“How I Met Your Mother”: Sorry, Bro Recap

By Mike

Synopsis: Robin has been on an insane sleep schedule ever since she took a job hosting a 4am morning show. As such, she meets up with the gang at McLaren’s on her way to work to catch up on the previous day’s events. The main topic of conversation is Ted’s ex-girlfriend Karen (Laura Prepon). To paraphrase Marshall and Lily, Karen is a pretentious douche who dated Ted in college and repeatedly broke his heart by sleeping with other guys — in his dorm room. Each time, the story ended with the other guy saying, “Sorry, bro.”

Well, Karen has moved to New York, and Marshall and Lily do their best to convince Ted not to call her. It’s too late, because he already has. And he’s already gone out to lunch with her. And he’s already slept with her. A few times. This time the story ends differently, though, but not because Karen has changed. This time Ted is the “Sorry, bro” guy, as some other poor sap walks in on Karen with him. Knowing how it feels to be in that other guy’s shoes, Ted tells off Karen and says he never wants to see her again. Good for you, Ted.

The subplot — despite Barney’s attempts to make it the primary arc — involves the retelling of the story of how Marshall forgot his pants at home and was forced to work in his ridiculously short shorts. (Unfortunately, he had burned through his spare pants because of an earlier mustard incident.) Lily brings him a pair from home but makes the mistake of giving them to Barney to pass along to Marshall — which, he does, but only after converting them into a sweet pair of cutoffs. Despite Barney’s complete overselling of the story, it’s still pretty funny and, by the end, even Marshall seems OK with it. After all, the cutoffs really show off his calves.

Oh, and also Karen broke up with that other guy and she and Ted are now back together. Be cool.

What We Liked:

• College-aged Marshall and Lily dressing up as The Ultimate Warrior and Hacksaw Jim Duggan to attend WrestleMania. Although, given Marshall’s Minnesota roots and Lily’s future as a woo girl, we would have expected Ric Flair.

• Marshall’s list of the five worst things that could happen: 1. Super volcano 2. An asteroid hits the earth. 3. All footage of Evel Knievel is lost. 4. Ted calls Karen. 5. Lily gets eaten by a shark.

• The fact that, in college, Marshall grew a soul patch, wore a Rasta hat and asked everyone to call him MJ Smooth — and that he doesn’t regret it for one second.

• Finding out that Robin talks about hockey and eat ribs in her sleep.

• The idea of a chimpanzee wearing two tuxedos.

• The following exchange:

Barney: “A hug is just like a public dry hump.”

Marshall: “I think you’re hugging wrong.”

What We Didn’t Like:

• Marshall’s Peanuts metaphor in which Ted is Charlie Brown trying to kick the football before Lucy (Karen) pulls it away and has sex with it.

• Karen’s assertion that all Americans eat bologna and are racist. That’s not true. Not everybody likes bologna.

• The image of Karen peeping Marshall’s junk … and lingering.

Best Barneyism: B.S. (before Stinson), the excuse he uses to justify Ted’s behavior in the distant past.

Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved