How I Met Your Mother "Karma" Review

Craig Thomas and Carter Bays promised significant changes in How I Met Your Mother following "The Drunk Train." Ted's confession to Robin about his feelings was just the tip of the iceberg of what the writers have planned for the rest of the seventh season. Indeed, the situation with Robin ended when Robin flatly told her roommate that she did not feel romantic love for him. Robin then moved out, leaving an empty space in both Ted's apartment and life. People respond to rejection or a break-up in a myriad of ways. Ted's coping mechanisms are light and humorous, but his activities mask a pain, which he later admits is loneliness, adding that the room is a reminder that he's alone. Throughout his story, ghost Robin appears, making cheap jokes about masturbation; her last visitation is more substantive, and the message she delivers to Ted is about her consistency and how she'll never truly be gone from his life, which gives Ted a boost and valuable perspective about what he truly needs to do to move on.

Meanwhile, Robin briefly moved into Lily and Marshall's home on Long Island. Robin told the story of her stay through voiceover, which reminded me of Victorian novels (which I did not like). Lily and Marshall were complete converts of the suburban way of life: attending high school sporting events, playing bingo with the locals and exercising with their neighbors. Robin couldn't deal with it, she was horrified by the snuggets her friends wore, as well as their early bed time. Robin wanted to escape, but her friends locked the doors, unwilling to let her leave. Marshall and Lily were preventing her from leaving because they think the suburbs are unbearable, but they want to raise their child in a good neighborhood, which is why they're reluctant to leave.

The two stories bleed into one another in the coda. Marshall and Lily enter Ted's apartment only to find a completely bare room and a note on the wall. In the note, Ted explains that he took his name off of the lease and left Marshall and Lily's on it, meaning the apartment is theirs to live in. Ted explains that he needed to leave the apartment not because of the empty space that Robin left; but because Ted identified the apartment's true ghost: himself. The lone way for a ghost to find peace is to move on, and that is what Ted does, or at least he begins the processing of moving on. The gesture is sweet as is the note. Future Ted foreshadowed a time when the friends live apart from one another, away from McClaren's and such, and the move signifies the beginning of the next chapter in the show's narrative.

Certainly, a narrative that focuses on the changes in all of the friends' lives is more interesting than a retread of Ted and Robin, though the eventual triangle with Barney is something I won't complain about (if done right). The characters are in their mid-30s. It's past time for all of them to settle down and find some semblance of happiness and contentment. The heart of Ted's journey seems beyond simply wanting to find his other half, the ying to his yang, his soul mate and wife; at least I hope his journey's about more than finding the mother. Of course, I've probably complained about the show wasting time with Ted's central arc, but only when the story feels unearned. If Ted simply needs to 'get away' and reassess his life then fine because that's interesting and character driven and something the show earned during these wayward last few wayward seasons. No, the last few seasons won't be redeemed by a decent Ted arc, but it's the least the writers can do; however, I'm pessimistic about any significant character journey for Ted considering the flash-forward in which he's wearing a green dress in a casino.

Robin's future is less defined, and the writers didn't write a scene in which she walks through the streets of Manhattan with a determined look on her face. Marshall and Lily continue to behave like people preparing for the child but who live in constant fear of the kind of live they'll be able to give their child. Barney's future currently involves Quinn (AKA Karma). The use of the word Karma is deliberate and overt, especially in Barney's C story; however, the Buddhist roots of karma are worth pondering when assessing the episode as a whole. Karma, in contemporary society, is almost exclusively used after something good or bad happens to someone. People acknowledge that karma's about an 'action' or a 'deed;" for instance, if something good happens to someone, then that's karma, but if something bad happens to someone who treated someone badly or acted in a bad manner in general, that is also karma. But there's an existential aspect to karma: one is truly in control of his or her own life. If someone performs a good dead and then receives a job promotion, it could be more coincidence than karmic. Ted's active decision to find peace and happiness is karmic just as Robin's decisions, for good or ill, are karmic. Whatever happiness Ted, and the gang find, is their vipaka.

If Bays and Thomas and their staff intentionally titled the episode "Karma" to represent the truths of Buddhist karma then I salute them because it's a richer episode when viewed through the lens of honest spirituality rather than its contemporary counterpart which is hollower. Barney worked for Quinn's affections because she treated him like he treated many, many girls before him. Barney accepted his punishment though, aware of his past transgressions; that he embraced his fate is an acknowledgement of his karmic seed, and his effort to land a real date with Quinn is part of the vipaka process. So, I thought the episode had an apt title.

Anyway, I need to end the review because I'm thinking too much about Buddhist karma when all the episode wanted to do was move their characters in new directions with some laughs and heart. The laughs were rare, but the heart was plentiful. Oh gosh, what a lame way to end the review.

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