“Ducky Tie”
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| Lily triumphs after distracting Barney |
Like
every episode of How I Met Your Mother, “Ducky Tie” played with time, bouncing
back and forth between the gang out for dinner and Ted’s night playing
dishwasher for Victoria. Most of the
comments at dinner revolved around Lily’s pregnancy boobs and most of the
Victoria-Ted conversation focused on what could have been, and why it wasn’t.
The gang started at the bar, as per
usual, and after spending the whole cold open commenting on/getting distracted
by Lily’s pregnancy boobs, they decide to head out to the hibachi grill. Well, everyone except Barney who only
acquiesces when he couldn’t NOT look at Lily’s boobs for 10 seconds. And yes, Lily’s boobs are a big focus of the
episode. Pun kind of intended.
At
the hibachi restaurant Barney mocks the chef performing the “dinner-tainment”
(Marshall’s term), resulting in a bet that he can’t do all the little tricks
that the hibachi chef can do. The
terms? Barney can hold both of Lily’s
boobs for a minute if he wins (and one squeeze), and has to wear Marshall’s
garish and titular ducky tie for a year, should he lose. This episode features Lily’s superb
negotiation skills, stemming from her experience as Slap Bet Commissioner for
the past several years. As the dinner
continues Marshall realizes that Barney has conducted a sort of Pavlov’s dogs
experiment with him, sneezing every time he mentioned the restaurant until a
sneeze from Barney could trigger the thought.
Barney laid his plan ages ago, just waiting until he wanted something
from Marshall. For this reason Barney
had also taken six months of hibachi training at a school in Hoboken. Although, when Barney offers to let Lily out
of the bet for just a 30 second peek at her boobs in the alley (yep, just as
sketchy as it sounds), Marshall begins to suspect that’s what he wanted all
along and that Barney does not, in fact, possess hibachi skills. Between the gang putting together Barney’s
sneaky plan, Robin and Ted tell the story of Victoria: The Return.
In the last episode, “The Naked
Truth,” Ted bumped into Victoria at the Architect’s Ball where she was
providing the cupcakes. Ted tells the
gang how cool, calm and collected he was when he saw her, while Robin recounts
him bumbling around like Charlie Chaplin’s The Tramp. That is until Robin comes in and saves the
day!...by reminding Victoria how she stole her boyfriend and then making a
noticeably awkward exit. Ted still feels
guilt over cheating on Victoria, and offers to head back to her bakery and wash
her dishes. As they talk about the old
times, and the gang senses a good night was had by all (even bringing back the
bang song, “bang, bang, bangity bang….etc.), Victoria reveals she’s going to
get married. Well, no, she’s technically
not engaged yet, but she found the ring in the sock drawer. Yep, her finance-to-be has a drawer entirely
dedicated to socks, and Ted’s both impressed and envious. After a little bit of wordplay with Victoria
getting close to Klaus from her class, Ted and Victoria lean in for the
drumroll/pre-kiss moment…but then actually kiss. They both quickly acknowledge that the kiss
shouldn’t have happened, and Ted brings Victoria to her bus, to watch her leave
again. He asks her what she thinks would
have happened if he stopped her from getting on that plane to Germany, or if he
got on it with her, but when she asks if he really wants to know, he doesn’t
press it. They say goodbye and Victoria
boards the bus.
Back at the restaurant everyone
finds out that Barney does, in fact, know all the tricks, even the onion
volcano. But as he goes for the “Shrimp
in the Pocket” trick, Lily pulls out her secret weapon...or, ah,
“weapons.” Barney, due to the
distraction, misses the shrimp. As the
gang ends up back at MacLaren’s, Barney gets stuck with the ducky tie. Lily and Marshall leave, “quacking” jokes
about they tie as they go, and Ted, Robin and Barney remain in the booth. Ted reveals to his kids what actually
happened as he said goodbye to Victoria, how she told him that Robin got in the
way, of not only their relationship, but all of the relationships of the past
six years. Victoria warned Ted that the
thing with him, Robin and Barney wasn’t working, and future Ted confirms that she
was right, they just didn’t know it yet.
Well, if they
first three episode are any indication, it looks like Marshall’s right, it’s
gonna be a good year…
Quotes:
“Wow, you guys
make it seem like I’ve dated a series of Stieg Larson novels.” -
“Lily, it’s like
you have a butt on your chest.” -Ted
“I’m sorry pal,
but the party going on in my wife’s sweater is a private event, and I’m the
bouncer” (Marshall) “I think they’s
the bouncers”- Robin, telling it like it is
“Oh, that
reminds me, there’s this other
restaurant we should try some time. What
they do is, they cook your meal, in a lil room called the kitchen. What’s the name of
tha- oh yeah, every other restaurant in New York City.” -Barney’s not in the
mood for hibachi, again.
“Victoria, do
you believe in fate?” (Ted) “I believe you’re about to give a big speech on
fate-” (Victoria) “-Well I do.” -Ted, finally getting his belief back, and
Victoria bracing for a Ted lecture…
“Lily! Are you really suggesting that Barney spent
six months commuting back and forth to Hoboken,
to learn a signature cooking style of a restaurant he doesn’t even like, so he
could win a bet he hadn’t even made yet?...Yeah, the whole thing stinks.”
-Robin
“I let you wash
my dishes! I said my oven needed cleaning!
I invited you to a porno!” -Victoria after the drumroll moment leads to
a kiss
“I can think of
one thing that’ll stop him. Actually two
things…” -Lily, about to whip out her secret weapons
Fun Lil Tidbits:
-
Barney’s
really into hashtags now, ex. #burn #ducktieslams #stinsonrocks
-
The
gang trying to guess which woman from Ted’s past he ran into- check out the
promo clip (it’s extended) and see which women you remember http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLtu7UV8OUs
-
Victoria’s
back! Even though it appears to be just
for this one episode, it’s nice to see one of Ted’s long lost girlfriends pop
back up, and make him evaluate what he might be doing wrong.
-
Also,
the bang song is back, which is so great I had to mention it twice. Here’s a link to a clip of the original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d6f9j7gAdY
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