I’ll admit, when I updated the layout of my website a couple of months ago, I thought it’d be a lot easier to keep up writing about new episodes of my favorite shows on a regular basis. It’s not, as it turns out. I think it has to do with me playing catch up all the time, thus seeing a whole week’s worth of episodes all in a few hours. It makes it hard to write about them individually. I’ll try and fix that.

This week’s episode of How I Met Your Mother played off Robin’s stint in therapy. Kal Penn returned as Robin’s therapist. Early in the episode we learn that Penn’s character, Kevin, can no longer have Robin as a patient because he’s developed a crush on her. While they try and use the fact that he’s her therapist as a reason why they shouldn’t be dating, it quickly devolves into the two of them dating. Ted, Marshall, Lily and Barney are quick to point out how wrong it is. Apparently, dating a therapist rivals dating Barney in how bad things can get. This isn’t my favorite arc of the episode but it definitely isn’t the least favorite.

Marshall struggles at work when he feels his environmental lawyer firm settles too low on a fight against a pharmaceutics company. Head of the firm Garrison Cootes (played by Martin Short) even goes as far as throwing a huge celebration for the measly win, including at least four cakes. Marshall has a talk with Cootes and learns that Cootes has given up on saving the environment because of an article he read predicting the end of the world due to the destruction of the environment. He feels the need to celebrate now, while there’s still something to celebrate. At one point, he confides in Marshall that he isn’t completely fearful of the end of the world because he’s bought an old mine shaft and has been stockpiling it with canned goods and assault rifles. Marshall eventually sways him to change his outlook, with the help of Marshall’s stand up comedy fish routine, and he tells Marshall that they’re off to fight the war. I can see this developing into a more interesting plot. It’s hard not to though because I currently find the whole Marshall at the environmental firm plot to be quite boring. Here’s to the writers salvaging the environment surrounding Marshall.

Ted busies himself throughout the episode by taking his Intro to Architecture class on a field trip to the construction of the new GNB headquarters. In typical Ted fashion, he hopes to inspire one of the freshman students into becoming an architect. Shortly after the field trip starts, it ends in the traditional sense because ted is denied access to the construction site. This was clearly a safety measure he overlooked. He then proceeds to lead the group around the city, even going as far as to show them windows on a random building they pass. At one point, he takes them to see Barney and Barney joins the trip. Barney and Ted eventually realize they have the perfect sample to poll and settle some disputes they have been having. It was funny, but I’m glad this story arc made no intentions of spanning into another episode.

Finally, Barney had the best portion of the show and it may or may not be because it related to Star Wars. Early in the episode Nora mentions she hates ewoks. This spurs Barney into whether or not he should break up with her because by stating that she hates ewoks, she clearly lied about her age being 29. Barney has her new age to be 37 or older. This wasn’t the meatiest part of the episode but it surely was my favorite. I mean, who of us hasn’t been in a similar situation where we want to break up with someone over Star Wars? I have been countless times. Don’t worry, Barney and Nora resolve this in the end.

All in all, this wasn’t one of the best episodes. It felt too much like filler between two greater things. The jokes were there, but they didn’t pack the usual punch. Hopefully they come back next time full swing.