How I Met Your Mother-"The Exploding Meatball Sub"

Barney plots his revenge on "How I Met Your Mother"
Credit: CBS

My review of last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother is after the jump.

Stupid immature Barney, Stupid reluctant Ted, Stupid unpaid Marshall.

Maybe I'm just in a rotten mood because Chuck just reached a series low in the ratings but I found this episode to be a major down, the first really bad episode in awhile. I went into it wanting my spirits lifted, but instead ended up watching a fairly unfunny episode that continued an arc that I didn't like and had a terribly unfunny Barney plotline. I really hope this is not a sign of things to come, because that was pretty bad.

Why did they tell us that the Ted and Zoey were doomed to fail? Because now that I have that information the time that this episode has spent on the arc is annoying and is a complete waste of time. I don't care how awesome Jennifer Morrison is or that some of the fighting is a little funny because it's all for nothing. The show has told us that the relationship will end in disaster, which pisses me off because it means that the show is wasting time on a pointless storyline, which makes me think that I was wasting my time on at least those parts of the episode. This is the last time that I'm going to talk about the Ted and Zoey relationship this season, even if the show continues to waste time on it, because I think I just said it all right there.

If the unnecessary time spent on their relationship wasn't angering me so much, I might have enjoyed the fact that they remembered that Ted was trying to build a building. I've enjoyed the progress that Ted had made up until this point and I'm looking forward to see the building finally get built, even if the presence of Zoey in the process is angering me. (I probably won't be happy if it doesn't, it would be an unnecessary delay in Ted's dream.)

I've never seen Barney be this immature and the episode severly suffered from this. What angered me is that he wasn't lashing out because his friend quit and he was mad at him for it, he was angry because he didn't get to perform his stupid prank on Marshall. Barney has grown to a point where he's more mature then that. The idea of the exploding meatball sub was the downfall of the episode. It was a way to try to make Barney lifeless and heartless, which the character has proven that he isn't. Just look at the last episode that aired, Legendaddy. Barney proved that he can care about other people, which this episode tonight showed that he didn't. He wasn't concerned for Marshall, he was only concerned about his dumbass prank. The one part I did like about the plotline was it had a large presence for Robin, and started hinting at a continued relationship between Robin and Barney. I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

I enjoyed parts of the Marshall and Lily plotline. On one hand, it continues the interesting idea of Marshall seeking another job and it was the only part of the epsiode that clicked in some sort of way for me. On the other, it wasn't particularly funny and they took Lily's behavior to a point where it was rediculous. Jason Segal and Allison Hannigan continue to work really well together and they helped make the plotline fun to watch, which was a very good thing in an episode that largely failed.

Overall, I really didn't like this episode and I hope that next week leads to funnier moments and better plotlines.

What did everyone else think?