How I Met Your Mother- Episode 9.20 "Daisy" Review- A lovely resolution for Marshall and Lily's storyline

Like many of you, probably, when I first read the episode title “Daisy” I was sure that was The Mother’s name and that we would get an episode focused on her. I couldn’t have been more wrong; before the episode aired I saw an interview with the actors heading to the finale and The Mother’s name was still a mystery. So I guessed this episode would have nothing to do with The Mother and I was right; through the episode there were many things that bothered or annoyed me (I’ll get to that) that I was getting ready to grade it a C. But then it happened; Ted found a pregnancy test on the daisy and the tone of the episode brutally changed. I had to watch the episode again and on my second watch I left my silly expectations behind and I came to love the episode, even with its flaws.

What are those flaws? Mostly what happens when the boys go to The Captain’s house, most specifically the moment Ted sort of figures out what Lily was doing in The Captain’s house and his attitude about it; Ted is a character that I like a lot, but when he gets all douche, smug and arrogant I outright hated him, and I was there with Marshall when he said “This is going to be an eternity.” I was annoyed beyond belief and I grew bored of his attitude within seconds. Another thing I didn’t like was The Captain’s constant response “Sail on a boat!” (or something boat related) whenever Ted asked what Lily would do in any scenario he set out. The last thing I didn’t really like was the show’s commitment to keep planting seeds of doubt in Robin; it’s not that her storyline with her mom wasn’t funny, because it was, but the show has already put her through enough doubt already.

With that out of the way, now let’s talk why I actually loved the episode despite all of that; for starters there are a great amount of callbacks both while Robin’s mom draw unintentional comparisons between her ex-husband and Barney and through the whole trip to The Captain’s house. There are so many beginning with Becky showing up all the way through Marshall casually saying “I can walk that far”, all of them come in the right timing and I just love when HIMYM uses its referential humor right.

Another thing that made me chuckle quite a few times (even if the result is generating more doubts in Robin’s heart) is how Robin’s mom tries so hard to calm her daughter about her future husband and ends up making it way worse for her. I seriously hate that the show is making Robin even more insecure about getting married, but I can’t deny the comedic value that Tracy Ullman adds to the scene every time she says “red flag” so nonchalantly while Robin is obviously freaking out (props to Cobbie Smulders to deliver such believable worry expressions with no need of words).

But what makes the episode special to me is the moment Marshall finds out the pregnancy test and suddenly it becomes obvious why Lily has been struggling so much with their fight and why she ultimately decided to give up her dream. It makes so much sense, and the moment when we get to see her sitting down alone in the bathroom, with the pregnancy test on her hands is incredibly touching, why? Because you can see on her face as she waits for the test result that she is scared, that whatever the answer from the test is her world is going to sway one way or another; the flashback doesn’t show us what Lily’s reaction was, but we know that once she came back she already gave up on her dream because she was going to be a mother again, and that must have been hard, really hard. Going all the way back to “Sunrise”, I remember her coming back with a face that outright told that she made peace with that choice, even though it wasn’t what she wanted. God! Alyson Hannigan is such a great actress! (but that’s hardly news, everyone on the show is outstanding to say the least).

When Marshall comes back he tells Lily that they must go to Italy; Lily decided to sacrifice her dream for her family and Marshall does the same now, what else could be a proof of true love? Luckily for Marshall, being a judge was only one of his dreams, having a big family is something he has always wanted and as Lily is about to give him that he wants to give her wife what she always dreamt of; pursuing her art career. It’s touching, it’s beautiful and it’s the perfect resolution to what has been the most complicated plotline to figure it out; somehow the writers managed to make it go in a way that both Marshall and Lily get what they wanted and it’s great.

Their last scene when they are discussing about Funyuns in Italian is just lovely, and even more so when they decide to go for ice cream and we see that Mickey and Marshall’s mom are there too, with Marvin and one little girl, who Marshall greets “Good morning… Daisy” and we are shown a beautiful baby girl. Cut to black.

What a better way to end an episode than to show us Marshall’s absolute happiness when he sees both his son and his daughter? He is so obviously happy that I felt my heart was melting. It’s the kind of emotional resonance I want to remember when the show is gone, I want this show to go on a sweet note because their characters have gone through so much that I’m glad to see them having their happy ending. The thing with happy endings is that I think they are some of the best ending when pulled right; they must be earned, the characters must have gone through a lot of suffering and sacrifice, and boy! Have Marshall and Lily had their share of drama! So seeing them both living their dreams after all what they went through is just outright awesome. It’s all I want for the series once it ends. Now if we have that for all of our character, I’ll be more than happy with the show ending.

Grade: B+

Stray Observations:

-I was over the moon once Cristin Milioti confirmed that The Mother wasn’t dead on an interview she had this week; all my concerns with the show’s ending are now officially gone.

-The bit with Genevieve (Robin’s mom) in the plain was way too farfetched for me to like; if you open the emergency exit door during a flight or take off the whole plain would have been brought down and Genevieve would have been sent off flying. I know this, something like that happened once in an episode of Supernatural. I’ll let it slide though.

-Barney: “Marshall, do you want to go over The Captain’s house right now, punch him in the face really fast and then come back and do this wedding?”
Marshall: “Would that be ok?”
Barney: “Ranjit get the car”
Ranjit (while everybody stands up): “Getting the car”.
God, I love this moment!

-Was I the only one let down by the fact we didn’t get a final sword play in the show? I know The Captain is in the Olympics level, but still!

-Favorite Robin’s dad/Barney comparison.
Genevieve: “Your father was a sociopath. He slept with over 20 women. And, sure you know, we were friends for years and it was entertaining watching him lie to those poor girls to get them out of her pants. But I should have known back then this was no husband material! I mean, even your uncle Jim! His gay black brother…!”
Lily: “Will you shut up!”
The way Robin’s face deteriorates as her mother talks and the fury in which Lily replies is awesomely funny.

-A redeeming moment by the end. Barney hugs Genevieve.
Genevieve: “Uh, a hugger… he is nothing like your dad”
You can see the relief on Robin’s face as she finally hears a difference between her father and Barney, but I know that’s not enough to calm Robin’s anxiety.

-Lily after talking with Barney over the phone: “I’m so busted”.
How? I mean, Ted eventually figured things out (kinda), but it was really more of a lucky shot for him to find out that there was something hidden in the daisy, it depended on him remembering Lily chewed gum the day before and guessing that there was a daisy on the bathroom to begin with. Did Lily really think someone would look on a daisy to find a pregnancy test? Once again, I’ll let this slide.

-Genevieve: “If you find someone you feel safe with, like… flying! That you got someone who is really there for you, someone you can depend on, you’re gonna be fine. Do you have someone like that?”.
Robin: “I do”.
I swear, if the show spins this and Robin actually means that Ted is the person she trusts I’ll throw my TV out of the window. But since that is fairly possible considering how the show love’s to revisit the impossible love of these two I’ll just punch the wall if it happens.

-And that’s it! Only 3 more episodes to go and then it’s… oh god! I don’t even want to say it!

About the Author - Pablo

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 reviews for Once Upon a Time, How I Met Your Mother and Community