Victoria came into Ted's life midway into season 1 as his first serious non-Robin love interest. If the show had gotten cancelled after 13 episodes, she probably would've been the mother. But the show continued on past episode 13, she went to Germany on a two-year fellowship and her relationship with Ted ended when she caught Ted about to cheat on her with Robin (Though to be fair, he was going to break up with her anyways. He just couldn't wait for her call.). And that was the last we ever saw of her. Until she returned last week catering the Architect's Ball, finally giving us the chance for closure on this storyline after all this time. And closure we got in another great episode.
The episode uses a classic HIMYM flashback structure, with Ted telling everyone what happened over the course of dinner at Shinjitsu, a Teppanyaki restaurant, while constantly getting interrupted by the B-Story, where we learn the story of the Ducky Tie (A week after they mention it? That's some kind of record for this show), which is also a great story. The two stories intersect well, with the funnier B-story cutting in whenever the sweeter, more serious A-story is getting too sweet or serious (though the A-story has it's fair share of laughs as well, particularly at the beginning.).
Let's start with the B-story. Lily has gotten her pregnancy boobs before she's gotten her pregnancy belly (as Ted puts it, "It's like you have a butt on your chest".) and Barney is drawn to them. So after losing a bet that he can't go 10 seconds without looking at Lily's boobs, he has to go with the gang to Shinjitsu, where he is less than impressed with the food and all the fancy tricks. So Marshall bets him anything that he can't replicate those tricks. Barney wants to touch Lily's boobs. So after a funny bartering scene with Lily it's agreed that if Barney can do all those tricks he can touch one of Lily's boobs for a minute with one squeeze. But if Barney fails, he has to wear Marshall's new ducky tie (which he's been making fun of) for a whole year.
At first, this seems like a sure thing, until Lily begins suspecting that Barney may know what he's doing. Though it seems ridiculous, they slowly realize that Barney has possibly spent six months learning all these tricks at a school in Hoboken, and by coughing whenever Marshall suggests going to Shinjitsu, he has put a subliminal association in Marshall's brain so that he'd want to go whenever Barney coughed, and has waited until Marshall had something he wanted to put this plan into action. This is pretty crazy, but after years of watching these characters, it sounds like something Barney would do, so it works. After almost compromising by letting Lily flash Barney for 30 seconds in the alley, Marshall realizes that Barney could be bluffing just so he could see Lily's boobs, which is what he always wanted. But then, it turns out Barney did learn all the tricks and is about to win the bet but catching the shrimp in his pocket when Lily flashes Barney, causing him to lose the bet and making him wear the ducky tie for the next year. This was a great story with many laughs and Barney wearing the tie he hates so much should make for some good jokes all season.
Meanwhile Ted tells the story of how he ran into Victoria, and though she accepts his apology and is no longer mad at him, he insists on doing her dishes so that she'll be on time to catch her bus to the Hamptons. As they do dishes, they catch up and she reveals that she's about to be proposed to, probably tonight. This catches Ted by surprise and he's even more surprised when he finds out that she started dating this man a day and a half after she and Ted broke up. After he gets angry with her and wonders if she ever cared (plus he starts licking the plates he just washed), she assures him that she did love him and they reminisce about old times (Marshgammon gets a mention. Apparently Ted's played it since Games Night and he's still not sure how it works) and kiss. Victoria realizes she still wants to marry her boyfriend and they part ways, but not before she gives Ted some wisdom that he omits from telling the rest of the gang.
You see, earlier in the episode after she finds out Ted and Robin broke up but still see each other every day, and Barney and Robin are the same, she finds that weird. She tells Ted that their relationship failed for probably the same reason that many of Ted's relationships have failed: Robin. She also says that Robin's a bigger part of Ted's life than he realizes and that Robin, him and Barney aren't going to be able to go on the same way they've been going on. It just won't work. Future Ted reveals that Victoria was right, but he just didn't see it yet.
This is a great ending, not only because it sets up something down the road, while providing full closure between Ted and Victoria (though I hope she'll pop up again at least once) but because Victoria has a point. Over the course of the show, Robin has been the catalyst for a bunch of Ted's relationships failing (Stella comes to mind, as Robin's presence at the wedding led to Tony and Stella reconciling.). This explains why Ted's relationship with Robin had to be a big part of the first two seasons even though we all knew the eventual outcome. Ted has unresolved business with Robin and it'll be interesting to see how their relationship changes over the course of this season. All in all, this was another great week for season 7 and I can't wait to see where the story goes next.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
-At the beginning Ted asks the gang to guess who he ran into and their list is pretty extensive (and I've actually seen a longer version of that scene where pretty much every girlfriend Ted's had during the course of the show is mentioned.)
-Marshall goes to great lengths to ensure that Ted doesn't see Lily's boobs.
-At the very least, the ducky tie should lead to some great puns as it already did tonight. "Sorry we have to duck out." "Barney can pick up the bill".
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