Episode 9 - Belly Full of Turkey
25 March 2012
Synopsis: It’s thanksgiving and Marshall and Lily head to St Cloud, Minnesota, Marshall’s hometown. Lily feels alienated by their small town views and large physiques. She is also concerned that she might be pregnant. Ted and Robin decide to volunteer and are shocked to find Barney down at a soup kitchen already helping out.
The Good: This is a nice episode for Marshall and Lily. Their characters and the potential conflicts within their relationship are explored in a relatable fashion. The differences between country boy Marshall and city girl Lily haven’t been apparent in that sense yet and so this is an interesting way to flesh out their behaviour.
The suspected pregnancy lends a nice sense of urgency and plausibility to Lily’s alienation. The physical size of the Eriksen’s was a simple but effective way of adding easy comedy and understandable discomfort on Lily’s part: “And we grew up just fine and we grew to the proper size and then we stopped!” It was a nice touch too to have both the cop and the grocery store assistant know Marshall’s family so well. Again, easy humour and adds to the sense of small town familiarity that would be claustrophobic to Lily. In the end they have a sweet scene together where they make up and Lily even cracks wise saying “Gosh I hope you’re the father.”
Meanwhile Barney is carrying the humour in the B plot and doing his usual good job. As ever he turns every situation to his advantage. He is sentenced to community service and so he becomes “Volunteer of the Year.” Once they kick him out, he is able to use Ted’s guilt to get him to come to a strip club with him. I particularly enjoyed him holding up his “Volunteer of the Year” plaque and looking hopefully as a dancer on the stage. As for Ted freeing mushrooms from volunteer greed – that was fine. The homeless man asking Ted to buy him a lap dance was a fun moment.
The Bad: Marshall’s father making a joke about his sperm was…interesting. It’s always good to establish an inappropriate side to a character before they crack those jokes. Otherwise it seems like something they would never have said.
Comic Highlight: A stripper comes to get to know Ted better, after seeing him buy a dance for the homeless guy. They introduce themselves and future Ted announces to his children “and that kid’s is the true story of how I met your mother.” Swiftly followed by “I’m kidding.”
How I rate your episode: Solid character stuff, nothing special.
Feedback
Add your comments on this episode below. They may be included in the weekly podcasts.
|
)