'How I Met Your Mother': Art Imitates Life
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In this week's episode of How I Met Your Mother, Ted takes his new girlfriend Royce (played by an underused Judy Greer) on a date to see a new movie called The Wedding Bride and quickly realizes that he is watching an account of the events leading up to Stella leaving him at the altar.
But it's not Ted's story that is being told—it's the other guy's story. In Ted's world, Stella dumped him callously and suddenly for her ex-boyfriend, leaving him heartbroken. In this parallel universe, however, Ted is a sneering, selfish Chris Kattan, while the other guy is the handsome and admirable Jason Lewis, just trying to save his true love, Malin Akerman, from a life of misery with "Jed Mosley." Essentially we're the good guys in our own stories, but at some point we're also the bad guy in someone else's story.
Although plot lines were neither advanced (Ted stops seeing Royce by the end of the episode) nor adhered to (Robin is suddenly just comfortably back in the group after a dramatic departure only two episodes ago, and a brief, unexplained appearance last week), "The Wedding Bride" was a wholly enjoyable episode. Here are the five best moments:
-The absurdly titled Wedding Bride movie also highlights Craig Armstrong's oppressive score from Love Actually
- Marshall's skepticism about Ted's claim that The Wedding Bride is about him: "Are you sure the movie is about you? Cause when I saw 'Spaceballs' for the first time I could have sworn..."
-"Did he say 'Ted' that time?"
- Marshall's folksy reasoning for helping random people on the street: "Didn't cost nothin'."
- Barney yelling "Kiss him!" in the movie theater and future Ted explaining to his kids, "Uncle Barney didn't say 'kiss'."