TV Recap: HIMYM - Happily Ever After

How do you know you’re really over some one? If you’re Ted, you just know you are. Except, obviously, when you make a detailed map of Manhattan telling you where you can and can’t go, depending on where you’ll run into Stella. Hey, give the guy a break. It’s only been one day.

Yup. It’s only been one day since Stella left our poor, sometimes annoyingly romantic Ted at the altar (thank God, otherwise we’d be watching them all commute two hours just to see each other). His friends are all ready to be there for him. In fact, they’re so ready that they get a little pissed when he really does seem to be fine. To quote Lily, they all think he’s being a “selfish little bitch.” I mean, he’s not letting them in. The guy who basically tells the world his entire life apparently doesn’t show his anger. But he is from Ohio and according to Ted, in Ohio, you push your pain down and then when it starts coming back up, you push it down again. Oh yeah, he’s just dandy.

So if you’re Ted’s friend, what do you do when your friend refuses to admit a problem? If you’re a sneaky little Lily, you make it impossible for him not to confront his true feelings. Remember that map from before? It has white zones (safe zones) and red (Stella zones). Makes it pretty hard to find a place to eat when Ted refuses to go to the red zones. Luckily, Lily heard of this great tapas place that’s dead center in a white zone. If only she could remember who told her about it. Couldn’t be that girl who just walked in who looks exactly like Stella. Told you, sneaky.

Of course, Ted does the only adult thing. He dives under the table and the whole gang goes with him to try and talk him into talking to Stella. It turns out to be quite a therapy session for all of them, though. Especially Robin, who is the only one not pushing Ted to confront Stella. See, if the last person she wanted to see, a.k.a her Dad, walked in the restaurant, she would hide, too. When Robin was born, her Dad really wanted a boy. No, I mean really. He wanted one so bad that he raised Robin as a boy. He taught her to hunt and smoke cigars and play hockey. Then, one day he caught her making out with a teammate and his dream was shattered. He no longer had a son. Suddenly, Robin Charles Jr. was a girl. She hasn’t spoken to him in three years and doesn’t plan on starting now. At least Ted has one person on his side. Except, after hearing how keeping her anger in hurt Robin, Ted knows he can’t end up the same way.

By the time Ted actually decided not to be five, Stella was out the door and in a cab. And here comes the slowest car chase in history. Only, they’re not going to New Jersey and they’re not going to Stella’s office. But Marshall heard her tell the take out guy she was going home. Then it dawns on the still not angry Ted. Her home is Tony’s home. You remember Tony, right? Her ex who she ran off with? Yup. His downtown Manhattan home is Stella’s home. And she was going to make Ted move to New Jersey. What? Finally, some anger. Before he can go and yell nonsense at Stella, Lily makes Ted practice what he’s going to say. And it’s perfect.

He doesn’t get too angry or try to win her back. He simply says that she made the biggest mistake of her life. Ted would make her so much happier than Tony. He really just wanted to hear her say that she knows she made a mistake. And she says it. Before you get too happy, though, remember that this was all practice.

In real life, Ted walks up to the steps of her new building but stops himself from saying anything when he sees how happy she, Tony, and their daughter are. Turns out Ted didn’t need to unleash his anger on Stella, or a punching bag or anything. He just needed to let it go. Very Zen like, no? At least he can wander all the streets of New York now so it should be much easier to actually meet his kids’ mother.

By the way, keep a look out for an angry, recently released convict who’s after Barney. Guess the last person he wants to see is a woman he was “dating” while she was in prison. Of course, then he saw another inmate and left the girl he was seeing which led to a crazy jail fistfight and Barney getting threatening letters saying she’ll hang his eyeballs from her rear view mirror. High-larious.