411 How I Met Your Mother Review: S04E11 'Little Minnesota'

Posted by Michael Tyner on 12.16.2008

How many Canadians does it take to change a lightbulb?

This week, Ted's sister is coming to town and the annual holiday tradition of keeping Barney away from her begins! Barney parodies several holiday classics every year when the Mosby family Christmas card arrives and he sees Heather (Ted's sister), including "I Wish I Could See Her Naked" sung to the tune of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." Ted tries to tell Barney that they are planning a Kathy Bates movies marathon to keep him away from Heather, but the group walks into Ted's apartment where Barney is waiting for them like a Bond villain at a desk with a snifter of whiskey. He found out from Lily, who can NOT keep a secret (as we've established in the past), that Heather was in town and has invited himself to dinner with Ted, Heather, and Lily where he offers her a job at Goliath National Bank. During dinner, Heather also asks Ted to co-sign her lease for a new apartment in New York but he is skeptical.

Meanwhile, Marshall takes Robin to his favorite place to go when he's feeling homesick, the Walleye Saloon! Its like Minnesota in a bar, and everyone knows his name! At the Walleye, everyone loves the Vikings and if you're not from Minnesota you're not welcome. After feeling homesick, since nothing is keeping her from going back to Canada this year, Robin finally finds a place where she can feel happy but to do so she has to steal Marshall's stories about Minnesota in order to be welcome. Everyone there even jokes about Canadians, the main punchline to each joke being that Canadians are afraid of the dark. Robin insists, "No one LOVES the dark!"

While out on a walk with Ted & Lily, Heather spots a briefcase in a store window that she absolutely loves! Ted is still worried about her being irresponsible, and when he hears about Lily walking in on Barney & Heather during her job interview, where the two were just getting dressed it is confirmed. Ted is furious, but Lily says that Heather begged her not to tell and pleads with Ted not to say anything to Barney. Heather comes out saying that she loves the briefcase, but Ted was right, she can't afford it.

Back from commercial, Robin is at the Walleye telling the entire bar a story that Marshall had told her about the 1999 NFC Championship (which the whole bar still laments for the Vikings loss). Marshall is pretty upset about it, and when Robin is almost outed as Canadian she tells a joke to cover herself about Canadians being afraid to blow out birthday candles. Ted and Lily are at MacClaren's with Barney and Heather, where Ted starts to go off but he finds out the Heather & Barney set-up the whole thing! Barney sticks to The Bro Code and stays true to his word about not touching Heather. Of course, Ted feels like an ass.

At the Walleye, Robin is close to beating Marshall's high score on Fisherman's Quest. After using a smaller fish to catch a bigger fish, she breaks his score and they all celebrate. "SHE'S CANADIAN!!" Marshall exclaims, and just like that the bar is taken away from her. She is proud to be Canadian, though, because they invented Trivial Pursuit; they have all nude strip clubs; and because people don't care where you're from as long as you're friendly. And they're not afraid of the dark; they don't love it, but who does?

Ted buys Heather the briefcase she saw as a Christmas, but that's not all; inside is a signed copy of the lease. He signed it because he wants to get to know the new Heather when she moves; and he suggests that she get a good deadbolt for her door in the new neighborhood. But after she gives him one of those looks, he adds, "if you want," and as he turns to leave ". . to live." Marshall apologizes to Robin for the way he acted, and takes her to another local bar called The Hoser Hut! When they walk in, someone is singing Crash Test Dummies "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" on karaoke and there are pictures of Paul Schafer on the wall; it feels like home. Marshall signs up for karaoke, and the whole bar sings along as he performs Robin Sparkles' "Lets Go to the Mall!" Classic!

The 411: A humorous but pretty average episode overall. Lets hope the second half of the season returns with bang after the holidays, and that we finally learn the story of the goat!

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]