already.

You all know my favorite goodness was Barney and Robin goodness ‘cause there ain’t no goodness like Barney and Robin goodness. We got two full episodes of them being 1) funny and 2) in love, and doing both at the same time, something the show has struggled with along the way. But, between the amazing run of thinking they might be cousins (“King Joffrey’s parents were brother and sister and he was a fair and wise leader.” Oh, Barney.) to the sweetness of Barney reassuring Robin that his brother’s divorce won’t affect their marriage, I’m really happy with how this progresses. There are those online who believe Barney and Robin won’t end up together. Obviously, I’m not one of them, mostly because I don’t want to be one of them. I’ve shipped them hard since season three and I will go down with this ship, dammit. Also, “ringbear.”

But my real favorite ship of the night?

Lily + Linus forevs.