411 How I Met Your Mother Review: S04E05 'Shelter Island'

Posted by Michael Tyner on 10.23.2008

The wedding episode. . . or maybe not. . .



Imagine my surprise when I turn on The Big Bang Theory and during the commercials I see an advertisement for the wedding episode of How I Met Your Mother! Obviously this means that something is up, and the question of whether or not Stella is the mother will likely be answered in this episode. We start off with Ted & Stella coming to McClaren's and Stella is pissed that her sister is going to steal her dream wedding on Shelter Island. Ted & Stella are having dinner with her sister, and they find out that she has become a vegan for her husband-to-be when Ted suggests the lamb.

Ted decides that their wedding has to kick ass, and Stella admits that she kind of wishes the wedding would fall apart. . . and then we flash to her sister talking about how much she hates her fiancee because he walked out on her. She gave up meat and shaving her armpits for him, and in her anger she proceeds to devour a large side of beef while talking about the thousands of dollars wasted on the wedding. Future Ted tells his kids about the special form of telepathy you develop with someone when you've been dating, and Ted thinks he is telling Stella that they should pick up the check; but Stella thinks Ted is telling her to take the reservations for the wedding and get married in three days.

Future Ted also tells his kids that you never, ever invite an ex to your wedding; ever. He knows this because he is on the phone desperately trying to convince Robin to come home from Tokyo for the wedding. Barney, of course, is all over the bachelor party with some of the most morally questionable girls on the face of the planet; Ted says he isn't coming, Barney replies that he'll let him know how it goes. Robin decides to come after realizing she hates her new job as much as her old job at Metro News 1, and Barney is estatic because it will give him the chance to hook up with her again.

The wedding is going to take place at a yoga retreat, where they don't serve alcohol. . . of course everyone is horrified. Back in their room, Ted is telling Stella that Robin will just barely make it to the wedding but Stella doesn't want her to come. She doesn't like the idea of having an ex at the wedding, because that spark might come back and those old feelings could be stirred up again. Ted doesn't think its a bad idea, and even suggests that they invite Tony (Stella's baby daddy) as well; Tony is the last person Stella wants at the wedding and Robin is a close second. Barney volunteers to call Robin and tell her that she can't come, but of course he just makes sure she is on the way and tells everyone else he couldn't get ahold of her. Robin is the only person he'll be banging this weekend, or so he says.

With Robin already on her way, as far as Ted knows, Lily suggests that Ted solve the next wedding crisis that comes up for Stella to help soften the blow of Robin coming. Of course, the next crisis is like 4 minutes later when Tony decides that he is not bringing Lucy (Stella's daughter) to the wedding. At the non alcoholic bar, Stella's sister hits on Barney; she wants to do nasty things to him in order to forget that she was supposed to be getting married. Lily overhears this and tells Barney that he's never going to make it, but he tries to fight through it.

Ted drives up to get Lucy for the wedding, and Tony is torn up about Stella getting married; he feels like he is losing Lucy to a new family and he starts to cry. Nervous and unsure about what to do, Ted tells Tony that he is invited to the wedding and they head back to Shelter Island. Barney is at the non-alcoholic bar again, and Stella's sister comes up to make sure he is hydrating for tonight; she wants Barney to make her forget that she was supposed to be getting married.

When Tony shows up, Stella freaks out. . . and then Robin shows up as well. Stella suggests that Ted talk to Tony and make her the bad guy in sending him home, and she will do the same with Robin. . . but since Robin flew all the way here from Japan Ted thinks it would be better if he tells her. When Ted tells Robin she can't come, she is incredibly relieved. . . it just feels weird but Ted argues that it isn't. Robin tells Ted that he's making a mistake; that she had always hoped that if she changed her mind about kids and marriage that Ted would be there. Then she reveals that she quit her job in Japan to come back to New York, back to her real life and that she thinks Ted should go back to his real life, too. Ted wants to know why she is bringing this up because their is nothing between them anymore, but Robin says that maybe there is; Colbie Smulders des an excellent job of acting in this scene, the shakiness in her voice throughout the whole conversation adds a lot to the drama of the scene; everyone has had one of those conversations when you know the other person is on the verge of tears just because of their voice and she portrayed this perfectly.

Ted asks her what she means by 'go back to your real life', and her response is simply telling him not to get married. She says he is rushing into this, and that Ted is the most romantic guy in the world; for him to just disappear into someone else's wedding, move into someone else's home in another state, and raise someone else's child is not the happy ending Ted deserves. He stole a blue french horn for her, her tried to make it rain (Ted says he did, Robing says it was a coincidence) and this is not how his story is supposed to end. This whole conversation scene was extremely well done, and its a moment that fans of the show have been waiting for even though the producers insist that Robin isn't the mother.

Ted says that he loves Stella, and if Robin feels that way then its a good thing she isn't coming.

Depressed, Robin heads to Barney's room to talk to him but when he answers the door there is a naked girl tied to his headboard. He tries to smooth everything over, but Robin isn't interested and she just walks away. Then Stella's sister comes to the door, looks inside and asks who the girl is. . . and walks into the room behind Barney! He looks off longingly down the hall as Robin walks away, and it is clear that he doesn't just want to hook up with her again.

Ted tells his kids that this whole time he thought the story was about Robin not coming to the wedding as we see her on the ferry back to New York. Then she spots Stella, and Tony is right behind her to put his jacket on her shoulders as she shivers. Ted finds a note from Stella as all of the scenes from this episode flash by with Stella talking about how hard it is to be around exes, Ton'ys sobbing confession to Ted about how he realizes what he lost in Stella and Robin (along with us the audience) realizes that Stella has left Ted. "Seriously, kids," he tells his children as Stella & Tony kiss, "don't ever invite an ex to your wedding."

LINE OF THE NIGHT: "Dear female, thank you for your interest in Barney Stinson. . . I regret to inform you that, at this time. . . [I was a vegan for two years, I need meat!]. . . there are currently no positions available. . . [I'm a yoga instructor, EVERY position is available. . . your room, 20 minutes. . no foreplay]. . . " - Barney and Stella's sister

(Authors Note: Sorry for being so late with the review this week, a coworker recently lost his father and I covered some of his shifts. Next week we should be back on the normal schedule.)

The 411: This was a great episode, it tied up a lot of plot lines and planted some new ones. One can only wonder where the season will go from here; is Stella completely out of the picture? Are Ted & Robin going to confront their feelings? What about Barney? The episode was very well-written and while it wasn't quite as laugh out loud funny as usual, there were some good laughs and a very good story.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]