The Book of Rannells: How I Met Your Mother: Season 9, Episode 16 – “How Your Mother Met Me” (2013)

Andrew Rannells’s other How I Met Your Mother episode, which is also somewhat above par for season 9.  As suggested by the episode title, it takes a separate focus from the usual gang and instead puts the Mother center stage (a slight spoiler related to Rannells’s character Darren.)

This is the incredibly-quick version of the Mother’s life in the years between the pilot and present episode nine seasons later, complete her own credit sequence and an entirely different McLaren’s Pub.  It’s kicked off by a life-changing jolt on her 21^st birthday and jumps mostly to her major near-brushes with Ted through the years (St. Paddy’s Day, the yellow umbrella, her roommate Cindy, etc.)  But despite the emphasis on callbacks and almost-moments, it really is her story, not Ted’s.

Even though the show Manic Pixie Dreamgirls the Mother hard and Cristin Milioti is almost painfully cute as a button, there’s enough here, largely thanks to Milioti’s winning screen presence, to have her feel for the most part like a character instead of an idea.  I like her deadpan remarks and unironic love of dumb wordplay, and overall, the real-person moments outweigh live-animation-Disney-princess-as-a-quirky-musician moments.

Similarly, the show emphasizes the reasons Ted would like her – both those that feature on his list of ideal qualities for his perfect woman (like playing bass) and those that show her commonalities with him (like her affected pronounciation of “æ”) – but still manages to round her out a little beyond “the perfect woman for Ted.”  She has her own goals, roadblocks, and frustrations, as well as her own baggage of loss and heartbreak.  There’s a surprising level of pathos in the episode, and it’s a credit to the show and Milioti’s performance that we’re able to feel for the Mother as much as we do, despite knowing her so little.

As for Rannells, Darren is only in a couple scenes, after having played a pivotal role in his previous episode.  We learned there that he has a connection to the Mother, and we see the inception of that here.  The scenes feature more amusing band-name puns (Radiohedgefund for the win!) and a teeny bit of singing from Rannells, although it’s literally just a single line of dialogue that he sings rather than speaks.  Still, it’s enjoyable.  Rannells’s two scenes in this episode still let him play with the different sides of Darren, and he brings that across effectively.

And yes, we just had our How I Met Your Mother first impressions last week, but this is what happens when Rannells only appears in two episodes – first and final are back-to-back.

Recommend?

In General – Again, yes to this episode and the first few seasons of the show but not the complete series to the bitter (bitter) end.

Andrew Rannells – Sure.  Darren’s not the usual sort of character we see Rannells play, and he’s entertaining in the part.

Warnings

Sexual references, drinking, language, and thematic elements.