'How I Met Your Mother' recap, 'Romeward Bound': Comfort Zone

Is there a major bro-storm brewing? Could be. That’s certainly what I was led to believe after tonight’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, which saw Barney and Ted clashing over Barney’s not-so conventional premarital behavior.

They didn’t start the episode on bad terms, though. In fact, their clash was more like a pre-clash — because I’m guessing we’re far from done seeing them disagree. But let me back up.

The episode started with Barney and Ted’s antics taking a backseat to a larger story about Lily, who in this episode got an amazing offer from The Captain: He wanted her to move to Rome with him!

Excited as she was by the prospect, Lily couldn’t even bring herself to mention the possibility to Marshall because she didn’t want to put pressure on him to leave his dream job. The problem? His job was anything but a dream. After Lily turned down the offer, she went to surprise her Marshmallow at work only to find that the company had been downsized and he was spending most of his time building houses out of cards and getting reamed. (“Sometimes for fun we throw reams of paper at each other,” Marshall confessed.)

After Marshall realized she’d turned down a once-in-a-lifetime offer — therefore also stripping him of the chance to watch the Italian version of Price is Right — Marshall set out to correct the situation. (He went to ask The Captain to put the offer back on the table.) Little did he — and we — know that Lily also had some additional reservations about the idea of a big move. Later, she confessed that she was nervous about not living up to such big expectations and that she was afraid of leaving her comfort zone in New York (and Shake Shack).

Marshall eventually got her to realize she had to take advantage of the massive opportunity she’d been given. And in a single scene, which involved Marshall speaking what can only be described as Eriksen-Italian, Marshall put on display everything I love about this pair. (HOW, I ASK, DID THESE TWO LOSE OUR BRACKET GAME?!) They love each other unconditionally, they want the best for each other, and they constantly prove that no one knows them “better than we know each other.”

Earlier in the episode, Robin proved she, too, knows Barney like no other when she joined in on his and Ted’s randomness at the bar. But as much as she’s shown time and time again that she can hang with the guys — and enjoys it, as far as we know — there’s still one person that has doubts about how long her tolerance for bro-ness can be maintained: Ted.

His concerns were voiced during the B-plot of this episode, which found Barney and Ted trying to get Ted’s yoga classmate(/the RoBarn wedding planner) to remove her puffy coat and flaunt her redonkulous nazi-face-melting body for all — especially Barney — to see. After achieving success, Ted later told Barney that he was concerned because Barney wasn’t acting like a man who was about to get married. “I know you think it’s okay because Robin’s so cool, but I’m telling you, she’s not as cool as you think she is,” Ted told Barney. And just like that, their seemingly lighthearted storyline had a cloud hanging over it. “You’d know this because you know her better than I do? You know what she appreciates better than her own fiancé?” Barney asked. “Robin’s marrying me, not you.”

Ted immediately backed off — even bought the next round. But the bitter tone of this incredibly short moment is likely to hang over their interactions in the coming episodes.

So, burning questions time! What’s going on with Ted and Barney? Are we building toward a bro-blow-up? Or is Ted going to ultimately be proven right? Will Robin get fed-up with Barney’s behavior and ditch him? SO many questions! Also, was anyone else curious what would have been considered the “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol of bodies”? And does anyone know how to spell-out “C’mon, bro. Don’t Bogart all the Funyuns” in Italian? I’m asking for a friend…

Sandra on Twitter: @EWSandraG

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