Monday Night TV Roundup

OK!'s Joyce Eng breaks down our fave show of the night: How I Met Your Mother!

“So we finally get Ted's 30th birthday goat story alluded to in the first season – coupled with Robin and Barney's post-coital ramifications. What could be better?

Barney and Robin decide to pretend as if nothing happened, which is harder than it sounds for Barney, who connects every conversation to their dirty little secret (Ted: Do you want my Xbox? Barney: Ted! She has a name!). Feeling guilty of violating the Bro Code (which, thanks to a 1776 flashback in where else but the city of Brotherly Love, reveals one Barnabus Stinson penned the revered edict because Benjamin Franklin was too busy flying "a kite or something" and George Washington had to go back to "Me, D.C."). Barney hires Marshall as his lawyer to look for a loophole in the B.C. and/or find an incidence of Ted breaking a rule so he could be relieved of his culpability. Marshall can't and urges Barney to confess his sin to Ted.

Wanting to lift his spirits before breaking the news, Barney tries to shepherd Ted to Las Vegas as his surprise birthday party (um, why would you tell the poor guy on his birthday?!). But before Barney can cough up the truth, Ted announces that he knows he and Robin slept together because Robin told him earlier that day. Barney asks for forgiveness – which Ted calmly gave to Robin – and Ted fakes him out before blowing up in his face and punching Barney in the 'nads. He had boxed up a bunch to things to eradicate by his 30th birthday and now he wants Barney to be one of them. Ouch. Poor Barney! The look on his face when Ted ditched him in the limo was heartbreaking. But we can take solace in the fact that we know they will reconcile eventually since Future Ted tells so many tales of "Uncle Barney."

Oh yeah, that goat? Origin: Lily's kindergarten class. She buys Missy the Goat off the show-and-tell farmer after he, um, basically scared her entire class into becoming vegetarians. Throughout the ep, we get teased of the mischievous (not to mention, evil-looking!) goat's naughty deed in the bathroom...which brings us to the tag. Future Ted starts recounting Missy chewing up Robin's face cloth, but abruptly stops because memory has not served him correctly. The goat incident took place on his 31st birthday, not his 30th because Robin wasn't living with him then. First of all, major storyline cop-out, but what does that mean? Do they get back together? Are they just roomies in a year? Do Marshall and Lily finally move out? Are Barney and Robin really just a one-time thing? Why must Barney shoulder all the blame and Robin can get off easy? It takes two to break the Code! So many questions, so few answers!” – Joyce