Episode Title: "No Questions Asked"
Episode Grade: A-
How I Met Your Mother has always been fond of the running gag. At the series' best, the show's writers take that age-old concept and turn it into something more than a frequently repeated joke. As in "No Questions Asked," tonight's stellar episode, the gag is both episodic glue and thematic through line.
"No Questions Asked" eschews a traditional multi-plot structure for a single narrative that ropes in the entire core cast. It does so with skill and humor, and it does so in a way that pays off with surprising emotion at the end of the episode.
"No Questions" asked picks up right after the end of last week's episode, which ended with Marshall's phone ringing with a call from Lily. And since Sherri Shepherd had admitted to texting Lily with the news that Marshall had accepted a judgeship in New York, there was every reason to think she was calling about that bit of news.
This turns out to be a fairly predictable fake-out, and instead Lily is scared to learn she's staying in the room haunted by the ghost of Deerdorf the Hooker, who murdered people with his hook hand (or, alternatively, was a popular male prostitute who killed no one and died of syphilis). Marshall's pretty stoked about this, of course, being a huge fan of ghosts.
The show's writers have some fun with the ghost story element (this is HIMYM's Halloween episode, presumably), but it's there to instigate the episode's plot: Marshall's realization that Lily hasn't checked her text messages yet and hasn't seen Shepherd's text.
He then starts calling in favors, which presents some amusing vignettes. These are "no questions asked" favors, and Ted, Barney and Robin all owe him one. Ted, because Marshall got him out of the mailbox in which he was stuck. Barney, because Marshall agreed to sign him out of the hospital when Barney had been rushed there after winning $50 from an Irish guy by swallowing large versions of all the items in Lucky Charms cereal. And Robin, who Marshall rescued from a horde of unitard-clad ninjas when she herself was mysteriously wearing her own purple unitard and calling herself "Night Falcon."
The way all three friends take to the task of deleting the text from Lily's phone with over-the-top bravado is good for some easy laughs. Ted climbs the drain pipe outside of Lily's room in a driving rain storm. Barney crawls through the air ducts "like the bad guy in Die Hard" (Bruce Willis). And Robin, who orders obscenely expensive room service and hides in the food cart. None of them are the least bit concerned with the fact that Lily's room is unlocked.
This is all really, really funny, and that's quite enough for me. But "No Questions Asked" takes a step into something more with the way it nods at questions of love and marriage. There's a little sideplot here where Barney and Robin start worrying about the long-term viability of their marriage when they realize they're both "lone wolves" who don't consult each other before making decisions.
Is this a little sudden and on-the-nose, a bit of tossed off material mainly there to advance the plot? Sure. This isn't something that's been discussed before. But this is also where our familiarity with the show's characters, build up over nine seasons, comes in handy. Yes, the particulars Barney and Robin are talking about are new, but they reflect broader truths we've long recognized about these characters. In fact, the dynamic explored in this episode is part of what makes the Barney-Robin (Bobin? Rorney?) pairing so much fun.
And it's reflected back nicely at the end of the episode, when Ted calls in his own "no questions asked" favor with Lily (he brought cupcakes to her kindergarten classroom and rescued her from homicidal children) and gets her to destroy her own phone.
After Marshall gets the news, he realizes that he never did the "no questions asked" thing with Lily. He tells Lily that he's been arrested for tackling Russell Brand because he thought Brand was Bigfoot. He tells her that he was mauled by a raccoon he tried to hug. He tells her that he took apart the television and made a robot from its parts. And he tells her that he's been arrested for tackling Russell Brand because he thought Brand was Bigfoot. Again.
Marshall doesn't want to play "no questions asked" with Lily, because she's the love of his life, and that means sharing that life with her. So he ends up just telling her about the judgeship, the reaction to which we're going to see next week.
Yeah, this is a little saccharine. But, again, it fits with the character dynamics that have been so painstakingly established over nine years. Marshall's a little saccharine, and I'm prepared to accept a resolution that turns on him acting according to his nature.
"No Questions Asked" probably falls short of true greatness. Despite some of its thematic richness, it's still a pretty light and inconsequential episode. But for all that, it shows How I Met Your Mother at its best: funny, structurally innovative and built on a long-established foundation of outstanding character work.
Notes
- "You were a...priority male." "You said you'd stop telling that joke after the editor of Bazooka Joe comics rejected it." "That man is a comedy snob!"
- "So, you didn't order room service and 'Prison Sluts 9?'" "I'm telling you, I didn't order room service." Lily likes her lesbian porn.
- Barney and Robin begin questioning the long-term viability of their marriage when they realize Barney arranged to have a flight of doves released after the wedding while Robin's relatives plan a 21-gun salute.
- "Can't your guys just fire blanks?" "Blanks? At a wedding? Yeah, that's romantic."
- Barney and Robin gain confidence in the long-term viability of their marriage by concocting a plot to retrieve Lily's phone that involves a unitard-glad Robin creating a distraction by shooting a priceless vase and Barney dispatching a trained dove to pick up the phone. "Sometimes it's best to go simple."
- "It's absolutely insane...how foolproof this plan is!"
- "Why do you have a gun? Why do you always have a gun?"
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