Building or the Girl?

So, this past Monday I wasn’t feeling to well thanks to a horrible allergic reaction. I felt so horrible that, while I watched “How I Met Your Mother,” I barely had the energy or the desire to recap the episode. But here is an abridged version of the episode:

A few episodes ago, Barney got Ted a job designing Goliath National Bank’s new headquarters. In this week’s episode, Barney reveals the location of the new headquarters. It will be on the site of the old New York building the Arcadia. Ted goes down to scope out the building…

…and then tells Barney he can’t do it. He goes on to list all the reasons why the building should be preserved when the conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Lily and Marshall. Marshall is upset because he’s learned how much Robin and Lily talk about their sex lives. Robin and Max—one of Marshall’s law school buddies who was at the steakhouse last week—hit it off. But apparently, Max has a small penis. And now Marshall is just focusing on that. Ted and Barney back him up. Lily wonders about “locker room” talk. We side-swoosh to see that the locker room is generally all the guys rushing around, not making eye contact and that one old guy letting it all hang out. Lily still doesn’t believe it since no matter what, whenever she mentions a girlfriend, Barney immediately asks, “Boobs?” That’s it.

And that’s how Barney discovers the real reason why Ted won’t build GNB’s new headquarters. There’s a girl involved. And it’s Jennifer Morrison—Zoe! She talks to Ted about the building, which gets him excited. She’s beautiful and an architecture nerd. The others are cautious and Barney wonders how Zoe took the news that Ted was the one redesigning the building. He told her he was a vet. Typical Ted. Barney keeps trying to get Ted to build the headquarters, but Ted is drawn to Zoe. Especially since she shows up at his place with a van full of bunnies. They were liberated from a scientific lab. Turns out Zoe has never met a cause she won’t fight for. She’s also been arrested several times—chaining herself to a tree, setting a car on fire at a Guns and Roses concert—and wants Ted’s help to save the Arcadia.

Barney still tries to get Ted to realize it’s about Zoe, not the building. As Zoe leads a protest against the destruction of the Arcadia, Barney unveils a “Coming Soon” banner complete with Ted’s picture. Ted storms home to find Barney. And anyone who didn’t melt when they saw Neil Patrick Harris petting the bunny should check to make sure you have a heart! Especially once he declared that he was keeping the bunny because they had bonded. Ted decides to find a compromise. He goes to Zoe’s protest to show her what he’s done. He’s managed to design the headquarters around the Arcadia, preserving the ancient façade. As Zoe admires Ted’s creativity, he spots a ring on her finger. He asks if she’s married and as she absently says, “Yes,” Ted realizes Barney was right. It was never about the building. He trashes the plans, tells Zoe the building is a lost cause and agrees to redesign the building for Barney.

But Ted hadn’t seen the last of Zoe. She’s seen pelting Ted’s building with eggs.

In the Marshall/Lily/Robin/Max storyline, Marshall continues to obsess over Max’s small penis. This leads to an awkward yet incredibly funny double date scene. It also causes Marshall to imagine Lily complaining to Robin about everything he does in bed. So, he forces Lily to praise Marshall to Robin, who knows what is going on. In the end, all is well in Marshall’s world. This does strike me as a bit off as Marshall was seen in the premiere telling the entire NEIGHBORHOOD about his and Lily’s struggles to get pregnant. The only thing I could think of was that he didn’t go into too much detail, just the non-bedroom related facts. I guess.