What Happened, Yo!:
-Lily and Marshall are throwing a housewarming party on Marshall's first night off in a long time. Lily tells her father that she knows he is going to ruin it. They also find out that as part of a new business venture, Mickey is keeping 10,000 bees in the basement.
-Later at the party, Ted and Robin arrive and set the oven for five minutes to heat up the appetizers they brought. Future Ted informs us that in five minutes, everything at the party went wrong and takes us through it room by room.
-In the living room, Marshall is informed by his boss that they have to go back to work in 45 minutes, even though it is their night off. Mickey tries to work his bees into the conversation and goes off to get his beekeeper suit. Mr. Cootes gets angry at Ted for apparently eating from the vegan plate when Ted wasn't a vegan. Ted denies this until Robin comes in. Then he takes responsibility for it and almost gets into a fight with Mr. Cootes until Lily sends Mr. Cootes to different vegan food elsewhere. Barney (who earlier had dismissed a scream coming from another room as nothing) comes in, drinks Lily and Ted's drinks and starts babbling about whether he should do something. Robin tries to talk to him about it, but Barney just goes on about his Penis before going off. Marshall brings in some fancy Gouda but Lily later smashes it and tells Robin the party is ruined. Robin points out that other people seem to be having an amazing time and when Lily admits it might not be all bad, a man in a flaming beekeeper suit runs through the room.
-Five minutes before this in the dining room, Barney is chatting up a kind of crazy, recently divorced woman and has eaten 20 of the vegan spring rolls. When Mr. Cootes wonders who ate all of them, Barney points him in Ted's direction. The divorced women tells Barney to meet her in the guest bedroom for sex in 2 minutes. Marshall tells Lily he is going to talk to Mr. Cootes about the way he's treating employees, but he tries to get Robin to practice screaming at him first. Robin seems a bit weird about it though, insists she doesn't get mad about every little thing and holds back getting mad about no hot mustard for the pigs in blankets. Barney comes in from the kitchen disturbed and asks Robin to talk to him about it. Robin says fine as long as it's not about his Penis. Marshall goes to talk to his boss and Lily tells Ted she is freaking out about parenthood and wonders if she can do it with all the late hours Marshall is working. She's also concerned about putting out crisis' every thirty seconds and has to get Mickey to go take off his kerosene-doused bee suit (She also learns his bees have escaped). She goes to stop Marshall's gouda. Marshall tells Ted the long hours won't be a problem for him anymore and Ted seems happy when he mentions Robin's been acting weird. Marshall calls the affair a great party when a burning beekeeper walks through the room.
-Five minutes ago (again), in the kitchen, Ted and Robin put in the appetizers and continue their fight. Ted is mad because Robin yelled at a 90-year-old lady at the supermarket (and ripped her wig off) and Robin is mad because Ted never stands up for himself. Ted leaves the kitchen angry and Robin makes an effort not to be mad when Mickey bumps into her and almost spills her drink. Mickey puts on his beekeeper suit and Barney tells him the 'fact' that bees hate the smell of kerosene. Lily tells Barney the women he was talking to is their neighbor and she once cut off the penis of a man who didn't call her back after sleeping with her. Panicking when Barney says he's supposed to sleep with her shortly, she drops the Gouda on the floor and mice crawl on it causing her to scream. Barney opens the door and says everything's fine. Barney gets Lily a glass of wine. Lily is still upset and leaves. Marshall tries to convince Mr. Cootes to not work all the time, but he won't listen so Marshall quits and leaves with the Gouda. Mr. Cootes confides to Mickey (who is taking off his suit) that maybe he needs a hobby and Mickey tries to turn him on to beekeeping. Mr. Cootes rejects his offer but decides to try on the suit. Mickey asks him to close the basement door and leaves. Mr. Cootes then opens the oven to get the appetizers, igniting the kerosene and setting him on fire. He runs all the way outside and jumps in the snow.
-Mr Cootes is fine and has never felt more alive. He decides to give Marshall the night off after all and asks if he'll see him Monday. Marshall agrees. Mr. Cootes then remembers he never closed the basement door and Marshall opens the house to find it full of bees. Barney does wind up sleeping with the women, who is crazy. As he tries to sneak out, he notices the house is full of bees. He escapes anyways.
I Liked This: The Burning Beekeeper was one of those elaborate How I Met Your Mother episodes where nothing quite makes sense at first, but you figure out what's going on as it goes along and by the end, you're impressed by how clever it all is. The device of showing us what happened room by room was a good way of making us figure things out as we go along and definitely rewards a second viewing once you know the whole picture. It was also a good episode with plenty of laughs, from Ted's confrontation with Mr. Cootes, to Mickey's complete inexperience with handling bees. And the ultimate reveal that the oven timer that was counting down how long until things went wrong actually was the catalyst for the ignition of the bee suit was great.
But...: As clever as the structure was, on initial viewing I often got distracted just trying to keep track of everything that was happening and how that would affect other things that had happened, which hampered my enjoyment of the episode a bit. In addition, the party never really wound up becoming quite the disaster that was promised. Though thousands of bees loose in the house is pretty bad.
The Bottom Line: The Burning Beekeeper was a clever (Though sometimes distracting) episode of How I Met Your Mother, which shows the writers still have tricks up their sleeves.
Grade: 70% (Good)
Memorable Moments
-The best reveal of the structure was probably why Lily wanted to destroy the Gouda. Plus it double-worked because the mice were set up in the opening scene. Chekov's Mice, anyone?
-Mickey: "I’m starting up a business cultivating all organic, artisanal honey. That’s right, I’m a job creator.”
-Mr. Cootes: “Your breath reeks of shredded carrots and deceit.” The reveal that Barney had actually ate all the spring rolls and then sent Mr. Cootes after Ted was great too.
-Barney: “Every penis is a girl, Robin. Everyone knows that. Like ships and lake monsters. “
-Ted: “You called her a whore!” Robin: “Who wears that much makeup?!” Ted: “Old ladies.” Robin: “Who trade sex for money!”
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