How I Met Your Mother finally returned with the Season 3 premiere last night! I didn’t realize how much I missed the gang over the summer until I saw them again. Wow, it’s great to have them back! The episode was called “Wait for It” and here’s what happened.

Ted/Barney: Ted has spent his summer trying to get over his breakup with Robin. He grew a beard, lounged around, and refused to even attempt moving on despite all of Barney’s pleas to do so. But then when Robin comes back from her trip to Argentina with a hottie named Gael (played by Enrique Iglesias), Ted finally finds some incentive to break out of his funk.

He shaves, washes up, and goes out with Barney, whereupon he promptly meets a tattooed girl named Amy (Mandy Moore), who is totally NOT the kind of person sane!Ted would go out with. They drink, party in a hot tub, and end up in a tattoo parlor, where Ted gets a butterfly “tramp stamp” inked on by Amy’s pissed off ex!

Ted realizes he needs to have it out with Robin so the breakup will feel finalized. He goes to her apartment, yells at her because that’s something he never got to do the first time around, and then walks away victorious after Robin tosses him a bone: Ted is bigger than Gael.

Robin/Marshall/Lily: Lily invites Robin and Gael on a double date. At first, Marshall is against the idea because Lily obviously thinks Gael is hot and also just out of sheer loyalty to Ted, but he gives in. Then, Gael ends up winning everyone — Marshall most of all — over with his massages and singing.

At the very end of the ep, Marshall calls Barney to tell him about a website called SlapCountdown.com, which is ticking down the days, hours, and minutes until Marshall’s next slap!!

My Reaction: As I said above, it’s great to have the gang back! I’m so excited that we’re actually going to get some solid clues as to who Ted’s future wife will be, and of course we started off with the mysterious yellow umbrella (which has been showing in promos forever). Let’s hope the writers aren’t just teasing us with that and that there’s an actual payoff in there somewhere.

One of the best things about HIMYM is the wonderful sense of continuity that the writers bring to the show. It’s as though they’re actually paying as much attention to the characters as the viewers are — which definitely can’t be said about other shows out there. There were several instances of continuity in this ep, including the slap bet (of course), Marshall developing man-crushes on random guys that come into his life, a reference to Barney’s blog, and Barney answering his phone with “Go for Barney.”

There were also lots of funny lines along the way, such as Barney’s “cirque de so-laid,” the Chester A. Arthur crack, and the buildup to the butterfly tat reveal. All in all, this was a good season premiere and I’m totally looking forward to next week’s ep as well!