Ted and Robin are together at last, while Marshall and Lily have broken up. Future Ted talks about how the first two months of a relationship starting and ending are similar because they are always in bed, never wearing pants, and annoying.
Ted, Barney, and Robin try to help Marshall get over his depression by taking him to a strip club (Barney) a baseball game (Ted) and finally to a shooting range (Robin.)
Marshall's depression continues and he goes to confront Lily who has seemingly returned to New York. Ted snaps and tells him he's not ready. Marshall goes anyways only to find out that Lily isn't back, but her identity was stolen.
Marshall finally gets over the breakup after months of pain, and making a batch of pancakes to get his life back to normal. Lily returns to New York but does not meet up with the gang in the bar.
Notes
The show uses a cold open before the credits for the first time, which they will continue to do for the rest of the series. Lily spends the summer is San Francisco, and it is the first time she and Marshall have been broken up in nearly ten years. While Season 1 had Six Phases that I talked about, Season 2 only really has 3. The First Phase begins here with Marshall and Lily broken up and Robin and Ted happily together. This forces the single Barney and Marshall to interact more, as Marshall has to fill in for the now coupled up Ted. This season also references Robin being a gun enthusiast which will be a running joke throughout the series. We also see Barney's favorite Strip Club, the Lusty Leopard. Lily is seen only in flashbacks in this episode until the end.
Review
A great episode, that has a lot going on. The writers kind of went kitchen sink style here, with a lot of different gags that were pretty big. Some of them kind of missed the mark, as I'm not a huge fan of the strip club scenes, I think they are kind of cliche' for Barney's character, but many other parts were funny. My favorite money was when Ted took Marshall to a baseball game and he threw his hot dog at the couple in the kiss cam. I also loved Barney and all of his pantomime suicides when he is around his friends. It's good stuff. Ted and Robin look good together, they have a lot of chemistry, and I feel sorry for Ted/Robin fans who are still being strung along by the writers in this season. It's nice to see that the show can work with Ted in a relationship though.
Ranking
8.5 out of 10.
Season Comparison: Season 2 vs. Season 1: "Where Were We?" vs "The Pilot"
One of the main reasons I'm writing this blog is to sort through my feelings on which season of HIMYM is the best. I'm not sure what the best way to do this is, but let's start with a straight up episode comparison. Warning! I won't nescessarily judge these episodes based strictly on my rankings. Episodes from certain seasons are judged differently, and some episodes have more sentimental value. The Pilot is one such episode, and so I judge the pilot higher then my ranking suggests. That makes this a close matchup between the Pilot and the Season 2 premier. In Where Were We, the character were definitely more set then in Season 1, but in Season 2 we got the story of the events that started it all. It's a tough decision, but I think Where Were We has to be judged as the better episode. I still laugh when I watch this episode, while I enjoy the pilot simply because of the nostalgia.
Winner: Season 2 Episode 1: Where Were We?
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