Oh, Ted, when will you learn?

Sorry, Bro
How I Met Your Mother: Season 4, Episode 16

It's 1:45am, and Robin is joining the gang at the bar before heading off to work. There's stories to tell; Marshall had the "funniest" thing happen to him at work, about... his pants? And, Ted's ex, Karen, is now living in NYC to Marshall & Lily's dismay.

This episode finally brought us back to Ted's love life, and his story confirmed, once again, why this show is so great: the writers know the characters so intimately, that old subjects come back and reward loyal viewers time and time again. Who doesn't remember pretentious Ted in college, calling his long-distance girlfriend, Karen, to apologize for making out with another girl in the episode "How I Met Everyone Else"?

Now Karen, played by Laura Prepon, is back, and she doesn't appear to have changed a bit. She is even more pretentious than old Ted. The old Ted who went back to her, time and time again, even after catching Karen cheating on him, time and time again. But, wait, she's changed, for real this time, Ted claims. And now Ted's dating Karen. Whoop-de-do. I wish I cared, but I don't.

I want Ted to wake up and start dating likable women. I want Ted to stop returning to old flames; hasn't he done this before and seen how badly it's worked out? I'm thinking of "Return of the Shirt" episode, when he dates Natalie until he realizes - for the second time - that she's not the one. And then he gets beat up by a girl.

That episode happened way back in Season ONE. Come on, Ted. Grow up. Move on. Find the woman with the yellow umbrella.

My biggest qualm is this: it's disheartening to see Ted have bad relationship after bad relationship, and not see him learn from any of it. His character has barely evolved since the beginning of the show. Sure, he is no longer the hopeless romantic we first met, but he hasn't progressed much. We loyal fans know the writers can do so much more with him! Look at Barney.

As I talked about in my last HIMYM post, Barney is continuously evolving as he admits his love for Robin and then tries to deal with his feelings. Although I admit, I made a mistake in my last post. Ted does NOT have things figured out. He still has plenty of room to grow (up), and hopefully he does that soon so he can find the Mother. I'm not asking the show to be over with (because I think it can exist even after Ted meets her); I'm just asking that our main character get a bit more interesting and learn from the past, rather than continuously repeating it.

Now that I'm done complaining, here are some of my favorite, and the most awesome, parts of Monday's episode (because it was still a pretty good episode overall, despite Ted):
* Barney's 4 reasons why an Ex would want to have lunch. The gun thing, both in the Barney and Robin sections, was hilarious. I also liked seeing young Marshall; the child looked it could have been Marshall's kid!
* Marshall standing up from the booth and he's still wearing his shredded work-pants, displaying his handsome calves. =)
* Robin's sleeping pill-induced sleepwalking, especially her eating the ribs while sleeping/lying on the floor. Again, another shout-out to past episodes! ("The Bracket" episode, when Ted says that Robin laughs every time she lies. His example? "Have you ever fallen asleep while eating ribs?" Robin: (giggles) "No.")
* The entire episode took place in the bar. The flashbacks, of course, took us all over the place, but the writers were able to tell the story from the vantage point of the bar. Mighty impressive, I think.
* Lily asks Barney to give something to Marshall, and Barney, of course, thinks it's something sexual.

What do you think of Ted, and his return to Karen? What were your favorite (or least favorite) parts of the show?

Photo source: http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/met-mother/photos/192257