How I Met Your Mother: Karma

What Happened, Yo!:

-Barney is still hung up over Quinn, and while at the Lusty Leopard with Ted, he realizes that Quinn is a stripper named Karma at the club. Ted convinces Barney to pursue her even though she's a stripper (Though Barney convinces himself that it was his own idea). He talks to Quinn at the club who tells him she has a rule against dating customers and that her boss is giving her the stink-eye for talking to him instead of working. So Barney pays her to give him a lap dance while he tries to convince her to date him. After buying hundreds of dollars worth in lap dances (and giving her his rolex), Quinn agrees to a date, but since she has to work, she asks if it can be in the club. Barney agrees, and ignores Ted when Ted realizes that Quinn is scamming him. On their "date", Quinn gets more money from him and convinces him to use the expensive Champagne Room, but when Barney sees her pulling the same stuff she did with him last night on another guy, he realizes Ted was right and she's scamming him. Quinn says it's only business and Barney says after all he's done over the years he probably deserves it, but he also says he's been trying to be a better person and she just proved to him he had it right before. He leaves, but the next day he accidentally runs into Quinn again at the coffee shop the next day. They talk a bit, and Barney realizes she's been remembering all the things he's said to her, though she just downplays that. She buys him a coffee and he accepts her offer to sit down and have coffee with her.

-Meanwhile Robin is staying with Lily and Marshall for a few days in East Meadow, and they're excited to have her. She's bored by the suburban life they seem to enjoy, but soon finds that Lily and Marshall apparently don't want her to leave. After a failed escape attempt, Marshall and Lily admit that they also hate the suburbs, but they think it's the best place for their child so they won't move back to Manhattan. Robin feels for them, but she won't stay with them.
-Meanwhile, Ted is still hurting after his recent episode with Robin and is unsure what to do with her old room. He tries to fill it with a series of hobbies, including meat smoking, woodworking, and pottery, but not only is he bad at it, but he keeps getting mocked by a vision of Robin who tells him he won't be able to fill the void she left. Eventually he talks with the real Robin about how hard it can be to move on. When she tells him about Marshall and Lily, he invites them to the city to hang out, but when they get there, the apartment is empty, except for a note from Ted who tells them he's realized he's been haunting the apartment and that he is moving out so he can finally move on, and giving it to them (He never took his name off the lease). He's also turned Robin's old room into a nursery, with a crib in it that subsequently falls apart because Ted's not good at building things.

I Like This: Karma was a nice way to follow up last week's monumental episode with an episode that once again pushed the plot forward. I was a big fan of Quinn's first appearance two weeks ago and thought her being a stripper was a great idea. This week confirms my thoughts as we watched Karma give Barney a taste of his own medicine. I totally bought that Barney could fall for Quinn's tricks, since being vulnerable is kind of a new thing for him and because Neil Patrick Harris sold it well. I also liked the conclusion with them running into each other once again, showing that maybe it is destiny that these two keep crossing paths. Meanwhile, Ted had a small story this week, but it was funny (his lack of skill at both woodworking and carpentry led to a lot of great gags) and emotionally effective, and while this episode set up that Marshall and Lily wanted to move back to the city, I wasn't expecting it to get resolved this episode, and I definitely wasn't expecting Ted to move out of the apartment. Marshall and Lily being the sole owners of the apartment is a great development and I can't wait to see where we go from here, with Ted out on his own moreso now than ever.

But...: Robin's adventures in the suburbs were necessary for the last scene, but they were pretty flat and unentertaining, though the diary lines got pretty funny.

The Bottom Line: Karma is another great episode of How I Met Your Mother, with another big plot development that's once again left me excited for the next episode.

Grade: 82% (Great)

Memorable Moments

-Ted: "In a city of 8 million people, you happen to walk into the club where she works? Maybe it’s destiny". Barney: "Nah, Destiny strips at the Melon Patch. They’re people, Ted. Try to keep 'em straight."
-Barney: "Damn it, Ted. Why can't you ever root for love?"

-Robin: "Also, Diary, I think writing in you is stupid but you were a gift from Lily and she’s watching me right now."

-Ted: "I can’t believe we’re in a strip club and the biggest boob in here is you." Barney: "It's a real date, Ted. And clearly you haven't seen the Dasalvo twins. She's right over there." Ted: "Barney,- Yowza!"

-Quinn: "Hey gorgeous, wanna dance?" Barney: "Is it a jig? Because if so, it's up! Sorry, I only had the last verse of Hot For Teacher to work on that."

-Barney: "You're playing me, again! And you're not even trying hard. There's no manager there. You're pointing at a fern!"

-Quinn: "You can't pretend to be some hurt little victim with me. I know you." Barney: "Well, of course you do. I told you things I don't tell anybody. I was honest with you." Quinn: "Yeah, because I believe you have a gay black brother, a friend lonely enough to smoke his own meat and that your mother was a groupie for Supertramp." Barney: "They named their band for her!"