The Final Page: I CALLED IT!

I did have a little outburst a couple weeks ago but after last week's episode, "The Over-Correction," I calmed down a bit because I believed I knew where the writers were going with it. I still would have preferred Barney and Robin to be together earlier in the season (earlier in the series, even), but I guess they wanted to tell the story.

After watching last week's episode, I commented on a Reddit thread about the whole Barney-Patrice thing (side note: I was about to link or screencap my comment but I like to think that I'm still anonymous on Reddit). I basically said that I thought Patrice knew about Barney's plan all along, and that this was all a play to get Robin. A lot of Redditors were concerned that Barney was using Patrice; I thought Barney had had a chance to ask for Patrice's help during their "date" -- I was wrong on this point since Barney actually approached her about it before that. I wasn't expecting the play to start as early as it actually did, though.

Anyways, about the episodes themselves in general, I thought they were solid. A lot more like the HIMYM of old that we love than the early season 8. I hope this means that the writers are going to the right direction for the rest of the season. I liked the taking jinx too seriously gag. Although, who unjinxed Marshall and Lily? I also thought that the jinx would be in effect until Barney actually proposes to Robin and she unjinxed him.

When Barney told Ted that he was about to propose to Patrice, I thought he would: a) actually tell Ted that it's a play to get Robin, or b) he was just doing it because he knew that Ted would definitely tell Robin. I was very happy that I was wrong. It was more than that; he was looking for Ted's blessing. He wasn't sure that Ted was going to do it. He was putting himself out there, with the rose petals and candles, and waiting for Robin *again* even after what happened last time! I do love the fact how he can predict how his friends who have no boundaries would act throughout the whole thing.

I also called that Barney knew that Robin, and Ted and Lily, were in his apartment. It was too obvious the way he did things –– not looking into the closet; basically shouting into his phone –– that it would be ridiculous to say that he didn't know. The fact that Barney actually did burn The Playbook, saying that "The Robin" would be his "the last play [he]'ll ever run," really shows how much he's grown. I feel like he's become a very sweet person, and yet he's still so awesome.

Ted's career has taken off, but of course they had to end the midseason finale with a sad Ted. Hopefully this means that the second half of the season would show us the awesomeness of Barney and Robin together, instead of whatever it was they did in season 5, and also about Ted finally getting closer to meeting the mother. I still hope that there's a season 9 so they'd have plenty of time to wrap things up nicely.

[Side note: how hot has Cobie Smulders looked lately?!]