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« How I Met Your Mother
Episode Recap: "The Goat"
What the heck was that?
One minute I’m laughing like a crazy person and the next my heart has been broken (I almost just made a really bad broken pun, but my heart just isn’t in it). We all knew that Ted wasn’t going to take this news well, but holy cow. I am sincerely sad right now!
Well, sad and extremely frustrated on a few points. WHAT WAS WITH THE GOAT? Is that supposed to be clever, writers? So Robin will be living with Ted for his 31st birthday, you say? There will be an incident with a goat and a wash cloth? Do you really expect me to care when Ted just broke up with Barney?!
Rational aside: I know they will make up. I know they will still be bros. I know this. I am not some insane fan who cries herself to sleep at night and sends eyelashes in the mail or anything. Still, I am very down after watching that. I can’t even bring myself to do a full recap of the plot, so you are all going to get an abridged version. Because…that is what I want to do.
Points of Awesome:
• Robin and Barney high-fiving over how he nailed the anchor from News 1. So in character for them both and so why I think they belong together. She played along!
• Barney freaking out about everything in the following days and then hiring Marshall to try to acquit him of wrongdoing.
• The wall of inspirational posters in Barney’s office.
• The 1776 flashback – “You cod piece blocked me!”
• “I have six self-cleaning litter boxes…and no kids!!”
• Everyone knowing about Robin and Barney and Lily being perversely curious about the sex as she crouched on a rooftop...with a goat.
• Ranjit!
And then it all went downhill from there!
Ok, honestly, the first 3/4 of this episode were amazing. I was really into the story and the jokes and acting were spot on. I can’t fault them for anything in this episode up until the end with the goat. Even the Ted/Barney fight was expected (although I am sort of irked that Ted wasn’t mad at Robin. I mean, there were two people watching that music video, is all I’m saying). The goat, however, well. I have to ask, yet again, what the heck was that?! Were they trying to be captivating? Intriguing? Dear show, you are not LOST. No one cares about the goat; we care about the mother. Well, and our beloved characters, but can any of you really say this goat thing made you more interested in sticking around than you were? Yeah, I didn’t think so. I mean, hey, maybe I missed something?
At the end of the day (well, night, I guess), this episode came down to Barney for me and I really need to applaud the show’s portrayal of him in this episode. He was the Barney we have always known existed but had only seen glimpses of here and there. He was crazy, over the top, deceptive and…vulnerable. He loves Ted, sincerely, and the pain in his eyes when Ted got out of that limo was horrible.
Bravo, Neil. Bravo, writers. Excellent job on the making me laugh so hard I almost didn’t notice the gut wrenching pain of my bros being split up. I am looking forward to watching Barney try to reconcile things, I really am.
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Apr 28, 2008 10:07 PM
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The goat thing is from the first season, on ted's 28th birthday, when he says his 30th birthday wasnt that bad, except the goat in the bathroom...im guessing they just wanna drag it out, make it a multiple episode thing, like slap bets, robin sparkles, or the trudy the pineapple girl
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Apr 28, 2008 10:21 PM
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I don't think they think you're worrying about the goat all that much right now. It's been teased before and it was funny that he'd misremembered it. It's something we all do, and he's telling a story from almost twenty years ago, so it makes sense he'd mix some things up.. The real story was Ted and Barney, and that's what most of the episode was about.
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Apr 28, 2008 11:00 PM
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I too am HEART-broken at this episode and cannot truly express what I want to say! However, LOVE that Lily was TOTALLY wanting to know how Barney was as a LOVER and was as concerned as Barney was when our gang were talking about how they were each going to celebrate their own 30th birthdays!
I TOTALLY also want to know where I can buy an AWESOMENESS poster like the one in Barney's office! Anyone know?
P.S. Way to go NPH on the AWESOME BOD, BRO! I'd tap that!
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Apr 28, 2008 11:41 PM
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great episode, but I'M SO FREAKING SAD RIGHT NOW!!!, the heart broken barney is hard to swallow, plus knowing that they will still be mad for the rest of the season isn't really cool at all!!!.
Will the goat be a permanent character now???, they will have for a complete year a goat in the department??? maybe just a recurring character lol.
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Apr 29, 2008 12:29 AM
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Ms. Carlson:
The entire episode was a brilliant followup to last week's instant classic.
But, God, get over the goat! It's a long standing in joke on the show.
How I Met your Mother is the Lost of comedy! Ironic that you claimed it isn't but you are...wait for it, wait for it.....WRONG:
Both shows have a complicated "current" narrative per episode, complete with flashbacks and flashforwards.
Both shows have recurrent elements and characters: like tedmosebyisajerk.com and Ranjit (sp?) the cabbie on HIMYM and the numbers and Tom on Lost.
Both shows drop massive clues in an ongoing "puzzle"-like narrative structure that may or may not add up: on HIMYM, the yellow umbrella may or may not belong to Stella (Sarah Chalke) who said she left early from a St. Patrick's Day Party that may or may not be the same party where Ted found.....a yellow umbrella.
Oh, and both take place on an island with lots of mysterious goings on and unexplained phenomena (one of them happens to be Manhattan) . LOL
It has been this way with HIMYM from the FIRST episode. So to declare that "no one" cares about this or that clue, thread, character or even throwaway gag like the goat is not only presumptuous on your part as a reviewer substituting your own likes and dislikes for the entire audience, but a disservice to those of us who have been watching from that first episode and have invested in the show in all its transcendent lunacy.
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Apr 29, 2008 1:29 AM
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I got to say this episode was pretty good...lily and the goat was funny she was all its so soft even though it had the evil eye lol + gotta love Ranjit back again telling Ted to hit Barney haha "NUTT SHOT"...I don't blame Ted, Barney deserved what he got I mean he did break the BRO CODE. I thought the ending was interesting though Bob Saget AKA Old Ted said that Robin wasn't living there yet? Meaning she moves in with Ted in the future? Back together? Or just roomies?
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Apr 29, 2008 1:40 AM
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Aww, I'm right there with you, Justine. Just plain sad. But that's what's so great about HIMYM. It's real. In the midst of the absolute absurdity is real emotion that's relateable to everyone who watches, and the fun and slightly skewed reality of it all is what I think ultimately keeps us all coming back. (We all wish our lives were this awesome!) Cuz yeah--What was with the goat? I care much more about the group as a whole than I do about finding out who the Mother is, though. They should really just call the show How I Did All These Awesome Things With The Coolest People Ever Before I Met Your Mother.
I think it's quite interesting Ted only took out his anger on Barney. But then again Robin did remorsefully apologize to him with concern about their friendship, while Barney just tried to play it cool. I think he waited to see if Barney would tell him first, but then saw nothing redeemable and honest in the friendship based on Barney's lies, which is why he said goodbye so definitively. However, I think it's also very telling that, even before he knew, Ted couldn't bring himself to put his photo with Robin in the box like he did so easily with Barney's friendship once he did know. I think he decided to salvage his friendship with Robin because he saw an actual honest and true friendship there (and also, I think, because he's at least a little keeping the door open to the possibility of getting back together with Robin--the saved photo, why he was so angry at Barney... (That said, I can't wait to see what Swarkles does next!) 
My cubicle wall needs Barney's "Awesomeness" poster, like yesterday!
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Apr 29, 2008 2:44 AM
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Gotta agree with DS9...
Since the strike, it's been one classic, well crafted episode after another. For the goat to just be shoved aside at this point was actually pretty brilliant - we've been teased about it for two years and the memory turns out to be a faulty one. Could Two and a Half Men pull off this type of continuity and subltly? Or even Scrubs or 30 Rock or My Name is Earl? Not to mention the depth of the relationships of the characters, and the other running jokes that build week after week. (Ranjit, Robin's Metro-One News, and Barney's job and office in this episode, Robin Sparkles, the remaining slaps, the still-unexplained pineapple, the yellow umbrella, etc., in others) HIMYM is the best written sitcom on TV right now.
And the follow-up to Barney's "anywhere but the face" plea was classic.
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Apr 29, 2008 5:14 AM
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I, for one, am distraught over the Barney-Ted split. I just want to go into seclusion for a while.
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Apr 29, 2008 8:03 AM
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Bedelia - I am pretty sure the props department made up the Awesomeness poster, the Teamwork one looked real though. There are a number of web sites that mock the inspirational posters and let's you create your own. Just do a web search.
I'm wondering if the ending when the
Ted voiceover talks about Robin's wash cloth whether this too is misremembering? He got the year of the goat wrong, maybe he either said the wrong name or got the year wrong.
Love the intrigue, hate that the bros are broken up.
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Apr 29, 2008 8:10 AM
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the bro code with the declaration of indp was, wait for it, AWESOME!
while i enjoyed that robin found some short lived comfort in barney's arms, i was kinda dumbfounded when ted vented his all his anger directly at barney. it takes 2 to tango, which with barney's reputation has been proven wrong but on this occasion was purely two people, sober, making a decision. plus ted and robin have been broken up for a while and ted has a girlfriend. i for one do not want ted to bet back w/ robin so this hostility toward barney is a little too close for comfort.
lily and her pet goat- she is so crazy (lilly) its hard for anyone not to love her.
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Apr 29, 2008 8:34 AM
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The goat was awesome. I loved the dropped line at the end about Robin living there in the future. I thought it was a sly, "Quick, while you're distracted by Ted and Barney, did you see that?" moment.
I can understand Ted not being mad at Robin. Maybe if she'd tried to hide it, too, but she did come out with it. Ted's beef with Barney didn't seem to be so much that he'd specifically slept with Robin, but that all of his sleaziness and deception didn't stop at Ted. He said something like, "I always thought there was a line. I thought I was the line." Robin doesn't have this history of deception like Barney did.
I was in a pretty terrible mood last night, and I was very thankful for a great episode that lightened my mood for 30 minutes.
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Apr 29, 2008 8:57 AM
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Loved this episode. I love this show because it's always so funny. It was nice though to see real deep emotions involved this time.
Ted taking his anger out on Barney is completely normal. First of all he's known Barney much longer than Robin. Plus whenever a partner cheats, people tend to get more angry at the "third party" involved rather than focusing that anger on the partner. Granted, Ted and Robin are no longer together. However, it's often hard to let go of that feeling that that person belongs to you. Therefore you blame the other person more especially if they were someone you trusted. Does that make sense?
I wasn't sure how I felt about the goat thing. I do understand misremembering things though. It will be interesting to watch how things pan out in the future. Maybe Robin loses her job and has to move in with Ted to save money (assuming Lily and Marshall ever move into their apartment!).
What is it with this sudden overt sexuality in Lily? Although her being grossed out and intrigued by Barney's bedroom skills was absolutely hilarious.
I also loved how Robin was much cooler about the whole thing while Barney was so nervous. And the high five was perfect!
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Apr 29, 2008 9:03 AM
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Another awesome episode. I too am upset about Ted and Barney. I feel like something terrible happened last night.
The goat thing has me curious but it may be just Robin and Ted being roommates. Lilly and Marshall can't live with Ted forever, can they?
I agree the NPH did an amazing job last night. Loved the "not my face" and what came after.
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Apr 29, 2008 9:32 AM
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