Bears, Slap Bet, Hurricane Irene, a romantic complication, Ted in silly boots, boogie boarding, more bears. These are just some of the things that Disaster Averted had to offer in another great episode.
The episode used the same structure, most recently employed by The Ducky Tie. As the A-story is told in a series of flashbacks, the B-story in the present constantly interrupts. In this case, Kevin is curious as to why MacLarens has a sign up that says "Absolutely No Boogie Boarding". Since he has to get to his mom's birthday, he wants the story to be as long as possible so we find out about what happened to the gang when Hurricane Irene blew into town. Meanwhile, Barney wants to take of the ducky tie, and is willing to add an extra slap to the slap bet. He then goes to great lengths to get Marshall to waste his final slap, so an extra one would be necessary. Both stories are funny and full of great moments.
In the flashback, we see that Ted is already to flee the city with Irene on it's way, and he wants the gang to come with him, but Barney wants them all to stay in the city so they can party New York style. And other members of the gang don't see the storm as that big a deal. According to Robin, it's BBQ weather in Vancouver. Lily wants to party (She isn't pregnant yet.). And Marshall won't go without Lily, because his health insurance has expired (he's unemployed at the time), and with a couple weeks to go until he joins her plan, he's become "a really Edgar Allen Poe". This means he wants to follow Lily everywhere and fears bear attacks from outside, inside, and the bathroom. The recurring bear was possibly the funniest bit of the episode.
As the episode proceeds, various members of the gang change and re-change their mind about evacuating. Things are said. People get mad. Barney fakes a call as Robin's dad to get her to admit that she's jealous that everyone else's parents have called to check in, but not hers. And things get even more complicated when Ted decides to give up Barney's seat to a girl he met in the hall, just as Barney decides he wants to go (though he approves of Ted leaving him behind for a random girl.), leading to more arguing, leading to Ted trying to leave on his own only to find out it's too late.
So the gang stays together in Barney's apartment to ride out the storm and make up from their arguments. And after Marshall gets mad when Lily calls him too clingy, Lily offers the gesture of a nice, shared bubble bath and that's the story of how they conceived their baby in Barney's apartment. Oh, and then once much of the storm has passed, they go boogie boarding by MacLarens and Marshall (now no longer obsessed with not hurting himself) crashes through the front window. Hence the no boogie boarding sign. And we find out from future Ted that if they had evacuated New York to Ted's house, they probably would've been crushed from the oak tree that crashed into the living room.
Meanwhile, while the story is being told, we get Barney trying to get out of his ducky tie deal, by offering an extra slap. As a fan of the ongoing slap bet, I was glad to see it re-emerge here in a non-Thanksgiving setting. And Barney's attempts to get Marshall to use up his fifth slap were great, and even affected the A-story when flashback Lily tries to sleep with flashback Barney and we learn it's Barney messing with the story. In the end, Kevin deduces that Barney is meeting Norah's parents and doesn't want to wear the tie for that. So Marshall and Lily strike him a deal: 3 extra slaps. Barney agrees only to immediately to regret it when he gets slapped twice. With two remaining. Which means this should end right near the end of the series (assuming the show ends with season 8, which I'm suspecting is going to happen.). Excellent!
And even after all that, there's more. We find out that after Barney apologizes to Robin for pretending to be her dad on the phone, he cheers her up and they almost kiss, only to be interrupted by Robin's dad calling. Then as they joke about how they averted disaster back in the present (Kevin's gone at this point and they're sharing a cab.), they actually kiss. This is an interesting development, and it should be fun watching the fallout of this in the next episode. All in all, Disaster Averted was a great episode that's one of the best season 7 has done so far. And again, I can't wait for what's next.
Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)
Memorable Moments
- Barney invents an elaborate excuse at the beginning as to why he doesn't have the tie on that we get to witness without understanding the context right away. It's over-the-top and awesome.
- Ted: "Luckily, you guys are friends with a former Boy Scout. And a Boy Scout is always, what?" Robin: "Unpopular?" Lily: "Beaten up?" Barney: "Going to the movies with his mom?" Ted: "A Boy Scout is always prepared." Robin: "Prepared to spend lunch in his locker?" Marshall:"Prepared to die a virgin?" Barney: "Prepared to paint his sister's nails?" Classic exchange.
- Marshall defends his behaviour and making Lily read her books aloud to him with this comeback: "Hey, it's been no picnic for me either. You don't even do the voices."
-Barney: "So it comes to this. You could help a friend, but instead you're choosing the hot girl in the tight tank top. Your training is complete; I'm so proud!"
- Ted: “I want you guys to know, and I really mean this: I wish I’d branched out and made more friends in my 20s.”
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