HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: “The Broath” – RECAP

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How I Met Your Mother is showing signs of moving into the home stretch, with only a handful of episodes left until the season finale. In that sense, I felt “The Broath” was more about moving pieces into place for the season’s endgame than it was about actually making Barney and Quinn’s relationship believable. On the surface the two are a great match. Barney can’t play his usual games because Quinn sees them coming, and they both have a love for evil plots, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they work as a couple. I love Becki Newton and she does bring a lot to an otherwise troublesome role, but I can already tell this relationship will end in disaster. How can we, as an audience, believe in Barney and Quinn when their relationship feels like a race car heading toward a break wall?

Still, there’s plenty to love in this episode. As I said, things are gearing up for the big finish and I couldn’t be more pleased with the direction things are going. Quinn and Barney may be moving fast, but at least we can justify Barney’s lack of forethought. He’s definitely running away from Robin, as fast as he can. The relationship with Quinn may be a poorly built idea, but Barney’s motivations make it worth watching. Right now the writers want us to believe Quinn will be the woman Barney ends up marrying, but I’m thinking it’s a red herring. That would require Quinn to be around for at least another season and I just don’t see that happening. I’m glad Barney had fun teaching his friends a lesson, even if it was terribly obvious and mean.

This season has been a return to form in my eyes, mixing well-placed comedy with real emotions. Not every joke hit its mark, such as Marshall’s stories about all the slutty girls he’s slept with, all of whom are Lily, but the ratio of good to bad is almost always favoring the good. And this season has just been packed with heavy hitting moments of sadness. Robin and Ted’s confrontation in the hall could have been played as funny, but they played it straight. I’m beginning to suspect HIMYM might be better at drama than it is at comedy. It’s always been good at both, but this season in particular has demonstrated just how well it can pull of a dramatic scene.

Going forward, I have my hopes up for the final few episodes. Normally I prefer to keep my expectations low, especially after the last few finales of HIMYM, but I feel like the show is really building towards something. It could be because the writers are actually writing towards a series ending next season, or I’ve been duped. I only hope Quinn doesn’t turn out to be who Barney marries. I’m not saying I want it to be Robin; I just really don’t want it to be Quinn. I don’t trust her. She’s a crafty lady.