HIMYM 8x06: Splitsville

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At last, the time has come for Robin to break up with Nick. But why? Well, as it happens, she was only dating him for the sex, so when he pulls a muscle playing for Marshall's basketball team and can no longer perform, Robin wants out. Also, they've decided that Nick is dumb for some reason. However, she's having trouble dumping him because he's just so darn pretty.

Women love a shirtless man.

In order to encourage her, Barney creates an e-vite for Robin's nemesis to Robin & Patrice's BFF Fun Day that will go out automatically unless Robin breaks up with Nick. To make things easier, Ted suggests taking him out for dessert, which leads to an evening at local dessert restaurant (and go-to breakup place) Splitsville. Hence the episode title.

The only place where you can get ice cream with a side of pain.

While she's trying to dump him, Nick gets a phone call and starts crying. Robin tries to get Barney to cancel the e-vite, but he won't do it unless he hears her break up with him live on speakerphone. She starts to do it, but then Nick tells her that his bad news was about his groin pull. It's worse than he thought, and he's out for the season. BUT, since he's not going to play anyway, there's no harm in taking a few extra days to heal, so the sexing can begin again. Robin's about to give in when Barney arrives to save her by proclaiming his love. Nick's heart is broken, but he soothes his pain by inviting two similarly heartbroken ladies back to his place.

There's no heartbreak that cannot be cured by a threesome.

Barney's love speech was a little too good, though. Both he and Robin almost believe it was real. They almost kiss, but they're interrupted when Robin gets a call from Patrice. It seems someone forgot to cancel the e-vite.

It was the best day ever!

Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily haven't had sex since before the baby was born. This is despite the fact that they have a nanny and three friends who are more than willing to take Marvin off their hands for a few hours. Ted helps out.

Marshall and Lily get to work making baby number two.

Also, Ted plays basketball, but it's stupid and lame.

What I Liked
-The gang's eating some kind of Asian food out of boxes at the beginning of the episode, and NPH does a bit of business where he keeps dropping stuff because he can't quite figure out his chopsticks. It's the little touches that make him so good on this show... sometimes.

What I Hated
-They do the "Who's on first?" bit with Nick. See, nick is a word as well as a name, so it can lead to confusion for people who the writers have arbitrarily decided are stupid.
-Marshall spends half the episode wearing a baby carrier, and the thing inside is clearly not a baby.
-Nick is ludicrously stupid. Why? Just... why?
-Ted's basketball team loses by an incredibly lopsided score. No matter how much the other team sucks, it's hard to score 112 points in one game.

Apparently, architects are not good at basketball.

Final Thoughts
This was not a good episode. It hit 11 on the yet-to-be-created Laugh-o-meter, but that's an absolute number, not a relative scale.

They figured out a reason for Robin to dump Nick, and it was even stupider than I thought it would be. While he hasn't been on the show that much, Nick has shown little evidence of being so stupid that he would eat a scented candle. There was no build up to it at all; the writers just decided that the reason Robin dumped him was because he was stupid, so he had to be stupid in this episode. Their options were a tad limited, though. In the previous episode they showed that he's a talented, sweet guy, who's totally into Robin, so it's not like they could've had him cheat on her or smack her around or something. Nevertheless, they went the absolute worst way they could've gone: They introduced character traits that didn't previously exist just so Robin would have a reason to dump him.

They also figured out a really stupid way to restart the Barney-Robin relationship. It would almost make sense if not for the facts that Robin chose Kal Penn over Barney and Barney was engaged to Quinn less than a month ago in show time. True, it was just a speech, and Barney said it wasn't real, but with the emotional music and the near-kiss, the implication is that that's clearly a lie. While a man can love two women at the same time (and I mean love in the literal sense, not in the belt-winning sense), but if a woman lets you fart in front of her and you love her enough to ask her to marry you, the other love should pretty much disintegrate. So, Barney being in love with Robin makes no sense, and Robin reciprocating in any way makes even less sense, since she's made it abundantly clear that he is not the guy for her. But, in a land of unreliable narration where characters can change at a moment's notice for no apparent reason, I guess it's not completely insane. It's just bad writing.

Plus, what's with the wacky, cartoon stuff? Ted makes an impossible shot, and his team loses by a ridiculous score. Marshall bends a steel bar with his bare hands. Nick is so stupid he should barely be able to breathe without help. I think Future Ted has been telling this story for so long that he's hallucinating due to sleep deprivation and just spouting gibberish.