How I Met Your Mother- Episode 9.05 "The Poker Game" Review- No pressure, just fun to have!

First of all, sorry that this review is coming so late: I’ve been dealing with some health issues lately and I have been unable to do anything at all, I couldn’t even pick up my notebook. Luckily I’m all better now, and it’s time for our weekly review, and this week we had a good episode. After feeling slightly let down by last week’s episode, it’s really nice to come back and point out all what the show has done right this season: coming from a mostly weak season 8, How I Met Your Mother is having fun by throwing all kind of situations in just one day.

Marshall is still on his way to the inn, and he and Daphne go by Chicago we get a callback about Gazola's pizza (from season 5 episode “Duel Citizenship”) with Marshall describing Daphne the absolute perfect pizza, and as Daphne seems tented to taste she asks “if it’s so good, then why did they close” to which Marshall replies “rats” and Daphne says “we’re not stopping”. It’s a good cold opening and it’s all that we see of Sherri Shephard in this episode (seriously, give the woman more to do, she is awesome!).

We skip back to the poker play and little by little players are starting to withdraw; Tim Gum, Lily, Marsh Pillow, and then troubles arise as James starts making some rude comments about marriage and how Barney shouldn’t get married at all. That’s one of the things I’m disliking about the season, the way they are using James to kind of be like Barney used to instead of being his own character. Anyway, Robin is upset and tells Barney that he has to deal with it, but he doesn’t want to take side between his family and his fiancée. So Robin, upset with the passive attitude of Barney, decides to takes matters into her own hands and beats the crap out of James in poker, winning his wedding ring, to which he reacts by calling on his mom.
Loretta tells Barney that he has to get James ring back and Barney insists on how much he doesn’t want to be caught in the middle of this fight, so instead she goes in the poker play and tries to win back James ring… only to be destroyed in the game by Robin as well, who wins her blouse.

Robin is not happy that Barney is not apparently siding with her, so that’s why she does it by herself, just classic Sherbasky style, but as Barney is so desperate to get everything back the way it was, Robin leaves him the choice to do whatever he wants. And as it seems Barney is about to hand the ring over to James, as he listen to how his brother selfish life style took away his marriage, he realized that he is marrying Robin so he can be part of her team, and so he doesn’t give him the ring back. In fact, her states that he is dead to him and when his mom happens to open the door, he takes the chance to say that to her too, thus initiating what will probably a whole season long rivalry between Robin and the Stinsons. The episode ends with Robin trying to fix things with Loretta by returning her the blouse she won, but Loretta says that she should keep it as a consolation price as she just won a battle, but not the war and Robin’s fighting spirit lights up and she takes it on with an epic “game on bitch!” line. This storyline is so full of potential for many wedding disaster situations with great comedic potential that I can’t help but being happy that the show took this approach.

While all this goes along, Lily is mad at Ted for giving so many gifts to Robin and Barney for their wedding, while he seemingly forgot to give them one. The episode spends a lot of time in this little spat and it’s just great, we get to see Marshall dress up as a wedding present in a flashback as he tries to send a sign to Ted, he gives him a gift wrapping station as a wedding gift (for the wedding he was supposed to have with Stella) and it seems nothing jugs Ted’s memory. And when Marshall confronts Ted of never giving them a present, Ted replies that he indeed gave them a gift, a coffee maker that they always use, and he is pissed that he never got a thank you note, and so we get to see Ted as well dropping hints that they forgot to send the thank you note, including the priceless “thank you note” costume in the very same Halloween party where Marshall dressed up as a wedding present. This is just comedic gold.

However, Lily goes downstairs and Ted tells her that he gave her the coffee maker, but she is sure that in fact it was Claudia and Stuart the ones that gave it to them. So Ted freaks out at the thought that he might have never got a gift for their friends and he is set out to make things right.

A little while later Robin reveals to Lily (and Marshall who was over the phone) that Ted actually got them the coffee maker and so she confronts Stuart (who just checked in the lobby) about it and finds out that he actually made Ted’s gift pass as his gift. And that, somehow, was a turning point for his relationship with Claudia, who was really near leaving him, and so out of respect to their marriage, she promises not to say anything to Claudia. And it turns out Stuart wasn’t with Claudia (at the time), but it was another woman in the shower…

Moving on, a little too late Lily found about this, and Ted already arranged a new wedding gift for their friends, a big package for Lily (which we might never know what was in it) and a pizza delivery from Gazola’s pizza for Marshall, which as epic as you can expect.

The episode is not really memorable, but it’s the kind of entertaining episode the show always needs to do every once in a while. Though it has some character development for Barney, this episode focused more on the laugh, and after the really intense emotional episodes we’ve been having lately, it’s a welcome change of pace. Sometimes it’s nice to just laid back and enjoy the fun of a light episode.



Grade: B+

Stray Observations:

-There’s no such thing as privacy in Barney and Robin’s conflicts, as everyone supposedly left the room when they were about to fight, but actually hide around the room. Classic Aldrin and Ranjit, and as it seems also Billy Zabka.

-Marshall gets his pizza and promises Ted that he will give him a thank you note.
Future Ted: “And I got that thank you note… four months later. FOUR. MONTHS. LATER!”

-Still no mother, we’ve been mother free for three weeks: this has to stop.

-Barney: “Woman, as your bride groom, I command you…!”
Robin: “Do you want to take that ‘I command you!’ thing back?”
Barney: “Can I, please?”

-Epic concept for couple costume for Halloween: Wedding Gift + Thank You Note:
Marshall: *looking at Ted’s costume* “Thank you note! Guess, we sorta go together!”
God, I loved that scene.
(Note that when Ted leaves and says “I think he got it” we can see the slutty pumpkin right behind him. So many callbacks in this season already! This is so great!)

-As Ted and Marshall apologize to each other for being passive-agressive, Marshall says that he actually learnt a valuable life skill in his sewing classes. Classic Erikson.

-Next week: Barney and Robin steal Marshall and Lily story of how they met. I’m pretty sure the show has done something similar to this already, so I hope it doesn’t turn out repetitive.

Pablozky
I'm currently studying Psychology while also writing fantasy books (one already published in my home country, Chile, you can check it out on the facebook icon). I watch many different types of shows, including my favorites Revenge, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time and about 23 more. Currently writing articles and some reviews as well