‘How I Met Your Mother’ Review: “Bad Crazy”

‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 8 goes down in flames with its sixteenth episode of the penultimate season “Bad Crazy,” as Ted tries desperately to get rid of his crazed girlfriend Jeanette (‘SNL’s Abby Elliot), while Robin confronts her issues with holding baby Marvin over an increasingly elaborate vignette.

Last week’s ‘How I Met Your Mother’ episode “P.S. I Love You” saw Barney uncovering a new chapter of the Robin Sparkles saga in his quest to identify Robin’s past obsession, while Marshall and Lily tried to convince Ted his new girlfriend Jeanette was actually stalking him, so what did tonight’s all-new episode bring?  Are we any closer to learning how the final years for Ted, Robin, Barney, Marshall and Lily play out?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 8 episode 16, “Bad Crazy!”

Future Ted explains to his kids that despite an earlier proclamation of settling down, he enjoyed the single life in New York City quite a bit, and it wasn’t until after his relationship with Jeanette literally went down in flames that he was able to say he wanted to settle down, and mean it.

Back in 2013, Barney and Marshall urge Ted to break up with such an obviously crazy girl, but Ted suspects they want him to remain single to keep using his apartment as a clubhouse for items their wives won’t let them keep in the apartment, like video games and Boba Fett mannequins. Barney uses an antique clock to continually point out Jeanette’s behavior as cuckoo, and Ted finally agrees to break up with her...in a public place.

Taking Jeanette to a public basketball game fails, as Jeanette angrily shouts at the ref with no fear of embarrassment, though later Ted admits to Barney and Marshall he in fact broke up with her. Ted leaves his apartment, urging Marshall and Barney not to let Jeanette in the apartment if she comes by, though they dismiss the threat. And who should show up moments after Ted leaves, you wonder?

Elsewhere, Robin finds herself left alone with Marvin as Lily races to retrieve a pacifier from the bus, not realizing Robin has avoided holding the baby for as long as he’s been alive. Meanwhile back at Ted’s apartment, Ted returns to find that Barney and Marshall indeed let Jeanette in, and the girl has since barricaded herself in Ted’s room in anger.

Lily returns to find Robin waiting on the street with Marvin, downplaying that anything happened, but flash forward four years later when the two are catching up over wine, and Robin admits that she let an elderly African-American woman hold Marvin to stop his crying. Future Lily shrugs off the confession, provided the story ended there. Hint: it didn’t.

Ted calls the police to get the crazed Jeanette out of his apartment, but fails to realize that Jeanette herself was actually a suspended police officer capable of waving off her colleagues. Barney and Marshall urge Ted to give up the apartment, as twelve years in the future, Robin admits to Lily that Marvin’s baby carriage rolled into the street for a moment before she caught it.

Ted dresses himself in Boba Fett’s armor and prepares to take the bedroom by storm, admitting to Barney and Marshall that he might not have been as clear about the breakup as he let on. Meanwhile, fourteen years in the future, Robin admits to Lily that she and the old woman took Marvin to a topless strip club to escape the cold. Sixteen years in the future, Robin admits that she left Marvin with the strange woman to go to the ladies room, while seventeen years in the future, Robin admits that the elderly woman was actually Mike Tyson. As in…future Senator Mike Tyson.

Back in the present, Ted dons the helmet and prepares to face Jeanette, but five minutes later comes tumbling down the staircase in defeat. Having since joined the gathering, Robin admits (on advice from Mike Tyson) that Jeanette’s craziness might actually be derivative of Ted’s mental state. Accordingly, Ted admits he might have sent mixed signals by making out with Jeanette at the basketball game, and sleeping with her in his Boba Fett confrontation minutes earlier.

Robin suddenly notices that she’d been holding Marvin without realizing it, as Lily surprisingly advises Ted to stick with Jeanette for the moment, given that their mutual craziness works for one another. Future Ted admits that despite the flaming street side debris in their future, Jeanette was the right girl for him then.

Later that night, Robin continues lovingly cradling Marvin well into the morning hours, but quickly gives him up at the first smell from the diaper. Roll credits!

We have to admit to holding little faith in Ted's earlier declaration that Jeanette would mark his last major relationship mistake before meeting the titular mother, as we have no means of knowing how the addition of a ninth 'How I Met Your Mother' season will affect the eighth season story going forward. Sticking a pin in that, "Bad Crazy" definitely proved one of the more outright chuckle-worthy episodes of the season, tossing in plenty of twists and turns with enough conviction to sell the absurdity. We have to wonder if Ted in Boba Fett armor or a nonchalant cameo from Mike Tyson would have been so easy to swallow a few seasons back, but 'HIMYM' does occasionally manage to hit a stride without layering in mythology.

What say you? Did ‘How I Met Your Mother’s latest “Bad Crazy” hit the mark, or tumble screaming into the Sarlaac pit??  Do you think it made for a solid entry to the penultimate season? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ episode “The Ashtray” on CBS!