HIMYM 7x12: Symphony of Illumination

Original Air Date: 5 December 2011

Storyline: Robin receives some bad news that make her reevaluate what she wants from life, but she decides to lie about it to the gang. Meanwhile, Marshall hangs Christmas decorations on the house in the 'burbs with help from his teenage neighbor.Best quote:  

Robin: It's not your job to cheer me up.
Ted: Yes, it is. Cheering you up is my job. 
Robin: Well, then, you're fired.
Ted: You can't fire me. I'm union, bitch.

The Review: Does it seem normal to you for me to cry at the end of an episode from a show that's supposed to be a sitcom? I didn't think so. So, why is this happening? And, what's more important, why were those two minutes when Ted tried to cheer Robin up by lighting up the apartment on "Highway to Hell" basically the only good thing about this Monday's installment?This show has seriously lost its focus. I don't contest the fact that, when you have a group of characters rapidly approaching 30, marriage and kids start to be the main theme of discussion. It happened with Friends and I had no doubts it would happen here as well. I can also understand the need for character growth - over the years, people change, so it's natural for them to want different things from life as the time goes by. Keeping this in mind, I still have to complain about redefining the core of two of these characters: Barney and Robin. In the race to put them together (something I'll never like, no matter how beautifully it's wrapped), the showrunners are giving us two people who are completely different from the ones we've met back in season 1. None of the other three have changed much over the years and I appreciated the stability, something that hasn't happened with Barney and Robin, whom I barely recognize these days.

Robin's journey from thinking she was pregnant to finding out she wasn't to being told she can never have kids to actually wanting kids and ending in acceptance was one I would have rather not see. I guess the plot was introduced as a step towards maturity for her, but I can only see it as useless and annoying. We just wasted two episodes in order to reach a conclusion we already knew: she is not the mother type. And, unfortunately, instead of letting this be her own choice, the writers took that possibility away from her, leaving us wondering if her final "I'm glad you guys aren't real" was for real or not. That's just poorly done drama and I can only hope she won't end up miraculously pregnant at some point, or adopt a bunch of twins, like Monica and Chandler. 
With all this going on, I almost missed the humor. The most hilarious part was Robin imagining what her friends' reactions would be would she tell them about her bad news, only to see the exact thing happen minutes later. By far, Marshall's "What was the date, duration and consistency of your last period?" was the funniest line out there. On the humorous side, I'd also like to mention barney's adorableness when talking like a little boy and Lily describing the various horrific consequences of pregnancy. As for Marshall's B-plot, I couldn't care less about it, but I want to mention just one thing: how come a huge environmentalist like himself bent over backwards to cover his house in Christmas lights