Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Slapsgiving”, and more or less served as the show’s nod to Thanksgiving. In addition, after almost two months of anticipation, we finally got to see Marshall dish out the third of five slaps he can give Barney for losing the Robin Sparkles bet. Not much else happened in this ep, so the recap is going to be short and sweet.

Robin/Ted Robin and Ted realize that since their breakup, they can’t be alone together because it’s just too uncomfortable. Whenever they do happen to end up alone, they mumble some lame excuses for having to leave and quickly dash off to join other people.

The night before Thanksgiving, the gang plans to gather at Robin’s place to make pies. Ted arrives two hours later than he’s supposed to in an effort to make sure everyone else will be there. But it turns out that Barney, Marshall, and Lily all canceled, so it’s just him and Robin after all.

They go through an uncomfortable silence, followed by even more uncomfortable small talk. Finally, they argue about Robin’s new boyfriend Bob (who’s 41 years old, but whom Ted views as a 70-year-old geezer) and Ted’s recent “parade of conquests” — and then end up sleeping together.

The next day, they decide that they probably can’t be friends anymore. They’ll have Thanksgiving dinner together, and then that will be that. But of course they eventually get over themselves and will continue being friends.

Marshall/Lily/Barney: Marshall reminds Barney that the Slap Countdown timer is ticking. Barney says Marshall shouldn’t be allowed to slap on Thanksgiving, and Lily, as Slap Bet Commissioner, agrees. Barney gloats, but with 4 seconds left on the timer, Lily relents and Marshall unleashes a nasty slap that knocks Barney off his feet. Marshall then sings a song he composed for the occasion.

My Reaction: I have to agree with Barney: it’s no fun when you know the slap is coming. The first two slaps doled out for Slap Bet were hilarious because Marshall just hauled off and smacked Barney apropos of nothing. But this time, since I knew the slap would come at the end of the ep despite what Lily said, it wasn’t as funny.

Moreover, since I was waiting for the slap, I barely paid attention to what was happening during the rest of the episode. I thought the Geezer Bob storyline was dull, didn’t like the fact that Ted and Robin slept together again, and thought Lily was wasted in the kitchen.

I wasn’t even that impressed by Marshall’s slap song, though I saw from some message boards that most other HIMYM fans loved it. I thought the Robin Sparkles video was far superior, and this just felt tacked on to make up for the unfunny slap.

Well, surprisingly, HIMYM is coming right back next week with another new ep. There can’t be many more left, so hopefully the WGA strike will end soon and not end up ruining the rest of the season.