‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 9, episode 18 review: Robin, Lily, and a hungover Barney

Tonight on “How I Met Your Mother,” we were presented with “Rally,” and a story that was more or less all about seeing if Ted and the rest of the gang could find a way to save Barney from his own worst enemy: Barney. This was the consequence of them getting so many secrets out of him the night before; he is now so hung over that he has a hard time even waking up.

There were a few interesting little story threads in here, but mostly, what we got out of this was just a number of gags over and over again … including all of the characters promising that they would never get completely drunk again. That, in turn, ended up being a lie. Through flash-forwards, we learned that Marshall eventually joined the State Supreme Court, that Lily gets emotional over her son going to college, and that Barney and Robin had an adventure with a baby.

Also, there was Ted discovering his love for bacon, which he never really understood before getting to this moment. We understand exactly how he felt.

So what made Barney finally wake up? At first, it was Robin and Lily almost making out … but in the process, they at least learned from him that Barney’s hangover cure was because the equivalent of Michael’s Special Stuff from “Space Jam.” He wanted everyone to feel special, and he wanted to be there for him during some hard times. Unfortunately, that didn’t even help him. They led Barney to believe that they made Miracle at Barney’s happen, even though that was not exactly what happened. (He actually got kicked in the crotch by Barney’s dad.) Grade: B.

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Photo: CBS