I agree for the most part, but I think Ted has his human moments. The plots surrounding his architecture career, his bitterness towards Lily after she left Marshall, basically anything not involving his love life… Those keep up with the rest of the gang's plots sometimes.

Rusty - Basically the situation was similar with me and my gut reaction was guilt. It probably stems from my Catholic upbringing, but I was considered an overly-rational and unsentimental person even then. Marshall grew up in a family that clearly has a lot of pride in themselves and their legacy (just look back at…

When my grandmother died I felt ridiculously guilty that it was on the same day as my first kiss (ever). It was a stupid, pointless association, yet it took weeks before I let the same guy kiss me again. I think when you're faced with something that doesn't have meaning yet still affects you in a violent way, you try…

It's amazing…
…how much better the plot lines are that don't surround Ted's love life. I think this show does far better when it tries to address the big issues that face people in their late twenties and early thirties outside of singles' love lives: starting families, losing family, getting your career on track, and…

I teared up, then vowed to be the vice girl at the next funeral.

My favorite of the season as well. I feel like it captured what I always felt this show was about: the bridge between adolescence/young adulthood and true adulthood. Each storyline had this struggle between immaturity and maturity. Barney/Robin's fooling around with the museum artifacts vs. the sobering reveal at the…

Wrong Line
My favorite line wasn't "Want an ice cream? My white guilt is doing somersaults" but rather Troy's enthusiastic "WORTH IT!" that followed. That must be some damn good ice cream.

Whoa… Paper-mache Steve Carell. That's dedication.

Pam
In college I went as Pam Beasley from "The Office." Which basically meant I wore a conservative cardigan (it was Seasons 2-3 Pam) and a name tag that said "Pam." And I carried a stapler. All night. Everyone was confused and assumed I just came from work.

Treehouse is a perfect description. It'll be interesting to see how much of that they carry into the canon. It would be kind of cool if the Shirley/Chang hookup was like the Liz/Grizz in that it's not a huge plot point but rather a funny running gag that they keep secret.

Yeah, my initial problem was the plausibility of the episode in an otherwise somewhat realistic show. I think that's where Modern Warfare beats out this episode for me. In Modern Warfare, as unlikely as the premise was it was still grounded in known physical realities. Paintball DOES exist, it just wouldn't ever be…

She did suit up…

More like Liz Lemon being raised by a pack of scotch-guzzling hunters instead of quirky Pennsylvanians.

Robin and Barney
Is it me, or is the whole Robin/Barney development a lot more interesting this season? They're actually talking to each other like friends instead of treating each other either as a hook-up or a friend-of-a-friend-named-Ted. Even when they were together, you never really saw them do anything but hook…

The "He just dresses weird, right? Like Bowie?" comment made me realize that they haven't done a Bowie song yet. So come on, internet. If you can get Betty White on SNL you should be able to get a Bowie-themed episode for November sweeps.

It simply showed the empty campsite/crash site. It was just a sentimental look at the set… Not really pertinent to the story.

As useless as the rest of the Kimmel special was, I really enjoyed Matthew Fox's explanation of the sideways world as a place where you relive aspects of your life until you remember your death. To me it was a graceful way to put the actions of all of the characters into perspective.

Why it's all OK
I expect to hear/read a lot of complaints about the sideways resolution over the next few days. Many people will argue it didn't pay off in the main storyline, making it meaningless.