411 How I Met Your Mother Review: S04E08 'Wooo!'

Posted by Michael Tyner on 11.18.2008

Who knows why the woo girl woos? I do. Read this, and you'll know, too!



Before we begin, congrats to How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris for making Entertainment Weekly's "Entertainers of the Year" list! You've come a long way from Doogie Howser, M.D NPH!

We start off with Ted explaining to his kids how, after Robin moved back to New York and lost her job, she relied a lot on her friendship with Lily. After finding out that Marshall is working late on Friday, Robin suggest a ladies night. . . but Lily has plans with Jillian, one of her co-workers' for her birthday party.

Robin gets jealous ("God, I've never heard of this Jillian before and now suddenly you can't shut up about her!"), and says they never get to hang out without Marshall. We see Robin & Lily talking about something obviously juicy, but then Marshall enters the room and Robin tries to code the rest of the story. . . which leaves Lily confused, but Marshall instantly ciphers it leaving Robin embarassed.

Barney enters the bar and the whole group is there now. He announces that he has something that is ging to make it clear who really is Ted's best friend (Marshall), and tells Ted that Goliath National Bank is looking to build a new office downtown. Initially they wanted to hire a group of architects from Sweden, an 'artist collective' known as SVEN (Ted hates those guys). So Barney describes giving a big, patriotic speech in the meeting room and, long story short, they are going to let Ted pitch them a design!

It has always been Ted's dream to design a building that would part of the New York City skyline and now, thanks to Barney, he has that chance! Ted, Marshall, and Barney will all have the chance to work together and Marshall giddily proclaims "Ted can get in on the conference call!" They explain that a conference call is when one of them goes to the others office, ducks in and exclaims "conference call!" Then they both rush out and head to the roof to drink beer and chuck the empty cans at pigeons (well, Barney does). After everything Ted has been through with Stella in the past few months, this is the kind of challenge he needs and it means a lot that Barney got him the oppourtunity.

Lily and Robin show up to a bar called Giddy Ups for Jillian's birthday. Lily is telling Robin how Jillian (played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler) must not have known what this bar was like because it isn't her scene. But then they spot a group of girls at a table, yelling "wooo!" Lily is shocked to discover that Jillian and her friends are "woo girls."

Woo girls, like coocoo birds or whimper wills, get their name from their distinctive call of "woo!!" They do it when friends arrive at bars, when songs like "Sweet Home Alabama" come on the jukbox, for half-price shots. . . for just about anyting.

Ted is sitting at his drawing easel at home, and he asks Barney to be easy on him as he hands over his sketch pad. Barney is impressed with everything; the detail, the shading, the playfulness of the lines. It is exactly what Princess Leia would look like naked! The sketch is Ted's way of saying thanks. Marshall comes in and tells them that Lily is at a bar with a bunch of woo girls. . . and Barney literally runs out the door.

Barney gets to the bar and wonders why Lily has been hiding woo girls from him, but Lily is certain that no one needs a woo girl. Barney insists otherwise; without woo girls there would be no 'Girls Gone Wild", or novelty shot glasses. Tiny fireman's hats would only be worn by tiny firemen, and when "Brown Eyed Girl" comes on at the bar there would be nothing but silence. . . and "Brown Eyed Girl."

"Who would woo, Lily? Who would woo? Would you? Would you woo?"

Jillian comes by and yells out, "Who wants to name by boobs?" and Barney excuses himself for a date with 'Hannity & Colmes.

Ted is excited to be working on something he cares about, and feels really good about his chances after the presentation. Later that night they run into Barney, who has to tell Ted that the board decided to go with SVEN. As they stand there depressed, a limo drives by and Robin is hanging out of the sunroof yelling "woo!"

Back from commercial and the gang is at the bar. Ted is disappointed, and Marshall suggests that they go pee on the Goliath National Bank building. Ted says that would make him feel better and Barney tells him to finish his beer so he'll have a full tank. As they guys all leave, Robin shows up and Lily confonts her about what they saw earlier. In a continuation of what Barney did earlier, Robin & Lily go back in forth in a rhyming arguement.

"We saw you woo."
"Saw who woo?"
"Saw you woo."
"I didn't woo."
"You did too!"
"That's not true!"
"Your nose just grew!"

Robin finally caves and tells Lily that since she is married, they just can't hang out like Robin can with single girls now. Lily reverses the jealousy from earlier, asking if Jillian is Robin's best friend now. Lily insists that she can woo, asking what single girls can do that she can't, and it goes again. . .

"Like woo, Lily. . . like woo."
"I can woo!"
"That's not true."
"I can too!"
"It's just not you."

Marshall finds out that Barney voted against Ted, and runs in on a meeting (where Barney is explaining that ATM fees will now be called 'Freedom Charges') to go for a conference call. Barney tells him that everything went well, but SVEN showed up afterwards and wows Barney with a building that looks like a t-rex, has a strip club in the N of the GNB logo, and breathes fire! Marshall is pissed, and tells Barney there won't be any more conference calls, and that there are repercussions to screwing over a friend. He says that pigeons hold grudges and makes a birdcall as he locks Barney out on the roof, pigeons starting to gather as he freaks out.

Robin is back at the bar with the woo girls, and Lily shows up in a tiny firehat, trying to act like a woo girl. "Oh my God, bitch, this is our anthem!" she yells, but doesn't know who is performing the song. "Is LL Cool J still doing stuff?"

Barney has somehow gotten SVEN in on a conference call, but they think its a waste of time.

Lily is trying to fit in with the woo girls, and Robin has to make her feel better by explaining that Lily is better off than the woo girls. Lily is married, but these girls don't have anything like that to look forward to in their lives right now. Sometimes they have to woo, to feel better about themselves. Robin says to pay attention to what their woos are really saying, and as they dance by Lily sees. One girl woos, and it says, "I cry in the shower." Another girl, "I've never been on a second date." Jillian wonders, "Will I ever get to be a mom?" And the last, "I'm secretly in love with Jillian." Ted dances onto the screen, yelling woo and his reads "My career and love life are a disaster!"

Robin says sometimes she has to woo, but when she needs to talk about something real she always comes to Lily. They're best friends, and Lily decides she has to make some more time to hang out with Robin.

Barney comes to the bar and tells Ted that the company fired SVEN, and when he tries to come clean Marshall says it was one of the other executives that kept him from getting the job. Ted can't believe it, and woos again, this time it reads "Now only my love life is a disaster!"

Marshall, drunk, ends up telling Ted anyway like 10 minutes later and they tie Barney to the mechanical bull before leaving. Three hours later they finally untie him from the bull, and near the bull Jillian and her secret-crush friend are drinking. The friend suggests that she and Jillian find a guy and have a three-way, and Barney falls down as he tries to get to their table. Jillian says maybe, and the friend suggests that if they can't find the right guy they should just get in bed together. Barney falls down again, and Jillian says they should go find Ted, he's cute. . .

The 411: This week was another great episode, filled with HIMYM's signature style of pop-culture comedy. Everyone that has ever been to a trendy bars knows what a woo girl is, and now, thanks to Robin, we know why they woo, too! The show is finally back to episodic storylines with the underlying storyline rather than having they story at the forefront, and I think that its a good thing.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]