(s04e03) I (heart) NJ

Tonight the show opened with Ted lamenting the fact that Stella lived in New Jersey while he lived in New York. The entire HIMYM gang despises New Jersey, including Ted, which becomes clear when he refers to a bathroom visits as “dropping a huge New Jersey.”

Classy.

The ongoing sub-plot of Robin hating her job continued, with her finally getting the call to the national anchor position that Barney previously encouraged her to pursue…except that we find out later that she didn’t. She just got an audition.

Ted, wanting to merge his friends and his love life, convinced his gang to hang out in New Jersey with Stella…where they find out that she couldn’t find a sitter.

Not one second after Stella walks out the door to get them some beers, they begin to rag on New Jersey, and plot to leave. Stella catches them, of course, and convinces them to pretend her basement is a bar instead.

After Barney refuses to drop his fist until it is properly bumped (after a lame joke), Stella casually drops the bomb that she thinks Ted will be moving to New Jersey after they get married.

For someone who lives in a relatively small town most of the New Jersey hatred spilled over directly to all smaller cities and towns throughout the US – so that wasn’t all that cool.

After a few minutes of New Jersey bashing, Robin called her boss to get her job back, and found that she only had 30 minutes to get to the studio to read the 11 o’clock news.

So she stole Stella’s daughter’s bike.

After a brief commercial break we’re back into the basement and Ted tells Stella he doesn’t want to move to New Jersey. This quickly turns into an argument of which is better New York or New Jersey…which I’m sure is interesting to New Yorkers and New Jersians – but the rest of us don’t really care.

Barney’s “fist bump” running gag continues, and we occasionally see Robin riding the bike with a time clock in the right hand corner.

The argument in the basement escalates until Marshal reveals that he hates New York because he’s too big and is constantly bumping into stuff. Ted tries to compromise with living in Brooklyn, and Stella walks out of the basement telling Ted he can live “wherever he wants”.

As sad music plays Ted gets a dose of parenthood by reading Stella’s daughter a story after she wakes up from hearing the argument. Ted is so moved by the situation that he tells Stella “New Jersey wins”.

After Robin makes it to the studio she is forced to read some terrible news writing, and quits on live on the air. A few days later the gang is sitting around their favorite table at their favorite bar and Robin reveals that she got another job as a foreign correspondent…and she’s moving to Japan.

All in all, this was another less than spectacular episode of the series. It moved the story forward, but did very little to actually entertain.

Barney, again, stole the show – but there wasn’t much to steal this time around.