How I Met Your Mother – 6.02 – Cleaning House - Recap

The episode with Barney telling a story about one of his recent sexcapades, but then stops mid-story, because apparently his mother is selling her house (his childhood home) in Staten Island, and he feels like he’s losing part of his childhood. He convinces the group to join him and his brother James (played by the awesome Wayne Brady) in Staten Island to help box up his old stuff.

Robin has apparently been talking up Ted to the make-up girl at her station. She upsells Ted, and he gets upset telling her the first rule of setting people up is to undersell. Robin sends Liz another message and undersells Ted, and later sends another message that makes Ted seem awful, but Liz is still willing to meet Ted. Ted then realizes Robin upsold Liz to Ted.

When Lily stumbles upon one of Barney’s old basketball jerseys, Barney tells him he was kicked off the team for being too good. When he leaves the room James says that he sucked, but their mother told him that so Barney wouldn’t feel bad. As Barney and James go through more of their stuff, Barney finds a letter addressed to Sam Gibbs that was never mailed. They open it and find a letter and a photograph of themselves as kids, and James notices on the back of the photograph their mother had written “your son.”

James questions their mom about Sam Gibbs. She lies saying the name doesn’t sound familiar, and when Sam asks about why “your son” is written on the back, she tells an elaborate lie to try to cover it up. James becomes upset, and Barney completely believes the story. James talks to Barney convincing him that his mother lies and he needs to stop believing the lies. Barney joins him to go visit Sam at the address on the letter, but he still refuses to believe that Sam may be his father.

As they reach Sam’s doorstep, Barney gives in and admits that Sam may be his father, and says that he knew Bob Barker wasn’t really his dad, but he needed to think that, because growing up it made him feel special. James and him hug and he reassembles himself and James rings the doorbell.

When Sam opens the door, it turns out he’s a black man. James talks to him and Sam realized James is his son. They start hugging, and Barney jumps right in and calls Sam “Poppa,” and starts to think he is a black. No one dares to talk about the elephant in the room, and when Barney runs off to get a camera, Marshall suggests they just let Barney “have this one.”

Barney and his mom have a heart-to-heart, and she tells him how she always wanted to be enough for her, and that’s why she never wanted to tell them about their dads. She tells Barney that Sam is not her father, and is ready to tell him who his real dad is, but Barney stops her saying that he already had a father—she was his true father.

Favourite quotes from the episode:
“Guys, I know you count the minutes until you can escape from your hum drum lives by hearing how awesome mine is, and I love doing that for you, but I just can’t tonight.” –Barney

“How cute is that, right? When is the last time you saw a diaper poking out of a Dolce & Gabbana suit?” – James (talking about a picture of his son in a suit Barney sent him)

“Man, I thought I was a light-skinned Caucasian, but in truth I’m a really light-skinned African-American.” –Barney