Why Couldn't She Just Like Boats?: Recap of Tonight's HIMYM ('Garbage Island')

Some news was released today that a hint about the wedding from ‘Big Days’ (yes the one where Ted meets the mother) would appear in tonight’s episode, ‘Garbage Island’.  I was watching for it the entire episode. Now I know the writers of HIMYM can be extremely subtle at times.  I also understand that the writers know how obsessive people in their fan base can be (i.e. yours truly).  So while looking for this “clue” I tried to not be closed minded about it. But obviously when the episode started with Wendy the

Waitress I started asking myself if maybe the wedding in ‘Big Days’ was hers.  However, when Ted failed to even recognize who Wendy the Waitress was, I immediately discounted that thought.  I mean, you would think he would remember who got married in a wedding where he was the best man.  Anyway after discounting Wendy I began searching for something else…or rather someone else.

Now don’t get me wrong I definitely still paid attention to the main story.  And good thing I did because the audience was told a lot of big things about a few of our main characters. First of all we learned that Ted does NOT marry Zoey.  Wendy asks Ted right away if he is still with Zoey and he laughs it off.  He even mentions that things between him & Zoey got pretty ugly towards the end (I wonder what’s going to happen to them…perhaps a duel between Ted and The Captain?).  Second of all we find out that Barney is finally ready for a relationship.  Okay, okay maybe not ready, but he is willing to explore the possibility of a relationship (BIG step for the Barnacle).  Lastly we are told that Marshall is no longer content working for GNB and wants to pursue his dream of saving the planet.  

All of these things are pretty significant, but to me none of them really spell out a “clue” about the wedding in ‘Big Days.’  At the end of the episode, it looked like a big clue might get dropped….Ted begins to talk about the wedding and a flashback begins. HOWEVER stupid Wendy cuts him off, saying she has to go.  Obviously this was just a joke on the writers’ part (I mean do you really think the writers would just lay out the entire wedding scene for us right now?) but it was still kind of mean!

Anyway looking back at the episode, I now have a theory about the clue- and it doesn’t have to do with Wendy, Barney or Marshall.  I might be WAY off base, but this is my blog, so yeah I’m just going to share my crazy ideas with you guys.  In tonight’s episode Ted visits The Captain twice (obviously not on purpose…he is only trying to collect Zoey’s things).  Both times The Captain ushers Ted to his study and complains about the mustached man that stole Zoey from him.  In the second visit The Captain even accuses the doorman (who happens to have a mustache) of stealing Zoey and grabs his flails (yes flails) with the intention of seeking revenge.

Sidebar: Is it just me, or does Zoey clearly have a thing for men with flails?  It’s already strange enough that Ted owned a flail, but The Captain owns TWO? I apologize if you own a flail- I am not trying to insult your people.

 Ted is able to calm down The Captain and explain that The Captain & Zoey really were not the best match.  Ted reminds ol ‘Cappy that Zoey doesn’t even like boats.  And once Ted says that, this piece of dialogue happens:

The Captain: Why couldn’t she just like boats? Just to have ONE thing in common. Other girls like boats don’t they?

Ted: Of course they do! And you’ll find one. And you’ll be much happier with her than you ever were with Zoey.

The Captain: If you put it that way I should almost thank the doorman.

Of course as Ted is leaving, he finally reveals to The Captain that the doorman was not the man who stole Zoey, Ted was. Immediately after this confession Ted bolts for his life.  Interestingly enough, we don’t see The Captain go after Ted.  Most people probably assume we don’t see The Captain chasing Ted down because Ted got a running head start.  I personally believe we don’t see The Captain because he never chases Ted.  I think instead that The Captain stays in his big leather chair, reflects on what just happened, and realizes that like the doorman, he should be thanking Ted.

Now in the above piece of dialogue it is hinted at that The Captain will one day find someone else. As we have already learned previously The Captain has no friends. So here is my crazy theory: maybe the wedding we see is The Captain’s.  It would make sense to me that The Captain would meet someone else, be so grateful to Ted for breaking up him and Zoey, and would ask Ted to be his best man.  After all, The Captain clearly is a bit crazy (which I LOVE about him).  I also like thinking that the wedding is The Captain’s because then it would make sense why Zoey is so crucial to the story.  Stella was important because she led to Ted getting a job as a professor (which according to Ted was a big part of why he meets the mother).  Maybe likewise, Zoey is important because she’ll lead Ted to a wedding.

So there you have it; that’s my theory.  The Captain remarries with Ted as his best man, and Ted meets his future wife at the wedding.  Now there are some holes in this theory.  Like why are Marshall and Lily there?  Well like I said The Captain has no friends, so maybe he invites Ted’s friends to tag along.  Another hole though is, even if Lily “tagged along” why would she be a bridesmaid?  Well, we still don’t know for sure if the dress Lily was wearing was a bridesmaid dress.  And even if it was, we still have absolutely no idea who the bride is.  For all we know The Captain could marry Lily’s best friend from elementary school.  Anyway my point is, although this theory is kind of far out- I still think it’s a possibility. Plus it would be fun to have Colonel Mustard be “the clue” J.

Overall I give this episode a WIN.  While I don’t think it was a strong as the past few episodes, I do think it advances the storyline a lot.  Because of this I think ‘Garbage Island’ was more positive than negative.

So what did you guys think about tonight’s episode? What do you think “the clue” was?  Chime in below with your thoughts!  

You Can't Disappoint a Picture!: Community Gets Back To Its Roots (Literally)

There is one word to describe last night’s Community—brilliant.  Complete with LeVar Burton, last night’s Community had SO many random aspects to it, but amazingly enough, it worked!

Let me start by saying, I have been very critical of Community this season.  I felt like Season 1 of Community was excellent.  Every episode was laugh out loud funny, and I think I came into Season 2 with the bar held a bit too high. 

I wasn’t impressed with the beginning of Season 2 when Community was constantly doing parodies.  Yes, the parody episodes in Season 1 were done well (i.e. Modern Warfare).  But it seems like the successes of these past episodes made the Community writers think “Gee, parodies go over great with the audience.  Wouldn’t it be AWESOME to do a parody in EVERY episode?”  The writers failed to realize that too much of a good thing never bodes well. Seeing parody after parody this season, I longed for my simple, character focused show to come back.  Luckily the TV gods seemed to listen to me.  In past weeks, Community has been picking up steam, and last night it was better than ever.

Although one can argue that Community did do a parody last night, I don’t really agree.  Yes Community was clearly making fun of documentary style sitcoms with the way it was shot, but that wasn’t the focus of the episode. The episode was character driven (maybe Glee should take notes) and surprise, surprise it worked! 

Despite Community doing well lately, last week’s episode (“Early 21st Century Romanticism”) disappointed me again.  It seemed to forget how ensemble shows tend to work.  When you have an ensemble cast as amazing as the one you have in Community, EACH of the main characters deserves screen time.  In “Early 21st Century Romanticism” many main characters were neglected (Shirley was barely even in it).  One of the main reasons last night’s episode (Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking) was so good was because it gave each of the characters a chance to shine….including Pierce.

Pierce has been annoying me to no end this season.  I love Chevy Chase, but I hate how evil Pierce has become.  Pierce was always senile and racist, don’t get me wrong, but never evil. When character traits or plots come out of nowhere, it really bugs me.  And up until last night, I felt like Pierce’s descent into madness came out of nowhere.  Finally last night’s episode allowed him to voice his opinions both to the group at large and to the camera a la talking heads (I guess Abed was right—documentary-style sitcoms really do allow complex problems to be easily understood).  Once he explained why he was seeking vengeance on the group everything started to make more sense to me.  I started seeing him as a tool to bring the group together in an extremely hysterical way—which I think is genius on the writers’ part.

The whole episode last night, was set in the hospital (something very un-Community-esque).  After a drug overdose Pierce is forced to stay there, and as a result his friends stay to look after him.  Considering Pierce has not been happy with his study buddies lately, he convinces them that he really is dying and starts to bequeath (LOVE that word) gifts to them. As the episode went on he called each member of the group one by one into his hospital room. When each of them entered the room, he gave them a “gift” (aka an item meant to personally screw with them).  Every gift was perfect.  I loved how Pierce was able to dissect the quirks/personal problems of every single character and give them gifts that were subtle yet tormenting. 

From the audience’s perspective, Pierce’s actions allowed fans to get a more in depth view of the characters.  We always see Jeff as a jerk who appears to be apathetic to everything.  Pierce knew the only way he could break Jeff Winger down was to go after the one thing that would make any person break down—daddy issues.  Pierce told Jeff that he got Jeff’s dad to come which did not go over too well with Jeff.  Although Jeff denied it, he began to freak out, and getting to see that was hysterical.  I especially loved when Jeff saw Abed filming him, told Abed that he was NOT upset and continued to tell Abed not to cut to scenes of Jeff freaking out upon final edit of the documentary (which Abed obviously did).  Not only did all of this show us a different side to Jeff, it made fun of documentary sitcoms at the same time.  The mixture of meta and actual story for that moment was absolutely fabulous. 

Now all the characters in the episode were funny.  Like I already said it was nice to see Jeff emotional for once.  It was also fun to see Brita being tormented over her “selflessness,” Annie freaking out over nothing, Shirley realizing she uses guilt as a weapon.

And while it was nice to see all of these character quirks come to the forefront, the storyline that was by far the funniest was Troy’s.  We learn in this episode that Troy has an obsession with LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek, Reading Rainbow dude).  When Pierce brought LeVar Burton to meet Troy, even I didn’t see what would be so bad about it.  But seeing Troy FREAKING OUT saying how he NEVER wanted to personally meet LeVar Burton because you “can’t disappoint a picture,” killed me. I literally had to pause the show I was laughing so hard.  And if me laughing that hard at something isn’t proof of what a true comedy should be doing, I don’t k now what is.  And as if Troy’s initial freak out wasn’t good enough, we also got to see him singing the Reading Rainbow song, staring open eyed at LeVar Burton and nearing have an entire meltdown in front of poor Kunta. Donald Glover is just too amazing for words.

As you can tell, this episode was great on so many levels.  It allowed Community to explore a new format, it allowed Community to be meta (which we all know that show LOVES to do), it allowed the audience to learn more about the characters, and it allowed Community to grow plot wise.  In fact this episode was jam packed with so much awesomeness, that I am going to have to include a list of stuff I loved that I didn’t already mention.  So to conclude I guess I need to judge this episode as a WIN LOSS or TIE.  But come on guys…do I even need to say it?  I am The TV Referee so I guess I will despite the extreme obviousness….this episode was a gigantic, over the top, awesomely amazing WIN.

Other things I loved that I didn’t already mention:

• Troy and Abed’s FIREFLY reference
• Annie truly being Pierce’s favorite
• Jeff and Brita bickering (which led to a wonderful Oingo Boingo reference)
• Hearing LEVAR BURTON sing Reading Rainbow HIMSELF
• Seeing Shirley film her own talking head

There might be more things I haven’t even really digested yet…I’ll have to re-watch.  There was too much funny to take in at once

Please leave comments with YOUR favorite parts and opinions of this episode.  Like always, I can’t wait to hear what you guys thought!

Parenthood: What Would You Have Done in Adam & Kristina's Situation?

Surprisingly enough I have not yet written about Parenthood. Out of everything I watch on TV (which is a LOT), Parenthood probably makes me think the most.  I absolutely love Parenthood because everything that takes place is so realistic, and I can’t help but wonder what I would do if placed in a similar situation.  Lately I have been trying to imagine myself in Adam and Kristina’s shoes. 

If you don’t watch Parenthood (and if not you totally should) Adam and Kristina are a married couple on the show.  They have two children: Haddie (a goody-two-shoes teenage girl) and Max (a smart boy with autism).  Typically Adam and Kristina struggle with Max- but lately their hardships have been with Haddie.

This season Haddie (who is 16) has been volunteering at a soup kitchen, where she meets a charming boy named Alex.  Sounds fine and dandy right? Wrong.  Turns out Alex is 19 and a recovering alcoholic.  Needless to say, this does not fly with Haddie’s parents.  Although Alex has been sober for 6 months and definitely appears to be a stand up guy, Adam and Kristina fear that he is not good for Haddie.  Consequently they ban Haddie from seeing Alex. Problems ensue (Haddie sees Alex secretively- her parents find out and take away all electronics and her bedroom door- you know the usual).  This creates a huge rift between Haddie and her parents, which culminates in Haddie moving out of her parents’ house and in with her grandparents.

I have tried to imagine being in a situation like this myself.  I don’t have children so it is hard to imagine what Kristina and Adam must feel like.  While growing up, my mother was always very over-protective of me, so when I do eventually have kids of my own I am sure I will be over-protective of them.  If I felt like my daughter or son was in a toxic relationship, I am sure I would try to keep him/her out of it.  But at some point you have to trust your children’s judgment and believe that they are making the right choice.

In the most recent episode, Adam and Kristina did just that- they finally put their faith in their daughter and told her she could see Alex (with certain restrictions of course).  I love Haddie and Alex, so purely from a fan's perspective this resolution made me extremely happy.  But I still can’t help but wonder what I would do if I had been in that situation myself. 

So I ask you guys- what did you guys think of Adam and Kristina’s change of heart?  Do you think they are making a good decision now by letting Haddie see Alex? Do you believe Adam and Kristina had the right to ban Haddie from seeing Alex in the first place?    I’m very interested to see your responses, so please comment below!!

And by the way- I LOVED last week's episode.  Lauren Graham's performance was phenomenal and John Corbett was in it...so I mean come on, how could you not have loved it?

What is that?! Short for Zoseph?: A discussion about HIMYM's Ted & Zoey

Wow that was an AMAZING episode!!  No wonder it was brilliant though, it was finally about TED.  I know a lot of people say Ted is their least favorite character (I happen to love Ted).  But when it comes down to it, he is the core of the show.  He is what brings everyone together and is the person taking us on this journey.  When the plot does nothing with his character it just feels like any other sitcom.  How I Met Your Mother is so much more than that.

So back to the episode at hand:  We have all been watching Zoey and Ted bicker back and forth the entire season.  In fact now that I think about it they kind of remind me Joey and Pacey (ha Joey/Zoey).  ANYWAY despite their bickering it has been pretty obvious that there have been sparks all along.  We all knew Ted would someday proclaim his love for her; we just didn’t know when.

Well tonight was finally the night and the writers did a FABULOUS job of writing this episode.  I just love when How I Met Your Mother connects everything.  I was wondering how they were going to handle Marshall in this episode, considering the last two episodes centered around the death of his dad.  I was really afraid they would just drop it for now, but nope they still worked it in!  The episode centered around Marshall being at home in Minnesota and the main characters telling the story through phone calls to him (super unique in my opinion).  Each character called him to discuss a major group dilemma- Ted was in love with Zoey.

I really enjoyed that this all took place with phone calls to Marshall because we got to see the story through each of the character’s eyes.  Every character on HIMYM has unique quirks and those quirks got to shine tonight when it was their turn to tell the story: Robin was of course straight forward,  Barney exaggerated like no other,  Lily dictated which people the group was allowed to “like,”  and Ted was well…Ted (stubborn, blinded by love, the list goes on).  Marshall was acting as mediator which he always does in situations with Ted (i.e. he is the one to calm down Ted’s ex girlfriends) and because of that Marshall was able to piece everything together- it wasn’t just Ted that was in love.

This episode featured Katy Perry as Zoey’s cousin.  She is referred to by her nickname Honey since Ted cannot remember her real name (a good call back to “Blah blah”).  The reason for the nickname is due to her extreme gullibility. She comes into the story when Zoey tries to distance herself from Ted by setting him up with her hot cousin.  Luckily for Zoey, Barney steals Honey away and nothing happens between her and Ted.  Katy Perry played her part perfectly- and surprisingly the episode didn’t center around her.  Usually when guest stars are that big, TV shows tend to make the episode center around the guest star.  Instead the writers used Perry as a device to show that Zoey loved Ted- BRILLIANT. 

In the end, once Marshall pieces everything together he makes two outgoing calls- one to Ted and one to Zoey.  Sidebar: Marshall only does this after explaining the whole situation to his mom and brother through an elaborate set up of cards from the board game Clue.  Ted is in the middle of telling Zoey that he hates her because he knows she is a married woman and wants to keep his distance.  Little does Ted know, Zoey has gotten recently divorced (probably due in part to her feelings for Ted).  Marshall reveals to both Zoey and Ted that they both have mutual feelings for each other and without having to say anything to each other they kiss.  It was SO cute, I almost cried out of happiness (YES I am pathetic when it comes to this show). 

Once I had time to regain composure my happiness turned to ANGER.  I started to think “How dare Carter and Craig allow me to fall in love with Ted and Zoey when they have made it pretty clear that she can NOT be the mother!” The person I have liked Ted the most with prior to him and Zoey was Robin, and I always knew she would never be the mother (despite some crazed fans’ loopy opinions).  After Robin I never really felt like anyone clicked as well with Ted…until Zoey. 

I always liked Zoey prior to this episode.  I liked how she fit in with the group (“THE GENTLEMAN!”).  I liked how she meshed with Ted (Mutual love of architecture).  I liked getting to know her backstory (The captain was hilarious).  Up until this episode I liked Zoey.  But I never fully understood why she was suddenly being tacked on as a member of the gang.  We have been watching this show for almost 6 years, and it is hard for me to just accept someone as “one of the gang” unless they are REALLY important to the story (Yes I know I have returned to being a cliquey teenage drama queen).  Then suddenly tonight I started to love Zoey.  She started to really seem a part of the group, and I wanted to be able to personally accept it.  And when the ending happened and her eyes teared up and Ted kissed her…that sealed the deal for me- I decided I want HER with Ted.   

But like I said before, Carter and Craig have made it nearly impossible for her to be the mother.  So like the crazed Robin/Ted fans out there, I have become my own crazed fan and am trying to come up with some type of loophole that would allow Zoey to be the mother (yep this episode made me lose it- I blame the brilliant writers).  So far I have come up with one theory: perhaps the wedding we saw in “Big Days” happened prior to the beginning of the series.  After all Ted never says when that wedding took place.  We only see Marshall and Lily during that scene, so it is possible this wedding took place after college but before the gang met Robin.  Maybe the writers just threw Punchy in there to make us think the wedding is in the future when really it is in the past (okay now I feel like I am talking about LOST).  Anyway, if it was in the past it’s possible Ted met Zoey years ago and did not remember her when he saw her years later in front of the Arcadia building.  I don’t know…I’m just grasping at straws here.

So do you guys have any theories that could allow Zoey to be the mother? Do you guys have any theories that completely disprove Zoey could be the mother? Do you guys even WANT Zoey to be the mother? Let me know your thoughts!  Oh and this episode was full of WIN.

Do Kelly and Joey Belong Together?

FINALLY Kelly admitted her feelings to Joey!  Thank god Sean and Vivian locked those two in a closet…I was worried Kelly was never going to confess! And even when she was about to tell him I still cringed because I was just waiting for someone to open the door and interrupt their moment.  But alas, Kelly got her words out (despite choking again)!   And from the way Joey reacted, I think it is pretty safe to say that the feelings between Joey and Kelly are not one sided.  Of course Joey is being a stand up guy though and sticking by his slut bride to be.  But if Clint has anything to do with it, Joey and Aubrey will not be an item for too much longer…

So I want your opinions- do you think Kelly and Joey belong together??  If not who do you think they belong with?  For awhile the writers seemed to like the idea of a Rex-Kelly pairing. ..did you? Or do you think that Kelly and Joey are made for eachother?  Chime in below!