Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother seemed like it was hyped to death (I watched football all weekend, and saw promos during nearly every commercial break) as being mostly about the Victoria’s Secret after-party, so I was surprised to see that those scenes only last a few minutes. I guess I was expecting a majority of the episode to take place there. Anyway, here’s what happened on “The Yips”.

Ted/Robin/Marshall/Lily: Ted gets winded running into his room to grab some money for a pizza, so he decides that it would be a good idea to join a gym. He convinces Robin, Marshall, and Lily to join with him.

Marshall signs up with a hardcore trainer who makes him do endless sets of sit-ups and push ups. Lily, meanwhile, gets a trainer who wants to “stretch her out” to improve her flexibility. And Robin turns into a mannish caricature of herself, which leads to her friends making lesbian jokes during the entire ep.

Nothing really comes out of these gym scenes except that we learn Lily’s trainer wasn’t affiliated with the club at all; Ted and Robin’s lingering sexual tension disappears; and they all stop going after one week.

Barney: At the gym’s smoothie bar, Barney runs into the woman he lost his virginity to. She’s a much older friend of his mother’s, and was known as the “man maker” of the neighborhood because of her penchant for bedding younger men. Barney is crushed when Rhonda doesn’t remember him, especially since back then she told him that he “rocked her world” and was the best she’d ever had.

This puts Barney in a funk, so he decides that going to the Victoria’s Secret after-party will get him back on his game. But he turns into a stumbling, bumbling fool who can’t even come out with a complete sentence or finish his signature, “Legen… wait for it… dary” line. Barney calls this inability to perform “the yips”, a term he got from his brother James.

Barney thinks the only way he can get back to being his old self again is to bed Rhonda one more time — and rock her world for real. He does, and is Barney again by the end of the ep.

My Reaction: I didn’t like this episode very much at all. I love Barney, but only in small doses. He’s great as a sidekick; not so much as the main focus of an entire ep. I thought there were a few funny moments in his story (mostly the scenes with James), but found it mostly boring.

And what was up with that health club storyline? I kinda smiled when Robin was shown grunting loudly while lifting weights, and again when Lily said her trainer wasn’t really a trainers, but found the rest of the scenes incredibly dull.

Oh, well. I know that not every episode is going to be a winner, so I’ll give them a pass on this one.

From what I’ve read, this was the last episode of How I Met Your Mother that was filmed before the writers’ strike. That means there won’t be any new eps until the strike is resolved, which I hope is soon. After all, I don’t want “The Yips” to be my last memory of HIMYM!