BBT and HIMYM Episode 2: Lovers' Quarrels Galore

This week's How I Met Your Mother was definitely the weaker of the two shows, although I think I might be inherently biased towards The Big Bang Theory because of how big of a loser I is. Lazy pirate summaries after the jump:

This week's episode starts out with Barney taking Marshall to a strip club where Marshall reveals that he can only fantasize about other women after constructing an elaborate story in his mind in which Lily dies but gives him permission to pursue other women (specifically, the delivery girl "from that one time").

Then we are introduced to doppelganger number three: Stripper Lily. There is then a flashback to explain that the other two doppelgangers were Mustache Marshall and Lesbian Robin. Future Ted then tells us that the other two doppelgangers are a story for another time (himself and Barney being the only two at this point without doubles).

When the two tell the rest of the group about Stripper Lily, Lily gets excited at the idea of all the sexual things that her double does, and Robin is clearly mad at Barney for going to a strip club. They head down to the strip club where Lily tries to tell Marshall that it's alright to fantasize about other women, and that he should stop killing her off. Robin gets increasingly annoyed about Barney's continued crass behavior, and it seems like their relationship is going to have some very rocky days ahead.

Meanwhile, Ted is on a blind date with Jen (the brown-haired friend of Sabrina Spellman before Sabrina went to college...you know who I mean, right?), a woman who he'd also gone on a blind date with 7 years ago. They remember this part way through dinner and then decide to spend the rest of their date retracing their steps to give each other pointers on how to improve their dating technique.

Blah blah blah, Ted likes lame jokes and correcting spelling errors, blah blah, Jen talks about cats too much, blah blah, Ted rambles on about true love again. There were quite a few moments during this half of the episode when I wanted to fast-forward.

The episode starts off with the whole gang at the comic book store. Sheldon and Wolowitz get in an argument over Wolverine's bone claws (or lack thereof), and Sheldon essentially says that he can't be wrong. Leonard then talks them about his night with Penny, describing it only as "fine".

Later, when the four guys and Penny are eating their dinner together back at Leonard and Sheldon's, Sheldon reveals that Leonard told the group about the night, and Penny leaves embarrassed. When Leonard follows her to her apartment, she tells him that the night was "okay" (a recurring joke of the episode is Leonard saying "okay dokay", which is hilarious). They decide to get drunk and see if it improves the sex at all.

Meanwhile, hearing a cricket, Sheldon and Wolowitz get into another argument over the species of the cricket. They then each wager a classic comic book, after which Raj points out that there is no way to determine a winner without first catching the animal. This leads them on a series of mini-misadventures in the apartment and hallway, ending with Sheldon temporarily stuck in the elevator shaft.

They take the cricket to a professor of entomology at the university, played in this episode by the excellent Lewis Black. He rules in favor of Wolowitz, after delivering a very angry monologue about the university cutting off his funding and his wife divorcing him (You know how Lewis Black does it. Comedy gold.) and asking a number of very uncomfortable
very funny rhetorical questions.

Penny and Leonard end up getting so drunk that they both vomit. The next day, Penny sees Sheldon with his comic book for Wolowitz in the lobby of the building, and talks to him about her relationship with Leonard. He suggests that they simply go back to being friends, and she seems to try to take his advice by telling Leonard that they should just be friends. Then they slam their faces together and make out (I say "slammed" because it looked to me like someone had to have been hurt).

Why can't everybody just love everybody? Oh right, because strippers and vomiting make for much better television. Expect the LPS for Parks and Recreation episode 3 on Friday. Until then, back to my trite complaints about college. Is it trite to use the word "trite"? You know what they say though: when in Rome, trite as the Romans trite.

-Dave