Barney Achieves the Impossible

We've all heard the expression, "Don't hate the player; hate the game," but this week's episode of How I Met Your Mother certainly took the sports analogy to new heights.  Guest star Jim Nantz "interviewed" Barney after he accomplished something almost unheard of: a Perfect Week.  He slept with 7 different women in 7 different consecutive nights.  And, he had to overcome several jinxes courtesy of Lily, the possibility of getting fired looming over his head and some tough competition in the form of a NY Yankee.  Despite the odds, he pulled it off and scored a one-on-one with the CBS sportscaster.  While Barney was having a seemingly good week, his friends weren't quite so lucky.


Ted caused his first student to drop his class after he made fun of her name.  The student had the unfortunate name Cook Poo, and he was convinced that the other students had made up the name and added it to his roll call on the first day of the semester.  He made a big deal of making fun of the name, but it wasn't made up and the real Cook Poo walked out of his class.  Robin went on a bad date, but was convinced the guy was going to call her for a second one.  She wasn't sure how she was going to let him down easy, so she was dreading the call.  Lucky for her, he never called ("but he's totally going to").  Except this made her crazy.  She didn't want to see him again, but the fact that he didn't call made her want him to call her and before she knew it, he was her soulmate... who never called ("but he's totally going to").

Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily were mourning the loss of another promising couple prospect.  Things were going great until Marshall mentioned that he and Lily share a toothbrush!  So yuck!!  Things got funnier, though, because the group soon discovered that Ted had been accidentally using the same toothbrush when they all lived together.  Oh yeah, and Robin used to borrow "Ted's" toothbrush when she was dating him.  That's way too much sharing!  So, it seemed, Barney was the only one having a good week.  Not so fast my friends -- he was dealing with the reality that his boss was probably about to fire him.  This is what led to his imaginary interview with Jim Nantz while he waited outside his boss's office (apparently, nerves cause him to imagine he's being interviewed by famous sportscasters).  In the end, he wasn't fired, he accomplished the "Perfect Week," Robin met a new possible soulmate (a baseball player who likes hockey!), and Ted managed to make his bad situation with Cook Poo even worse.

How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays on CBS. If you missed last night's episode, watch it for free at cbs.com.