How I Met Your Mother – “The Perfect Cocktail” – review

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At long last we get a reason for why Zoey is so bent on saving the Arcadian. It’s not because it’s beautifully built, or a historic landmark, but because she grew up there. I think a lot of viewers can agree that Zoey would have been more likeable if this bit of backstory had come up earlier in the season. Unfortunately it didn’t. That doesn’t ruin the effect, though. It really endeared me to Zoey, and I believed Ted when he told her he loves her. Too bad it doesn’t mean much in the long run, as we know they’ll be breaking up; it’s just a matter of time.

It’s odd when a sitcom doesn’t resolve something in its twenty-two minutes. You expect things to get wrapped up with a nice bow on top, but “The Perfect Cocktail” actually let the feud between Marshall and Barney go unresolved (though it was briefly fixed before being completely forgotten. That’s what happens when you get drunk). The best part of that storyline was Robin and Lily trying to decide what was the best drink to use to get the two of them drunk and talking. The many, many cutaways had that classic How I Met Your Mother quality to them. My favorite was Ted’s claim that bourbon makes him ridiculously good at beat boxing, only for Lily to inform him it just makes him think he’s good at beat boxing.

There were two callbacks to season one that had me giggling like a girl with joy. The most obvious was the return of the cockamouse from “Matchmaker.” After leaving Ted’s apartment, it’s made its home in the Arcadian and even had little cockamouse babies. Ted’s strange joy at seeing the half-cockroach half-mouse creature again mirrored my own excitement in a way.

The second callback was much more subtle. Since Barney felt betrayed by Marshall for leaving GnB to save the Arcadian with Zoey, Barney resorted to scare tactics similar to what he used in the episode “Milk” against Butterfield, a man who worked in the building next door. He would do something to a sandwich Butterfield was eating, and then send him a picture of what he’d done to it. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if Barney hadn’t been standing in his window with a pair of binoculars watching Marshall, the same way he watched Butterfield.

This was a superb episode of How I Met Your Mother, and it has me really excited for the show’s final two episodes. Having been watching the show for so many years, I know they have a good track record with season finales.