The Book of Rannells: How I Met Your Mother: Season 9, Episode 13 – “Bass Player Wanted” (2013)

If Andrew Rannells had randomly made a couple appearances on How I Met Your Mother back in his pre-Mormon days, if it had been one of those amusing “before they were stars” tidbits to go back and remember, “Whoa, that guy was Andrew Rannells?!”, I’m sure I would’ve preferred it.  Because that was when I loved How I Met Your Mother.  Unfortunately, the two episodes he guest-stars in, airing contemporaneously with The New Normal, are from the show’s final season, long after its quality dipped and it limped sadly across the finish line.  That said, even apart from Rannells – who, in 2013, I liked but wasn’t as massive a fan of – I do remember liking the episodes he was in more than most in that dismal season (season 9 premise spoilers.)

In its season-long crawl through the most drawn-out wedding weekend in history, Marshall is still trying to make it to the hotel for the wedding.  When the bus is no longer an option, he has the good fortune to get picked up by a certain significant motorist.  Back at the hotel, Ted and Barney and Robin and Lily both dance around secrets in their friendships, and Robin and Lily are perplexed by a wedding guest they don’t recognize who seems to know them well.

Like I said, I remember being moderately entertained by this episode when I first saw it, a big step up from some of the more painful episodes of the season.  There are a few reasons for that:  it feels like we finally get a bit of forward plot momentum on the season arc, we see a couple of welcome callbacks to episodes past, and the central conflict of the episode resolves in a pretty satisfying way.  Also, we get some good interactions involving the Mother and a handful of fun jokes.

I’ll be real:  Rannells’s character is a big part of my enjoyment of this episode.  He plays Darren, the wedding guest that Robin and Lily can’t place.  I’ll limit my description to that, although he ends up being quite integral to the plot, because I don’t want to spoil the gimmick.  Suffice it to say he feels like a throwback to entertaining one-off characters from earlier seasons, such as the woman with “the crazy eyes” played by Morena Baccarin in season 2, someone with a particular “thing” about them who contributes to the plot and lends themselves to some good humor.

Rannells is immediately fun as the guy who clearly knows Robin and Lily when they’re utterly clueless about him, and he gets more entertaining as more about his character is relieved.  Darren is effortlessly ingratiating, and Rannells foots the bill big time.  My favorite laugh of the episode is learning how he comes by his “tragic backstory.”

Recommend?

In General – This is complicated.  This episode, maybe – it’s amusing.  This season, definitely not.  The show as a whole…?  Eh – first two seasons for sure and maybe a few after that, but not the whole thing.  This is a series that sadly flamed out.

Andrew Rannells – I think so.  Rannells is pretty funny here and does his job as Darren to a tee.

Warnings

Sexual references, swearing, drinking, and brief violence.