411 How I Met Your Mother Review: S04E04 'Intervention'

Posted by Michael Tyner on 10.14.2008

Recap of the latest episode of the show...



This week we get back to the basics of How I Met Your Mother with a funny episode about the gang packing up to move out of their apartment. They start out in the bar talking about another of Barney's antics, this time dressing up as an older version of himself and trying to convince a bar bimbo that he is from the future and that she needs to sleep with him for the world to continue. The groups watches and tries to decide whether this will work or not and of course it does, in way only Barney can make it work.

But this whole time they were just taking a break from packing, with Ted moving to New Jersey and Marshall & Lily moving into their new place. Deciding to celebrate all their accomplishments, Ted orders the finest scotch they have which is $2500 so they order beer chasers 'hold the scotch' instead. Robin, who says she packed to leave for Japan in half an hour, wonders why they've been packing for 14 hours and still aren't done.

As they go through boxes, everything brings up a different memory from the apartment. When the security deposit comes up, Marshall insists that Ted should reimburse him for his half of the deposit due to the damage that has been caused because of him. He points out where the shelves fell off the wall, and took the drywall with them; the crack in the ceiling from a flail Ted won at the rennaisance fair; and the scorch mark above the fireplace.

The scorch mark remind them all of when they had an intervention for their friend Stewart (a recurring character not mentioned yet this season before now). Happy that they were able to help him, they all celebrate and from then on they have intervention every time something bad starts to happen with one of their friends. Lily speaking in an English accent for no reason, Marshall wearing a ridiculous stovepipe hat, Robin with her spray-on tans, and Barney for his magic tricks (mentioned several times before). Barney accidentally shot a magic ball of fire into the big intervention banner they had made which causes the burn marks.

But Ted remembers seeing the banner, and when he picks it up there are letters addressed to him with the new, unburnt banner. They had planned an intervention for him marrying Stella because he doesn't know her that well. Barney shows up to gloat about his old man scheme working, and when they mention intervention he pulls a letter to Ted out of his pocket and starts reading. Of course, its Barney so he doesn't want Ted to get married because marriage is stupid.

Ted thinks that if they wanted to do this once, they might change their minds and want to do it again so he asks them to read the rest of their letters. Lily accidentally sent her intervention letter home with one of her kindergarten students; Robin didn't write one because she is Ted's ex-girlfriend and thought it would sound too catty. "Besides, I'm hotter than her so who cares?" she adds.

But Marshall does read his, and it hits its mark. He mentions that they haven't known one another long enough, and they Ted isn't doing himself, Stella, or her daughter any favors by rushing into things. Ted thinks about what they've said, and what Robin had told him earlier about most of his stuff being too stupid to take with him when he moves in with Stella. His robot cookie jar, his James Bond DVDs that made Lily start talking in the accent to begin with. . . he has to unpack, he's never moving out of this apartment!

Back from commercial, Marshall is trying to convince Ted to stop this and gets him to hand over the box cutter. . . so he can start unpacking, too! Robin tries to talk some sense into him and tell them they need to move into their new place. But Lily hates it, and she isn't moving, either! Robin tells them they're all cowards, going on a tangent and in the middle of it exclaims, "I can't move to Japan!!" None of them want to move, and they all decide to walk downstairs to the regular bar, sit in their normal booth, and order the usual.

But once they get downstairs, Ted realizes that they all have to move; they can't be afraid of the future. They decide to come back in a year and save money each week so they can order that expensive scotch to toast the incredible year they've all had. And as they've done several times before, as Ted mentions that is incredible how things change but some stay the same.

They are at the bar, in 2009, toasting with the expensive scotch. . which tastes a lot like $10 scotch. They decide to move the party upstairs to the apartment as the episode ends. This scene is important for many reasons; first off it reveals that at least one of them is living in the apartment in 2009 (my guess is Robin, who as we learn in a similar moment last season will be living with Ted at some point this season). Also the way they are all sitting at the bar, Robin next to Barney and even putting her arm around him during the photo. More seeds planted for the future of the season, and for the future of this great show!

LINE OF THE NIGHT:"Its a black hole where dreams go to die!" - Lily, when Robin is trying to convince her to move to their new house

The 411: Another solid episode, and with the recent news being that How I Met Your Mother is beating Chuck in the ratings and up 14% overall this season seems to be going strong. The writing was good as Stella was kept completely relevant to the story without appearing in the episode at all, and the chemistry of the central group really started to shine through again. Barney remains entertaining as always, and Marshall continues to be gold this season.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]