How I Met Your Mother Fodder

How I Met Your Mother: Brunch

The episode starts with a lovely photo that was taken during a brunch and we find out that things aren't nearly as nice as they are depicted. There are three parts to this.

The first is Lily and Marshall. As a thirtieth anniversary present Ted brought his parents into the city. Apparently they were the sort of people to talk about anything real. His mother tells Lily that she is sorry to hear about - and she can't come up with the words so Marshall fills in, "Lily breaking off the wedding and breaking up with me?" and Lily saying that she tried to get back together and it not working. They are invited to dinner and Lily is worried about what is still between them and Marshall says he considers them like brother and sister. At dinner, Lily wears a very flattering dress and Marshall gets flustered. The next day he plots to get back at her by showing off his calves. He manages to do this by wearing trowsers with zip away bottoms. She reacts to this by dragging him into the coat room. You can imagine what happens next. Post coitus, they accuse each other of trying to seduce each other.

Then we have the Barney part of the story. It was to be the first time Robin is to meet Ted's parents. Barney comes over and wonders about the many legendary stories he has told his father about him. Ted says that he hasn't told his father anything about him - they only talk about baseball. Ted's parents come over and they introduce themselves. They say that Robin is really pretty and she tries for a joke but it doesn't go well. Robin and Barney have a sort of competition to impress Ted's parents. Barney plays a lovely sonata at dinner and tells Ted's mother he will see her at mass the next morning. The next morning Barney complains about Ted's father and tells a lovely story about his father being his wingman. He realizes that he left his phone at the bar and comes back to see Ted's father making out with the woman Ted had been hitting on - Wendy the Waitress. Barney makes up all kinds of information on polygamy. When Ted's father comes over he pulls him aside and asks how his night was. Ultimately he can't ask and tells Barney at brunch this.

Last we have the 'me and Robin' part of the story. Robin is worried that her not wanting to get married and having kids is not something she wants to tell Ted's marriage and kid loving mother. Ted's mother surprises Robin by saying her career should come first. The next day Robin says this clearly was an insult to her. At brunch Ted's mother comments that the waitress is sweet and Robin says perhaps she should have Ted's children and walks off. Ted's mother follows and asks what is bothering her and Robin says that though she doesn't want to have children, she should want her to. Ted's mother says that in fact she was just trying to warn her to not marry too young. Didn't they get married young? Back at the table, Ted's mother bumped the waitress and when Ted's father refers to her as sweetheart Ted yells at him.

This is how it comes out that his parents got divorced 10 months earlier and were seperated for 2 years. Ted leaves, followed by his parents. Barney goes to the omelette station. Marshall and Lily agree they should probably keep some sort of distance between them - it would be for the best. Outside, Ted complains that he knows nothing about his parents, not even how his father met his mother. He swears that when he tells his future children, "How I met your mother" it will be long and full of details. They give a bit more detail and say ultimately it just wasn't a good connection - but they love Robin. They go back inside and Robin is just happy that they love her. Back inside his parents agree full disclosure is the way to go but when Ted asks how his grandmother is doing, his mother goes off for some juice and his father says he missed a great (baseball) game.