How I Met Your Mother "Mystery Vs. History" Review

How I Met Your Mother's a fun and tolerable series when it's commenting on dating and modernity. "Mystery vs. History" is about how social media's impacted the dating scene, as well as everyday life. One can't avoid someone on a smart phone in a crowded public place. Someone's always texting or googling. A couple of years ago, before the iPhone exploded and only a minority possessed one, my friend would call his girlfriend to google something we were discussing at lunch. He termed it as 'the roundabout iphone.' Now, foreheads are constantly crinkled as people peruse and use their pricey smart phones.

Social media and the smart phone changed the way Ted Mosby dates. Barney and Robin acted as his agents, combing the interweb for facts and secrets about the woman he's about to date. The information they found about the date invariably altered Ted's behavior around the woman. One autumn night in 2011, though, Ted decided he wanted to return to the days before everyone's life was displayed on a wall; before people were easily found in .11 seconds by Google's search engine. Mosby's ever the romantic--a man who reveres Annie Hall, and no doubt wants to discover a woman in the same way Alvy Singer discovered Annie Hall. However, his friends insist on intruding upon his love life like a bunch of co-dependent and incestuous individuals (Kevin's analysis, of course). Ted's date begins in mystery because of a mutual agreement to not google the other prior to the date.

Inevitably, the rest of his friends insist on Ted clicking a link that will reveal all he wishes to learn naturally. The truth about his date's so shocking that it causes five separate spit-takes in a ten minute span (Kevin even does a spit-take but the beer went down the wrong pipe). The link causes Ted's mind to wander and to imagine what's coming when his date lets him know about her. Maybe she had a sex change, or maybe she lied about her affection for Annie Hall. Ted caves into the pressure and learns about her rich, philanthropic life. The woman's an amazing human being, who works for other people, and stumbled into billions of dollars because of her good intentions. Ted confessed and his date left, disappointed that he couldn't keep one promise.

I thought the writers made a good point about social media's affect on how people interact and date; however, I was disappointed by the lesson Ted learned. Ted was basically disappointed in his inability to keep his promise; therefore, destroying any possibility of a future with this amazing woman he happened to hit it off with while ordering food from the bar. Ted opined that mystery always trumps history. I would've preferred the character opining on how a wall of information about a person isn't the embodiment of one's personality or life, that the traits one will love about another person can only be learned through dates and time spent together. I liked how the show commented on the way conversations are constructed and manipulated by one's knowledge of another's life without their knowledge. The A story was just really well done.

In the B story, Marshall and Lily wanted the gender of their child to be a mystery but that didn't work out. Barney bothered them about it. Later, he and Robin would learn the gender of their friends' child because Marshall tired of Barney's incessant complaints. The parents-to-be found out when the piece of paper with the gender of the child stuck to Ted's foot. Suddenly, they didn't care they know. The moment transformed into a joyous celebration with friends.

"Mystery vs. History" is a very good episode of HIMYM. Kal Penn's Kevin worked extremely well this week. The writing wasn't strong for the character but Kal Penn's so darn likable that he overcame the weak writing. I just liked the focus on the group hanging out without a bunch of contrived nonsense.

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