The bit about Victoria being the Mother was a thing all the way back in season one. That was their if-we-get-cancelled-in-our-first-season bailout plan.

I agree on the "talking to Max" scene. A big part of what makes that work is that Milioti just commits fully and completely to the emotional journey her character's been taking for 8 years; a journey which we've only seen like 15 minutes of. I'm watching it and I think, "There is no way I should be so invested in this…

Judy Greer's character has a waning libido? Isn't that the exact opposite of every other character she's played in sitcoms?

Me too. As cold as that bit about her job being a "hobby" was. throwing the San Francisco fiasco back in her face felt weirdly right in the moment.

You realize of course that the Slap Bet is a running storyline that spans 8 seasons of a 9 season show, right? It's nearly as important as The Mother herself.

I can see why other people don't, but I like this show too. It's got a nice cast and some funny jokes.

I like what they're doing with Haley this season. She's actually growing up and becoming a bit savvier.

Usually New Girl makes me laugh to the point of stomach pains. This episode, not so much, but by the end I found myself grinning hard. This is probably one of the sweetest, most touching episodes of this show that I've seen. The last shot with Jess looking at her friends at the bar was so nice. And then Schmidt's tag…

I just about died when I heard the Braff-over at the end of Repilot. Welcome back, old friend.

It's an especially powerful reference because the last time we saw Marshall and Lily use "pause," they broke up. Not saying that's what's gonna happen here, but it really is a great way to highlight how big of a deal this particular argument between the two is.

Oh God it's the fourth slap I don't know why I was so obnoxious.

Yeah I'm kind of done with these absurdly elaborate emotional manipulations Barney executes.

It wasn't.

You take that back! His rendition of "Mandy" is a gift! A GIFT!

I read all of the plot summaries of these books on Wikipedia once. The entire series is completely bonkers.

Can't allow an article about a reality show to go without mentioning Sex House, the Onion's excellent reality show send-up.

Nixon jeans -do- sound amazing.

I love how the shirt itself was just the joke. Very subtle, no character actually acknowledging it.

I'm really surprised that he didn't even slip into Heisenberg territory when getting angry at Ted. I was sure that there was going to be some kind of joke where he'd shift into that low, menacing son-of-a-bitch voice, but his performance was surprisingly allusion-free.

The way Barney picks up the girl without using the letter E is honestly
amazing, and up there with HIMYM's great pieces of tricky wordplay.