This week’s episode of How I Met You Mother – Mystery vs. History had two great story lines which managed to tie themselves together. For once, this season, I wasn’t dreading the scene change to Marshall and Lily. Ted was back to being his usual, self-destructive dating self.

At the beginning of the episode, Ted lands himself a date with a girl he met at the bar, Paula (Amber Stevens). He used a pick up line stating that he has no intention of looking her up online before the date and asked her to do the same. She agrees. When Ted tells the group, it prompts Barney and Robin to start searching for the dirt on her because clearly she’s hiding something and is happy they’re not researching one another.

Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily have the sex of their baby inside a sealed envelope and they refuse to look at it. They ask the group to come and paint the baby room a gender neutral yellow (hardly gender neutral if you ask me) the same time Ted has his date with Paula. Barney feels the need to know the gender of the baby and therefore goes to great lengths to convince Marshall and Lily.

Robin’s new boyfriend Kevin (Kal Penn) decides it’s time to diagnose the group. Rambling off all the instances where he feels they need professional help, together. This might have been my favorite part of the episode. I especially liked when they talked about survivor guilt. Words cannot describe.

So, as you can imagine, Barney and Robin eventually turn up the dirt on Paula. Lily and Marshall, who had been trying to stay out of it, learn the dirt too and decide that Ted needs to know. Barney makes them share the gender of the baby to prove that not knowing something is bad for you.

In the end, Ted’s date is ruined and we learn the sex of the baby. It was a fun episode, but I enjoyed the message of the episode more. Future Ted gives us a monologue about how smart-phones and access to information are ruining the world we live in. We can know everything there is to know about a person before we even meet them. Why do we want this? Ted, at one point, realizes he’s forgotten how to talk to women without that information on his side. As one who agrees with all of this, I was happy to see  these things highlighted. The best part was that the message was conveyed in a not overly preachy way. Way to go.

So, if you haven’t seen Mystery vs. History yet, get out there and see it. It’s a great story packed into one episode and you won’t regret it.