How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother Season 5 Episode 8

(Image retrieved from: http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/himym/images/8/81/The_playbook.png/revision/latest?cb=20101106160410)

The episode started off with the player, Barney, dressed up in a scuba diving suit at MacLaren’s pub. Barney and Robin had recently broken up and were trying to move on. Robin focused her priority on her work while Barney tried to hook up with many women. Barney wanted to resume using different manoeuvres in the playbook to pick up women and seduce them into his bed. Ted and Marshall teased Robin about getting back in the dating game but she stated she had no interest in it. Although they were certain she would get married soon especially when she least expected it. Meanwhile Lily acted as a matchmaker between Ted and her friend Shelly. However, Shelly did not show up to the date because she met someone else named Lorenzo von Matterhorn which happened to be a fake name Barney gave. Barney used another play where he approached women on the Empire State Building and informed them that “he’s not coming,” causing the women to become saddened and went to him for comfort. Lily got her hands on the playbook and insisted Barney to stop relying on it otherwise she will post the contents of the playbook online where everyone can access it. Barney stated he was going to do one last manoeuvre involving a scuba diver suit but Lily could not find it in the playbook. Lily, Marshall, Ted and Robin witnessed him attempt to pick up a woman but he stopped, got emotional and admitted the break up was hard on him. They felt sorry for him so encouraged the woman to go out for coffee with him but realised they were tricked when Barney texted them to look under the table where they find the hidden page on the scuba diver scheme.

Humour

There is sexual innuendo when Barney described the qualities of his playbook as “something he hasn’t used that often, it was big and heavy” which led Ted and Lily to smirk. Also there were many women that fell for Barney’s schemes which demonstrated his skills as a womanizer and manipulation into fooling them by using his playbook.

Score

9/10

Note: I gave it a high score since I found this episode to be really enjoyable and it is focused on Barney who is my favourite character in the show.

- Angela