‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 8, episode 19 review: A Downton apartment

What happens when you combine a fake “Downton Abbey” spoof, Lily being too busy to really spend much time with her husband, and all sorts of assorted craziness when it comes to Barney moving on from his famous “fortress” of an apartment? Why, you have “How I Met Your Mother” Monday night! This was a charming episode that did bring us a little bit closer to the upcoming wedding between the two characters, even if it did not really do much at all when it comes to delivering any major shocks.

Admittedly, we spent most of the episode thinking that we’re going to miss the old apartment of Barney’s and all of its contraptions, as Robin refused to live in a place with so many Stinson “patent pending” products designed to drive unwanted women away. We’ve always imagined Barney being an exaggerated manifestation of what Ted thought of him during their friendship together, and the place provides so many great moments.

With that in mind, Robin actually decided to let Barney keep the place, since it was something that meant quite a lot to him. As for the other characters, we saw Ted and Marshell use this open house in order to pretend to be a gay duo seemingly inspired by a fake version of “Downton” that the two watched in secret (as Marshall was supposed to wait for Lily). This whole B-story was pretty ridiculous, but it ended up with Ted’s “character” hooking up with a woman who was willing to take his straight virginity. If this was one of the earlier seasons, we would have really liked this … but didn’t the guy just say that he was willing to settle down? It seemed like an awful hypocritical move to jump straight back into hooking up with someone under a false pretense.

What did you think about Monday night’s “How I Met Your Mother” episode? Be sure to share some more of your thoughts below, and you can check out some more early scoop on the season finale over at the link here.

Photo: CBS