The B-plot here also isn’t jiving well. It’s actually fairly
amusing. Marshall invents a fruity, “girly” drink and has been too embarrassed to
order it. Since he’s been making Robin get it for him, Carl the bartender
decides to name it after her and puts it on the menu. Marshall proceeds to
fight for the drink’s name. There are a number of funny moments involved in
this plot. The one-upmanship of Marshall and Robin is one of the better stories
the show has done this season, and the conclusion where Marshall doesn’t know
Carl’s last name made me laugh harder than many jokes in recent memory.
However, this plot keeps rubbing up against the main plot in
all the wrong ways. Whenever Robin, Marshall, and Lily go over to the booth,
the time travelers suddenly disappear. And even if the idea of the time
travelers is completely unfounded, I would have like it if the writers had at least
maintained consistency for the rules of the time travelers.
And then the last five minutes of the episode happen, and
all my complaints about the episode were blown up.
Turns out Ted is in the bar by himself. The Robin and
Marshall fight happened five years ago, and he imagined the time travelers. He’s
alone.
It’s a gut punch. The last time the show did a twist reveal like
this was “Symphony of Illumination” where Robin talks to the kids she never
had, and, just like in that episode, “Time Travelers” strikes an unexpected
nerve with you.
And though I still have major problems with this episode,
when Ted imagines himself running to the apartment of his future wife, that he
hasn’t met yet, and Josh Radnor performs possibly at the best I’ve ever seen
him in the series, well, let’s just say the dust kicked up in the room.
Despite this though, the episode is filled with strange
choices. The time travel material is undermined by the constant fact that time
travel would never be possible on a series such as this. Though the show manages
some funny jokes about future version after future version of Ted and Barney
showing up, the jokes just don’t land as well as they should because we know
something isn’t quite right about the scenario. And as much as liked the moment
where the always lovely Jayma Mays reprises her role from way back in season
one as the coat check girl (particularly where she appears as two future versions
and poignantly notes that Ted’s relationships always go one of two ways: with
him or the person he’s dating getting tired of the relationship), my attempts
to surmise the real reason for the time travel hijinks undid much of what was
funny or touching.
And yet that end reveal is fairly devastating and sad, so
much so that it overrides many of the bothersome sentiments that were hamstringing
my ability to like the episode. It’s a reveal that attempts something more than
factory output sitcom situations and pat emotional moments. It’s a moment that
says something meaningful about this character. It’s a moment that finds a way
to use the flaws and problems of the series in recent memory to its advantage,
as if they were a necessary component to get to this moment (even though I’m
guessing the writers didn’t ever plan this far ahead).
Though I wish the writers had built to this moment better
and that they had laid the groundwork more strongly, the moment is so good, it’s
almost justification enough for the episode’s problems. If the series can still
manage moments like this, it’ll keep me coming back in spite of myself and in
spite of my mixed feelings towards the series at this point.
Grade: B+
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