To be a Canadian or an American is a predicament Robin contends with in “Duel Citizenship” the fifth episode of How I Met Your Mother’s fifth season. Robin has always been loyal to her Canadian heritage since the beginning of the show and it has given the writers a lot of material for Barney, Ted, Marshall and Lily to poke fun at. This time, however, Robin is forced to leave her roots once and for all.
After hitting a guy at Hoser Hut, her favorite Canadian hangout, Robin is now being sued and could even get deported unless she becomes an American citizen. This isn’t the first time How I Met Your Mother tapped on the idea of Robin getting deported. If you recall, she almost got deported back to Canada because of a work permit notice from Immigration but was able to stay in the U.S. thanks to Barney’s help and his outrageous video resume.
Once again, Barney tries to save the love of his life by prepping Robin in time for her citizenship test. It’s so nice to see how supportive Barney has become as Robin’s boyfriend but still manages to mock Canada all episode long with several witty lines such as “This five-dollar bill they gave you is blue … and then there’s kids playing hockey on the back! It’s like you want us to make fun of you.”
Robin, on the other hand, seems to have mastered everything there is to know about being an American but eventually realizes that she can’t completely let go of her Canadian heritage. In the end, she makes the best decision so far by opting for a dual citizenship. In that way, she’ll stay in the U.S. and be with Barney, while we can continue making fun of her Canadian heritage.
It turns out Robin, still a Canadian citizen, may be getting deported back to Canada when the guy from a bar fight she got into is pressing charges. Turns out there’s a citizens test offered tomorrow and Barney is not willing to let his girlfriend get shipped back to Canada without a fight. While Robin is already prepped on the actual facts for the exam (Presidents, Bill of Rights, etc), Barney decides to focus on taking the Canadian out of her and making her act American by teaching her such important things as forgetting about the Queen and learning Jim Varney, the comic genius responsible for the Ernest series.
After completing her training, Robin stops for one last beer at her Canadian bar, Hoser’s, and ends up on a Canadian bender that ends up with her going to a Brian Adams concert and passing out in a hotel in Toronto. Barney “flies across the Atlantic” to rescue her and she initially doesn’t want to come back. He takes her for some coffee at a Tim Horton’s where the cashier calls her American. To put Robin in a better mood, Barney gives a negative speech about Canadian and gets his butt whooped. After some free hospital care, Robin takes Barney back to America and decides she’s a little Canadian and a little American…dual citizenship time!
Meanwhile, Ted and Marshall get word that their favorite, disgusting pizza place, Gazola’s in Chicago is shutting down. They apparently used to road trip there all the time in college and decide to do it one last time. Ted is really looking forward to some alone time with Marshall, but is shocked to see he invited Lily. No problem, they hey load up on cans of Tantrum, their classic road tripping energy drink and start.. until they have to stop in the first five minutes for Lily to pee.
It gets worse when Marshall pulls over to stay in a bed and breakfast for the night. While there, and maybe it’s just the Tantrum messing with his head, Ted sees Marshall and Lily morph into a singlular blob. Ted tricks Marshall into thinking they’re going out for beers and kidnaps him in his robe and all and they head to Chicago, leaving Lily behind. They get there, have the awful pizza, but Marshall feels so guilty, still unable to reach Lily by phone, he wants to head back mid-slice. They get back to find out Lily was so comotose from all her spa treatments she didn’t even realize the boys left her.
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Trying to relive the good old days, Ted suggests that he and Marshall take a road trip to their favorite Chicago pizza parlor, but his trip down memory lane hits a huge snag when Lily tags along in the How I Met Your Mother episode “Duel Citizenship.”
I can imagine Ted and Marshal trying to recapture the glory days. Heck, that’s what they always do on How I Met Your Mother! But I’m having a hard time picturing Lily spoiling all the fun since that girl can actually spice things up unexpectedly. At any rate, Lily’s presence sort of mellows their adventure trip which leads to a performance by none other than Kenny Rogers, who narrates the audio book played on Marshall and Ted’s road trip.
The road trip gets more interesting though as the trio hit a filthy Chicago pizza parlor where the oven hasn’t been cleaned in 100 years and where Marshall inadvertently flashes a partial moon.
Meanwhile, Barney tries to persuade Robin to become an American Citizen. Convincing her to switch proves to be a difficult task though since she can’t seem to let go of her Canadian heritage, especially after being invited for a very Canadian spree. It also depresses Robin when a Canadian counter girl assumes that Robin is an American.
This week, Lily and Marshall experience relationship woes — not with each other, but with Robin and Barney, who are the latest couple in a string of potential double dates. Meanwhile, Ted tries to prove to Barney that the “college professor” look works on girls.
Future Ted voiceovers that once he became a college professor, he decided to update his look — by wearing tweed, or the “textile of the eunuchs,” as Barney snarks. Ted says that the ladies dig the professor look. Robin agrees, saying that her 10th-grade math teacher was sexy. But he’s in jail now. For tax evasion. (Among other things.)
Lily changes the subject by inviting Robin and Barney to a couples’ night. Future Ted tells us that since Marshall and Lily had been the only married couple for years, they’d been on the hunt for a couple to double date with. A flashback with shoddy continuity shows Lily and Marshall hosting a variety of couples’ nights at their place (including Ranjit and his wife) — and scaring away all their potential new friends by being overeager and more than a little creepy. So of course they’re thrilled that two of their best friends are now a couple. But Future Ted warns that Barney and Robin have no idea what they’re in for.
(Sketchy continuity note — the first flashback says “2007,” but as far as I recall, Marshall and Lily weren’t living in Dowisetrepla at any point in 2007. They bought the place toward the end of the year, but they didn’t officially move in until an early point in Season 4. This show is normally so good with its continuity that goofs like this bug me. Hopefully they’ll fix it for the Season 5 DVD?)
Flash-forward to Marshall and Lily frantically readying their apartment for their date with Barney and Robin. They plan cocktails, appetizers, and Marshall boasts that he has a great anecdote ready to go. The doorbell rings. Lily greets Barney and Robin, while an overly enthusiastic Marshall offers them a tray of Gouda.
Back at MacLaren’s, Ted tries his professor moves on a girl at the bar. She asks him if grading papers is difficult, and Ted replies, “No, you just gotta make it fun. For example, every time I spot a grammatical error, I do a shot. I’m trashed right now, and I blame our public school system.” The girl coyly responds with, “So… you live upstairs?”
Meanwhile, Robin and Barney leave Marshall and Lily’s place. As the door closes, Lily turns to Marshall with a huge grin on her face, and squeals, “Nailed it!” “Best night ever!” Marshall agrees. But out in the hallway, things don’t seem as sunny. “Worst night ever,” grumbles Barney. Robin pretends to shoot herself in the head, and Barney hilariously mimes wiping his face of the aftermath.
The next morning, Barney and Robin regale Ted with the horror that was the date with Marshall and Lily. “It was like we were on a date with a sad chubby girl our mom made us call,” says Barney. Robin chimes in that Marshall and Lily were obviously nervous, to the point where they weren’t even making sense. Plus, they kept trying to get Barney and Robin to eat, even though they had eaten a couple of ill-advised tacos before coming over. Ted asks if Marshall was weird about the cheese, and mentions that while Lily is the gourmet cook, the only thing Marshall is entrusted to handle is the cheese. Heh, poor Marshall. Plus, they freaked out whenever something went wrong, even something as little as the egg timer breaking.
Ted tries to stick up for Lily and Marshall, pointing out that they’ve been looking for couple best friends for a long time. “I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” he says. Barney proves him wrong by showing him a website Marshall made after their evening was over. Ted takes the laptop and queues up a video montage of Marshall and Lily clearly having an awesome time while Barney and Robin look obviously uncomfortable. Marshall ends the montage by inviting them out again. “Oh, that’s no good,” says Ted. He asks why the two couples had such vastly different opinions on how the evening went. It turns out Barney and Robin gave them the fake “This was so much fun, we should do it again” kiss-off that single people do after a bad date. On cue, the girl from the bar exits Ted’s room, gives him the exact same spiel, and lets herself out. Ted slyly reveals that the professor look worked. Well, except that she ended up falling asleep on the couch instead of hooking up with him. Barney gleefully exclaims that Ted has become The Sexless Innkeeper. What is The Sexless Innkeeper, you ask? It’s a trick Barney has used in the past to crash for the night — basically “banging for roof,” but without the sex. Barney even wrote a poem about his experience, which I’ve captured verbatim for your reading pleasure:
‘Twas the night before New Year’s, and the weather grew mean
‘Twas 3 in the morning, and I was stranded in Queens
The tavern grew empty, the gaslights grew dim
The horse-drawn carriages were all but snowed in.
Ted interrupts at this point to ask why Barney’s narration sounds (and looks, to us) like it’s straight out of Oliver Twist. Barney replies, “Ted, it’s a poem.”
Last call was approaching, and my fortunes looked bleak
Then I turned to my left, and stifled a shriek!
She had a peach-fuzz beard and weighed 16 stone
She gobbled up hot wings and swallowed the bones.
I muffled a scream and threw up in my mouth
I asked, “Where do you live?” And she said, “One block south.”
I swallowed my pride and six shots of whiskey
And prayed to the Gods that she wasn’t too frisky.
Back in her cave, she prepared us a snack.
‘Neath her mighty hooves, the floorboards did crack.
But when she returned, she found a sound sleeper
And thus, she became The Sexless Innkeeper.
“And so are you,” Barney finishes, grinning at Ted. Ted vehemently disagrees, but Barney is resolute in his belief that the girl from the bar had no intention of sleeping with Ted. Robin notes that this is ironic, since “it’s usually the innkeeper who provides turn-down service.”
Later, at the bar, Lily excitedly tells Barney and Robin that they’ve booked a couples’ weekend in Vermont for maple syrup season. Barney and Robin decide that it’s time to break up with them. Barney tries to give them an outlandish story usually reserved for one-night stands, this one involving an expedition to find alien life forms living at the bottom of the ocean. Marshall, of course, thinks this is really cool, but Lily sees right through it. “All this couple-y stuff, it’s just not us,” Robin tells them. Lily and Marshall storm out, but not before Marshall hits Barney and Robin with a zinger: “I hope those underwater life forms are cold-blooded, because then you’ll get along just fine.”
Lily and Marshall go back to their place to cry and wallow in post-breakup misery. “I thought we did everything right,” Lily says. Marshall agrees, but then reveals that he sent them a photo montage. Future Ted explains that Marshall had been going overboard with the photo montages recently, flooding his friends’ inboxes with montages documenting mundane everyday life (although the cat-sitting that segued into a cat funeral got a huge laugh in my living room). “You have to stop sending those to people!” Lily exclaims.
Later, at MacLaren’s, Ted points out that Barney and Robin need to apologize to Lily and Marshall. So they head over to Dowisetrepla. But they’re too late — Marshall and Lily are already on a very successful date with a new couple.
A few days later, Robin and Barney are having a drink at MacLaren’s when Lily and Marshall enter. Things get awkward when they say they can’t sit with Barney and Robin because they’re on a date with the new couple. And Barney and Robin can’t join them because they’d just end up being a fifth and sixth wheel. Plus, Marshall and Lily are getting ready to go for a boat ride around the city with the new couple. “Wow, sounds like this is getting pretty serious,” Robin responds unhappily.
Cue a montage of Barney and Robin walking sadly by other fun-loving foursomes (while “All by Myself” plays in the background) as they realize what they’re missing by not spending time with Marshall and Lily. Ted walks in on them at the apartment… only unlike in previous walk-ins, they’re not making out. Instead, they’re drowning their sorrows with ice cream and potato chips. Ted sits down to explain their problem. “You’re a couple,” he counsels. “And no matter how hard you try to fight it, couples need other couples. That’s why you miss Marshall and Lily.” So Barney and Robin resolve to win the other couple back.
At Dowisetrepla, Marshall and Lily have just wrapped up a mean game of Twister with the new couple when there’s a knock at their door. They open the door to find a path of egg timers, which lead outside to where Robin and Barney are waiting, in the rain (!). And in a very cute moment that parodies every romantic comedy ever written (and a few episodes of this series), Barney and Robin apologize to Marshall and Lily, and the foursome reconcile.
Finally, back at Ted and Robin’s apartment, Ted has written a poem that he shares with Barney:
‘Twas the night before this one, and hours to kill
I sat in the tavern, grading parchments with quill
A busty young lassie flashed me a grin
Her guard said “classy,” but her eyes whispered “sin.”
She said, “You’re a teacher?” I said, “Yes, indeed!”
“I must have you!” she moaned, “I’m turned on by tweed!”
With haste we did scamper to my chamber anon,
We fell to the couch, and bro, it was on.
I unlaced her bodice, our passions grew deeper,
And thus ends the tale of The Sexless Innkeeper.
Barney scoffs and says that Ted made that up… until a hot girl exits Ted’s room and asks the “professor” if he’s coming back to bed. “I love being single!” Ted says. Just then, Robin comes out of her bedroom and asks Barney if he’s ready to go to brunch with Marshall and Lily. Wide-eyed, Barney watches Ted go back into his room as it finally registers that he’s become the “Ted” of their gang — tied down with a steady girlfriend while his best friend hooks up with random hot girls. “What have I done?” he gasps.
So what did you guys think? I know it was a filler episode, but as a whole, I wasn’t really feeling this one. I liked Marshall and Lily better when they weren’t really into the whole couples-nights thing, so that entire plot line didn’t work for me. I wish they could have devoted more time to Ted’s storyline, which I found to be much funnier. I did love the songs that went with the photo montages, the poems, and the shout-out to brunch as a “couple” activity. Plus, any episode with a Ranjit appearance can’t be all bad. Sound off with your thoughts in the comments!
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[Source: tvguide.com]
It will be difficult to top his guest-starring stint on Seinfeld - or at least the use of his name on that iconic sitcom - but singer Kenny Rodgers will guest star on an upcoming episode of How I Met Your Mother.
The crooner will appear on October 19.
During the installment titled “Dual Citizenship,” Ted and Marshall take a road trip to Chicago, as they try to recreate a cherished college memory. However, the plan hits a major snag when Lily tags along.
Somehow, this leads to a performance by the famous singer.
In other recent, major How I Met Your Mother casting news: Tim Gunn and Rachel Bilson will show up on the show’s 100th episode.
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How I Met Your Mother has devoted an entire episode to Robin Scherbatsky, the one character that fascinates me the most, next to Barney Stinson, in “Robin 101.” And as the title connotes, we learn almost everything there is to know on how to date the show’s Canadian tomboy, courtesy of Professor Ted Mosby.
Clearly Barney isn’t boyfriend material so the episode takes off from that fact when Robin confides in Lily that she thinks Barney’s cheating on her. Robin needs proof though and even when Lily reminds her that she is no crazy jealous stalker bitch, Robin still checks out the briefcase that Barney left behind and finds a college notebook inside— which rouses her suspicions even more. But to her surprise, the notebook contains notes about her and sooner or later, Marshall cracks and reveals that Barney has been taking a Robin 101 class from former flame Ted.
You’d think it’s weird but not in the case of Barney, who is unexpectedly working so hard to keep someone like Robin around, and Ted, who just wants to put his surprisingly vast knowledge of Robin in to good use. So what have we learned about Robin so far?
- The top Robin facial expressions and their meaning
- Robin is 29 but tells people she’s 26
- Never cry in front of Robin
- Buy her butterscotch instead of chocolate if she has PMS
- Topics that will distract Robin from getting angry include the Vancouver Canucks’ 2004 division title, proper gun cleaning and maintenance, and emperor penguins
- When Robin says “You’re an idiot,” it means she’s saying “I love you.”
- If she does say “I love you,” she’s already broken up with you in her mind.
- Robin’s erogenous zones don’t include her left knee.
- Never play the guess who game with her.
- Never show Robin a YouTube clip of an animal playing an instrument unless you want to see it a hundred times.
- The six simple words Robin wants from her dad: Robin I’m proud of you eh.
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When the producers of “How I Met Your Mother” talked about adding a new character for its 100th episode, they didn’t mention that they would cast an actress as established as Rachel Bilson. The former “The O.C.” star has been hired for a one-time stint, although many believe that she would fill in the pivotal role of the mother.
In September, Executive Producer Craig Thomas told EW that in celebration of the milestone, the show will get some serious “mother action” during the episode. He added, “It’ll be the closest Ted’s ever come to [discovering who she is]. He’s getting a step closer every episode this season, and episode 100 [we] kind of go bananas with it.”
Thomas’ production partner Carter Bays also shared the same kind of clue regarding the episode, saying “Ted will also get as close to meeting the mom as he’s ever before. I don’t want to give it away, but he gets so tantalizingly close, it’s ridiculous.”
For one thing, Bilson’s rep has confirmed that she won’t be a recurring role. Thus, the possibility of Bilson being the mother is not yet crystal clear.
