Episode 5 - Shelter Island
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Stella’s sister is stealing Stella’s perfect wedding. But when her fiancé leaves her, Stella asks Ted if they can get married in their place. He agrees but Stella isn’t happy when he invites Robin. Barney plans on sleeping with a drunk Robin but can’t resist temptation before she arrives. Ted goes to pick up Stella’s daughter and brings her ex with him, with unintended consequences.
The Good: In terms of the progression of the overall story arc, this is a very good episode. We all knew Stella wasn’t going to last and her reunion with Tony is a logical and understandable excuse. Barney’s long quest to make Robin see him as more than a man-whore must continue, which makes sense as a long term story. Addressing the potential feelings which Robin and Ted carry for one another makes sense too. They had an amicable break up so it’s not surprising that they would still have thoughts about each other. So overall this episode is satisfying to watch because it logically deals with the conflicts between the characters and writes Stella off the show in about the least annoying way possible.
The actual delivery of the Stella story is pretty good too. The central conflict of not inviting ex’s to your wedding is established early on and makes sense. The plot then runs continually without much break in the action which helps hook you into wanting to discover what will happen. And at each stage of the story both Ted and Stella act like reasonable people. They both make good arguments for their point of view and both look sympathetic in the end. Especially Ted after he was so kind to Tony.
The final montage of clips showing how Stella and Tony hadn’t really gotten over one another was very effective and didn’t feel contrived at all. That’s quite an achievement for How I Met Your Mother which usually drowns in its own poorly thought out writing (see The Bad for a couple of examples). For example when Ted goes to see Tony, Tony cries. But it is played for comic effect as Ted looks uncomfortable and asks him to stop. Yet when that shot is replayed in the montage we suddenly see Tony’s tears as much more serious. Clever stuff.
The Bad: Obviously the main problem with all this is that it comes out of nowhere. We haven’t gotten to know Stella very well and it would have been nice if we could have had more hints of her past with Tony before this episode. As it appears to us, this episode feels like damage limitation, with the writers whisking Stella out of the plot as conveniently as possible.
The usual unconvincing acting is present when the characters try to force jokes into otherwise serious scenes. Lily is at her worst with the ridiculous wedding craziness flashbacks. Her line about the heating which her wedding venue uses is a classic bit of sitcom writing. The joke is that she was so overwhelmed with stress that she got upset by the venue’s heating system which of course is not at all something she would have cared about. But it doesn’t sound like something she would ever say and her fake crying is unconvincing. Scenes like that remind you that this is a bad show which doesn’t know whether to be a traditional sitcom or something more. Meanwhile Robin hosts the news in Japan with a monkey. Aside from being one of the cheapest sitcom jokes possible, it is also mildly racist toward the Japanese.
Comic Highlight: Stella’s sister wants to sleep with Barney to help her forget that this was supposed to be her wedding. He tries to resist but when Robin comes to see him it becomes obvious that she has interrupted him having sex in his room. She leaves and as he stares longingly at her, then Stella’s sister walks up asking if he is ready. It turns out he was already having sex with the receptionist.
How I rate your episode: A good face saving episode from the show. They wiped away Stella and Ted’s relationship as best they could. But that story was doomed from day one because of the title of the show. How exactly are they going to keep the show going on and on?
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