Up On the Rooftop, Marshall Sits…

Yes, it’s been awhile. More on that later. Onto the plot!

Robin’s pregnant, y’all!

Or at least she thinks so. She says she’s late and she’s never late. And she’s confiding all of this to Barney. He keeps walking up on the bathroom floor, but not because he keeps passing out. He keeps saying stupid things that causes Robin to punch him. Hard. Then she reveals that Kal Penn can’t be the baby-daddy as they haven’t had sex yet. Which means the baby-daddy would have to be Barney after his and Robin’s one-night stand. This actually excites Barney, causing Robin to pass out. 

Credits!

More about Marshall later.

Meanwhile Lily wants to get her baby registry started. Barney volunteers to help her along with Robin, in hopes of changing Robin’s mind about the baby. At the store, Barney goes into baby overload. Robin, meanwhile, gets to shop with Lily who talks about all the problems new mothers encounter. Robin is further inclined to not keep the baby. Then Barney runs into Insane Dwayne. Robin is our narrator this go around and she says that Insane Dwayne used to be Barney’s best friend before he met Ted. And he was just like Barney. Now, he’s married with four kids. He and his wife look like parents—tired and stressed. Barney now agrees with Robin that they can’t have a child.

Barney and Robin go to visit Lily’s ob/gyn. She tells them that Robin is indeed not pregnant. Barney starts up music and they dance in celebration. The doctor even joins in. Though Robin enjoys being able to drink and smoke again, she does find babies cute again. Then she gets called back into the office again. The doctor reveals that she can’t have children.

Now, Robin has been narrating this episode rather than Future!Ted. We see her talking to two children—a blonde boy and a brunette girl. Who seem infinitely more interested in her story than Ted’s future!kids. She says she didn’t have anyone to talk to about this. Ted would try to fatten her up with comfort foods. And give her a massage. Lily would feel bad about all the talk of babies she had been doing. Marshall would ask Robin several questions she didn’t have the answers to. And she said “your father” would try to cheer her up by telling horrible jokes. 

At this point, I cheered up. I am a big supporter of Robin/Barney and still hold that Robin is the mystery bride. And this was like a gift to me.

Now, Robin is really upset. But she still doesn’t want to tell her friends. So she lies and says she found out she couldn’t be on the Canadian pole vault team. And everyone reacts the way that Robin knew they would. And they continue to believe the pole vaulting story for a long time. Even in the baby store, when Robin is clearly talking about having a baby. She is triggered when Ted shows her a onesie with a Canadian maple leaf on it.

At MacLaren’s, Ted, Barney and Lily try to figure out what’s wrong with Robin. They wonder if it has something to do with Kal Penn, who is absent this episode. Lily and Ted think she may have cheated on Kal, which makes Barney nervous. But because these people are the most obtuse people in New York next to the Seinfeld gang, Lily and Ted don’t pick up on it. In the end, they decide that Robin is just missing Canada and can’t go home for Christmas.

Robin returns to the apartment where Ted gives her a ticket to Cleveland, inviting her to spend Christmas with his family. She’s less-than-thrilled. She says she enjoys spending Christmas alone in New York. She doesn’t need Ted to cheer her up. She says it’s not his job, which he argues it is. They argue until Robin storms out, upset.

She goes for a walk. As she walks, she talks about all the things she could do that having a baby would prevent. And she concludes by saying she’s glad that her children are only figments of her imagination.

Yep, Robin was talking to thin air. And yep, I was disappointed. But I still hold out hope that Robin is the mystery bride.

Meanwhile, in the ‘burbs,” Marshall makes a new friend. It’s a neighborhood teen named Scott. Scott asks if he can help Marshall put up the decorations because his dad is too busy to spend time with him. This tugs at Marshall’s heartstring and he lets the boy help. Because Marshall isn’t as suspicious as the rest of us, he gets trapped on the roof. For Scott just wanted to host an epic party.

And God bless him, he does! Marshall calls him out on it, but Scott calls Marshall the cool neighbor. So Marshall lets him continue with the party, though he’s still trapped on roof. And Scott doesn’t let him down. Lily returns home as Scott is leaving, paying him for “helping” her husband. He’s smart enough to take the money and run. Lily goes in to find the house a mess and her husband still on the roof.

In the end, Robin makes her way back home. She tries to turn on the lights, but it doesn’t work. Instead, Christmas lights start to flicker to “Highway to Hell.” Ted emerges from the kitchen to tell Robin that it is his job to cheer her up and he won’t stop just because she tells him to. He hugs her as she finally breaks down. Future!Ted tells us that regardless of the things Robin did in her life, she was never alone.

So…It’s been awhile, huh? Well, I got a temporary position that I had to commute to—and that sucked the energy out of me. By the time I got home and had dinner, I barely had time to turn on “How I Met Your Mother” and often just skipped right to “Dancing with the Stars.” I tried to keep it going, but the way I write my recaps just didn’t mesh with the working situation. The way I do it now meant the recaps were on a nearly two-week delay and I wouldn’t have time to recap as I watched.

But I’m back! And this was an interesting episode. I know the fans were buzzing when they heard that Robin’s children had been cast. Some were excited; others confused. Robin had always been dead set against having children—why would that change? I think the show handled it well. It will be interesting how this new development will affect Robin’s relationships with Kal, Barney and Lily. Can’t wait for more!

Quote of the Episode
“I’m union, bitch…”—Ted, about his job as Robin’s cheerer-upper.Barney revives Robin and takes her to MacLaren’s. He gets her an ice tea and they discuss what to do. However, they are interrupted by the arrival of everyone else. Marshall is in the Christmas decorating mood. Now that he and Lily live in the suburbs, he wants to go all out. He wants to set up the lights to blink in time to Manheim Steamroller. Robin is still upset about possibly being pregnant, which Marshall notices. She claims not to like Manheim Steamroller but Marshall argues who else he can use that just screams “Christmas”? She suggests AC/DC, I was thinking “Trans-Siberian Orchestra.”