HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Are Ewoks Good or Bad?

How I Met Your Mother continues its streak of solid episodes with “Field Trip,” but unfortunately also continues the less than funny plot of Robin and her psychiatrist. This has been a running problem for Robin for the last few seasons. The writers just can’t nail down a good match for Robin, and it’s starting to wear thin. I give this stint with Kal Penn’s therapist character a little bit of slack, because it is so clear Robin is only dating him to keep her mind off Barney and Nora’s blossoming relationship. It’s a defense mechanism, just a really boring one.

Speaking of Barney and Nora, that storyline yielded some great results. One of the big issues with pairing Barney with someone is the fear he’ll lose what makes him such an awesome character. With Nora, he’s still as quirky as ever, scheming when there’s no need to scheme. He’s so uncomfortable with dating that he’ll use not liking Ewoks as an excuse to bail. It’s petty, but it gets tons of laughs, particularly as Barney shows off his magical ability to makes things just appear, like an already packed suitcase and a prepared Powerpoint on Ewok culture. Barney figures that you’d have to have been born prior to 1973 to not like Ewoks, which would make Nora around 37 years old, a deal-breaker in Barney’s eyes. Of course Barney’s just being crazy, and it turns out Nora just saw Star Wars for the first time last year.

Ted’s field trip was a disaster (for him; hilarious for us). You know your ego is too inflated when you can’t even enter the construction site of the building you designed. Luckily those high school students were easily amused, and Ted could take them all across the city, to GnB, his apartment, and McLarens. At a certain point, Barney refers to the group as the perfect focus group, and he and Ted begin asking them to settle random arguments they’ve had. It’s silly gag, but it works so well.

The third story of the episode revolved around Marshall’s new job as an environmental lawyer. Martin Short returned as Garrison Cootes, although this time his character was seriously toned down from his appearance in “The Naked Truth.” He was so toned down that even Marshall noticed this wasn’t the same man he so highly respected. Where was the Cootes who would start a war for the environment? Turns out he’s given up, as the planet cannot be saved. With a baby on the way, Marshall can’t bring himself to accept that they can’t still do something and inspires Cootes to renew the war to save the environment. And it doesn’t stop there; Future Ted teases us that they do, in fact, save it, so we should see some more stories coming from these two.

My only real wish going forward from here is that the show loses Kal Penn’s character soon. He’s not a good match for Robin. She’d be more useful as a negative force trying to break up Nora and Barney instead of this vulnerable woman willing to date her own therapist just to feel loved.