How I Met Your Mother: 7x20, "Trilogy Time"

It feels like it's been a while since we've gotten a new How I Met Your Mother (three weeks according to IMDB). So I was pleasantly surprised to see "Trilogy Time" listed on my DVR's scheduled recordings for tonight.

"Trilogy Time" began with college-aged Ted and Marshall in 2000. As they began a tradition of watching the Star Wars trilogy every three years, they also imagined what their lives were going to be like in three years. Then the episode flashed to actual 2003 and showed the reality of their lives. This alternating pattern of their imagined lives and their real lives (including Barney's once he enters into the time frame) continued until it reaches 2015.

I think this pretty much sums up the episode.

The format of "Trilogy Time" is a fun idea, but in practice, it became a little repetitive. While the Barney ushering out a girl he never plans to see again shtick was intentionally repetitive and used to prove a point about Quinn, it grew kind of tiresome. Similarly, seeing Marshall and Ted fantasize about different versions of Lily and Robin became slightly boring as well. I did enjoy the fantasies to a degree, particularly the touches like Ted's long hair; I just wish they hadn't have been so repetitive.

The episode was also somewhat predictable. From the moment the format of episode was revealed, it was pretty clear that Barney was going to stop imagining the "saying goodbye to a random girl" in his future, and instead plan to still be with Quinn. It was also clear that Ted was going to worry about his future and that we'd be shown some kind of flash forward that would tease his post-meeting-the-mother future. That being said, I enjoyed both of these parts of the episode.

I actually really like Quinn, and I think the storyline between Barney and her was done really well tonight (although I wasn't a huge fan of the fart jokes). I enjoyed the contrast in maturity levels between old Barney and the 2012 version of Barney. I think it's more likely that Robin and Barney will end up together, and I don't necessarily mind that. However, Quinn has been a good fit for Barney, and I like her as well.

I also enjoyed seeing Ted with his daughter. I had thought that 2015 Ted was merely going to be shown talking about his wife; so it was nice and surprisingly touching to see him holding his daughter. As much as I may complain at times about How I Met Your Mother not being as great as its earlier seasons or dragging the mother storyline out, this moment showed me that I do still care about Ted meeting his wife and getting the family he's been wanting. This moment also proved that the mother should enter Ted's life soon if he's (presumably) married with a baby by 2015. Anyone want to bet how they're going to draw it out? Pull a 24 and convert each season into the span of a day? Pull a Dallas and declare this last season a dream? Actually, gasp, show the mother within the next season or two? Only time will tell, I suppose.

Overall, "Trilogy Time" was a slight boring but decent episode with some nice moments.

What did you think of "Trilogy Time?" Are you enjoying the Barney/Quinn relationship, or do you prefer Barney/Robin? How did you feel about Ted's flash forward tonight? Whatever your thoughts may be, feel free to share them below.