Umm…No Theme to this Episode, Really.

I finally kicked my bug! But since I spent the last two “How I Met Your Mother” episodes sick and recapping them after the fact, the recaps took on a different style. And I liked that. So I’m keeping it!

The “A” plot this week stars Ted Moseby, Architect Professor. And his students—who I don’t think have changed from last year—LOVE him. He wears a hot dog costume, which thankfully isn’t too silly as his students are in costume as well. He even gives them candy and they ask if he’s going to a certain Halloween party. He says no because he’s going to the party held by GNB. Lily, Barney and Marshall are there as well as Will Forte (“Randy”). He asks if Robin was going to be there, but they said that she had another party to go to. Randy is sad until Lily says Robin may show up. Randy perks up and then asks if they are going to the Halloween parade. Ted, Marshall and Barney say they are—but they aren’t talking about the Greenwich Village Parade. They are talking about the Walk of Shame taken the day after Halloween by women still in costume returning from their one night stands. And who should be on this walk? Robin! But that’s for the “C” plot…

Anyway, Ted runs into Zoey, who is still protesting his actions as if he were personally tearing down the Arcadia. Ted makes the mistake of telling Zoey that he teaches an architecture class at a prestigious university. Guess what happens? If you guessed that Zoey shows up in Ted’s class—you’d be right! She asks Ted if the Arcadia is an example of Greek Revival architecture. It’s not. But it does give her an in to explain to Ted’s class all about the Arcadia. At first they don’t believe her, but eventually turn against Ted. They even join in Zoey’s demonstrations against Ted and GNB.

Desperate the get his class back, Ted turns to Lily for help. She asks if Ted knows about a certain car with an annoying alarm parked outside their building. Ted and Robin imitate it perfectly. Lily says that when little Johnny got too out of control, upsetting the other students, she would flicker the lights on and off making that noise. Ted tries it after candy and mixed tapes don’t work. And it works…until the class doesn’t show up for school. So he finds them protesting with Zoey and follows Lily’s next advice: fear. She recalls Johnny and his stuffed horse. Well, Little Johnny wakes up from naptime with only his horse’s head in a homage to The Godfather.

So, Ted threatens his class with “F’s” if they don’t show up. And they do.

And in the “B” plot, we have Marshall and Randy! GNB isn’t well-liked, so they put out a “feel good” video every year. Barney tries to get Marshall in it, but he refuses. Meanwhile, he is trying to deal with Randy, who is completely hopeless in his job as Marshall’s assistant. Marshall refuses to fire him, even though Randy shredded a very important contract because he thought “downtown” was code for “shredder.” But after shredding documents one time too many, Marshall gives in and fires Randy. While Barney pops champagne, Marshall is really torn up about firing the man.

So, Marshall marches in to Arthur (who seems to have recovered from his heart attack pretty well) to argue to save Randy’s job. And he wins. Which in a reversal, is NOT what Randy wants. He was counting on the severance check in order to open his own brewery. So, he does everything he can to try and get Marshall to fire him again. After wrecking Marshall’s office and dousing Marshall in coffee, Randy gives up as Marshall refuses to budge. Randy tells Marshall his dream and as Marshall tries some of Randy’s beer, he fires him. And then participates in Barney’s GNB video. Future!Ted tells us that Randy’s beer went on to be a big hit.

And now, our “C” plot. Remember how the boys spotted Robin in the Halloween Walk of Shame Parade? Well, now they want to know who it is. Lily deduces from Robin’s unwillingness to share that it’s someone they know. Ted prays that Robin isn’t sleeping with her co-anchor again. Robin reminds him that her co-anchor is a girl. While this does set up Barney’s awesome line “Please tell me you are sleeping with your co-anchor,” it was just shoddy writing. Of course Ted knows Robin’s anchor is a woman—he dated her in the last episode! Anyway, Barney’s line let’s us into Becky’s scene. She’s not so big into journalistic integrity and recently filmed a commercial for a boat show. She’s wearing a pink outfit and wig, doing a weird dance and just saying “boats” over and over again.

Anyway, Lily finally gets Robin to admit that it was Randy she spent the night with. But that doesn’t last long as Randy—celebrating his severance check—reveals that he didn’t sleep with Robin on Halloween night. So, Lily goes back to interrogating her friend. It turns out Robin decided to go down Becky’s path and do a commercial of her own. Hers was for adult diapers. She says the director doesn’t know if they’ll use it (Future!Ted says it ran for 7 years) but that was her Halloween night shame.

I am really liking Jennifer Morrison as Zoey. She’s serving as a good antagonist for Ted. Though I marked it the “B” plot, I liked the Marshall-Randy plot better than Ted’s “A” plot.