HIMYM - "Rebound Bro"

From my TVFan blog,

Breaking up is hard to do.

In this week's episode, we had to watch, sometimes in horror, as Barney searches for a new wingman now that Ted has decided he has "outgrown" Barney as a friend after he shacked up with Robin, Ted's ex and former love of his life. But we finally get to spend time with Stella, Ted's new lady friend who he met in "Ten Session" a.k.a. the Britney episode.

I was surprised to see Sarah Chalke reprise her role after being away since she first appeared. It's great to see her is a fresh role after "Scrubs" took a nosedive this year. But we all know Stella's time on HIMYM can only be short lived. We know she is not the mom. She already has a five-year-old daughter, which rules her out of being the title character. But I'm sure we'll cherish her time as Ted's "current love of his life." I'm just curious to see how Ted will end it make a mess of it.

We learn that Stella hasn't known a man in the biblical sense for five years, which not only comes as a shock to Ted but to Robin, Marshall and Lilly, who said that even after a year of not getting any, she would sell it on the street for a nickel. The best LOL moment of the episode came when Marshall did a time recap of what has happened since Stella last got some: "Seabiscuit" leaped into theaters "and our hearts" and "The Da Vinci Code" came out . . . not the movie, the book!

But now that Ted realizes he is going to be Stella's first since SARS was an epidemic, he panics because he thinks the expectations are going to be too high. So he enlists the help of Marshall, who tells him to try to lower expectations.

But when Stella learns Ted shares her dry spell with his friends, she isn't too pleased and storms out on Ted just before they were headed off to a hotel. Ted finally apologizes, he meets Stella's daughter and they end the show in bed together.

And since Ted is no longer talking to Barney . . .

Barney recruits Randy, an office dweeb, after he goes through his entire bro blackbook and comes up short. Through the entire montage of finding a new bro, the best one was the bro telling Barney the plans of eating cheese, rock a viewing of "27 Dresses" and being in bed by 11. His plans were so disgusting that Barney had to hang up on him and then call back only hang up on him.

Out of desperation, Barney takes Randy to McLarens to teach him to ropes of wingman-ing, which is at best, slightly amusing, with Randy trying out Barney's three rules: pull a girl away from her crowd, use her name constantly in the conversation and slightly insult her.

It was great when Randy butchered Barney's tagline: "It's going to be legendary - wait for it - dary." Funny thing, my roommate has done exactly that!

Randy is only able to land a girl after Barney learns he was NYPD for a brief moment in time (apparently, before he shot himself in the foot) and uses that to get a girl to take him home. We also learn Randy, played by Will Forte, gets a bloody nose when he get an erection. Ewww.

Also, if you think you are awesome enough to be Barney's wingman, there is an application at Barney's website.

Though a little bloated, the episode was strong and I loved the great pop culture jokes (Any show that can rag on "27 Dresses" the week it comes out on DVD gets a thumbs up from moi) and I was so glad to see Chalke back on the show. I think we can expect her back next week since we are also expected also to see Britney Spears come back as Stella's assistant and Barney's new conquest. I know I am not the only one who thinks the show doesn't need all the guest stars, and I hope the trend doesn't go on too long or the show will become another "Will & Grace," and haven't we suffered enough? Plus, we need to get to who is under that yellow umbrella!

http://tvfan.ew.com/blogs/post/915