HIMYM: Vermillion, Piphany, Flarm

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I always find it funny when someone talks about the oddness of not having a roommate while an adult. Perhaps it's because I can't remember life before sharing a room with my younger brother. So, my only three years of life without a roommate were my second, third, and fourth years of college, where I had my own room because I was an RA. I understand that many people have singles and studios these days (or own their own homes, as quite a few of my friends do), but as much as I enjoyed having my own space during those three years, I much prefer having someone else around. (though perhaps I'm just spoiled because I now live with my husband and before that I had the best roomie ever!) Anyway, Ted making the most of the time he has to himself was rather short-lived, as Barney constantly wants to do something, now that he has a roommate who works nights. This leads to Barney's "piphany" that every night can be legendary if you work at it! And yeah, that may be true, but this isn't Friends... let's not start every memory with "the one with" or "the one where," okay? Now, let's get past Barney's ridiculousness and get to Robin's slightly-less-so story. 

How I Met Your Mother "Now We're Even" (S07E21): Barney can't stop talking about dating a stripper, mostly because he's not 100% okay with it, no matter how hard he tries. [Lily's dress is horrible!] And, because a stripper roommate means you're free until 4am every morning, Barney decides that he and Ted will find

Photo: Richard Cartwright/CBS

a way to make every night legendary, by using ideas like "the night we started a mariachi band, " "the Night we ate everything on the menu," "the night we brought a horse into the bar," "the night we bungee-jumped off the Statue of Liberty, " "the night we stole a mummy from the national history museum," "the night we stole a camel," "the night we partied with the mole people," and "the night we track down Phil Collins, became best friends with him, and talked him into reuniting with Peter Gabriel, and then we got to sing back-up on the new Genesis album and it was awesome." [obviously, quite a few of these were overpowered by Ted's desires to chill out with a frozen lasagna.] Plus, Ted reasons that, if all nights are legendary, no nights are legendary. This only makes the guys talk about a time, years ago, when Ted gave Barney 500 points for getting a girl's number while wearing a dress. [on this arbitrary points system that was a waste of time. that panty hose joke? also bad. oh, and I know Ted is from Ohio and all, but a spare key under your doormat in MANHATTAN?? that miiiight be funny if Marshall did it, but it doesn't work for Ted.] Well, to cheer up Barney, Ted decides to do the stunt himself. [yeah, okay. I don't know that Ted would do this, either, even though he does have "sucker" written all over him.]

The Marshall and Lily storyline has him worrying about a sex dream she had - she normally tells him about such things but is staying mum about this one. [Marshall is carrying around paint cards? what? and that whole "but I'll get to that later... well, maybe I won't" thing was kinda annoying...] Marshall and Lily later go to a fancy dinner, but Lily turns "vermillion" when Ranjit shows up as their chauffeur. Turns out, she just has dreams about good fathers (including Cliff Huxtable and Papa Smurf), but Marshall still accuses her of sleep-cheating. While Marshall devours his pricey dinner with Ranjit, Lily turns to Quinn for advice, which doesn't really get her anywhere. [I have no idea what she was hoping to gain from that conversation...]

Robin is shocked that people don't recognize her now that she's on the evening news. [dumb gag with Robin standing next to a mural of her, though.] However, after she does a report in a helicopter and the pilot has a stroke (which she guesses from his saying, "flarm"), everyone suddenly knows that she's the news anchor who landed a chopper. [having a vending machine go from covering Robin's face to covering her partner's face wasn't that clever, either.] The whole incident gains Robin a lot of popularity, even though her father still isn't really proud of her. [if only she hadn't said "your little girl" ....] Everyone calls to congratulate her except Ted, who manages a few one-liners via text.