411 How I Met Your Mother Review: S04E06 'Happily Ever After'
Posted by Michael Tyner on 11.04.2008
The ending to a great love story. . . but not Ted's. . .
Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother was back to business as usual for the show, Ted trying to pick up the pieces of his life after what happened with Stella. All of his friends are worried that he isn't more torn up about it, but Ted seems happy and he keeps telling everyone that he is just fine. Barney suggests that maybe he really is happy, seeing as he just dodged the biggest trainwreck since Stand By Me (not the first kid, but the others). Ted's breakdown did finally come, but it wasn't actually Ted. . . it wasLily who was pissed that Ted wasn't upset. Marshall suggested that Ted "release the berserker" and get angry, but Ted insisted he was fine.
Everything was going to be just fine, so long as he could avoid the red spots on a map of where in New York City where he might run into Stella. Ted tells them that people from Ohio just squash their feelings, ignoring problems until they go away and not making mention of them (good continuity from the episode where Ted's parents come to visit and he learns that they are divorced). Lily suggests that they all go to this new restaurant she had heard about in the white zone (the Stella-free zone). When they all get there, Lily can't remember who told her about the place. . . until she sees Stella ordering takeout! Ted orders everyone to hide under the table until she's gone.
They all tell him this is ridiculous, but Ted insists they would do the same if the last person they wanted to see walked in the door. Like Gasser, this poor kid Lily went to high school with that had been picked on all through junior high. But he started to grow up, made the baseball team and things were going well. . . until Lily farted in class while sitting next to him, and blamed it on him when the class started to smell it. She insists she would apologize to him if given the chance.
Ted brings up a girl Barney had been going to conjugal visits with, but he decided to hit on another woman during visitation and now the girl sends him threatening letters from prison all the time. Robin, however, agrees that there is no need to say anything to Stella; afterall, she hasn't spoken to her dad in years. She tells them all about how her father had wanted a boy, revealing that he full name is Robin Charles Scherbatsky Jr.. But of course, the more she talks, its clear that she would love to confront her father about the way he made her feel, raising her like a boy with a short haircut and putting her on a pee-wee hockey team full of boys.
By the time Ted decides that he has to say something to her, Stella has already gone but the group all get into a cab to chase after her. Ted still isn't angry, though, and everyone is still baffled at how calm he is about the whole situation. Even Marshall telling him that Stella hated Star Wars doesn't quite do it. During the whole cab ride, Ted still isn't angry. . . until the cab doesn't make the turn off for the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey. When Stella said she was going home at the restaurant, she meant that she was going to Tony's! She was going to make Ted move to New Jersey, and she just moves into the city with Tony? Now Ted was angry. . .he is going to tell her that she choose the wrong guy; that she made the biggest mistake of her life.
We see the scene play out, but then it goes back to the cab and we realize that is just what Ted is planning to say. But when he gets out of the cab and sees Stella with Tony and Lucy, he realizes that this is the ending to a very happy love story; just not his. Just like that, he isn't angry anymore, and he never says a word to Stella.
LINE OF THE NIGHT:"Ted just pulled off the greatest train-dodge since Stand By Me. . . well, not the first kid. But the other kids!" - Barney
(Authors Note: Apologies for the brief review, but today is Election Day here in America. If you haven't done it yet, go vote. . . now! Right now!)
The 411: After a couple of somewhat rocky episodes towards the end of last season and at the start of this one, the show is really back on track now. Ratings are up, as is the quality of writing and for this first time in its history the future doesn't look bleak for a renewal. This episode seemed like a part two of 'Shelter Island' and kind of a layover between Stella's story arch and the rest of the season. What happens next? I can't wait to find out!
