How I Met Your Mother "The Stinson Missile Crisis" Review

I'm unsure of what goes through the minds of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas as they break story and produce episodes of their show that'll never stop making them money. Many of their recent episodes have an arrogant quality to them, as if they intended to piss the audience off by teasing them about their disinterest in all-things-Mother. The season finale featured the "psych!" moment with the mother and the premiere made sure to include a voice-over of Future Ted teasing the audience that the end was nowhere near, and that he had many filler stories left to tell.

"Stinson Missile Crisis" is one of the many filler stories the writers have up their sleeves for this season and the next. I'm sure the story told is supposed to be significant in Barney's grand arc (the arc that will conclude on his wedding day). The story was about Barney bidding farewell to his gimmicks and schemes as he commits to a life of monogamy with Nora. And, of course, the story centered on Robin's perception of the events because she's rekindled her love for Barney. Like many of the episodes, this one uses an annoying framing device. Robin's been ordered by court to attend therapy because she assaulted a woman. What follows is 22 minutes of Robin telling her therapist, presumably through the lens of Future Ted, about the events that led to the assault.

Kal Penn returned to television in the role of Robin's therapist. The character sits across from Robin with a crossword puzzle attached to the clip board, interested in why she assaulted a woman. Robin's not interested in simply telling her therapist in a sentence or two. The story needs to be sprawling, complete with a B story that even the writers room thought wasteful, because an average episode of a network sitcom's 22 minutes. Kal Penn's therapist isn't so much a character as he's a meta voice--a series of lines from Bays and Thomas that comments on the criticisms levied at the show. As always, I'm sure if the therapist was created out of arrogance or if Bays and Thomas possess the ability to poke fun at themselves. I lean towards the former because Kal Penn delivers his lines in a bored, annoyed way--two adjectives that would describe the HIMYM fanbase. The therapist continually criticized Robin's storytelling methods. Each time she talked about Marshall and Lily, he groaned and rolled his eyes because he cared only for the ending of the story.

Robin told her complete and detailed story about the events that led to her court-mandated therapy. The therapist seemed satisfied by the conclusion, and even told her that he found no criminal behavior within her actions. Before she left, he asked for another story. Robin obliged but her story began in a place removed from what he wanted to hear. Again, Bays and Thomas commented on their series and basically told its fans and critics that their method of storytelling will continue as it always has because the ending's not as important as the story that comes before. I'd tell the creators and show runners that fans and critics don't care about the ending anymore. In fact, many just want the show to tell good stories. "Stinson Missile Crisis" is an example of how out-of-touch its creators are from their audience. The meta-commentary's misguided but if you watched the show for the last two seasons then it shouldn't surprise you that they botched meta-commentary as much as they do stories.

Fittingly for the show, they shoe-horned a parallel between the B story and the A story. The writers were eager to admit its B story was wasteful and deliberately irksome. Naturally, I thought the B story had a great character development for Ted. Victoria made him aware of how he, Robin, and Barney's dynamic won't work in the future. Ted couldn't resist making himself part of Lily and Marshall's baby team because he felt unwelcome and out-of-place. Lily wanted to ban him from baby team because he isn't welcomed, and it isn't his place. Ted learns a lesson about love: sometimes one needs to step back from those they love. I felt empathy for Ted in that moment because the friends he loves will eventually pull away from him. How nice that he'll meet his other half on the day he loses those parts of Barney and Robin.

I didn't like the episode at all. There were many times when I wished Graham Chapman still walked this earth so that he could intrude on a few scenes, dressed as the colonel, and refuse to allow it to continue because things were too silly and not funny at all. Barney's schemes haven't been fresh or funny in years. The Marshall-Ted birthing class scenes were abysmal. "Stinson Missile Crisis" is one of the worst episodes in the series.

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