‘How I Met Your Mother’ Review: “Lobster Crawl”

‘How I Met Your Mother’ Season 8 crawls along with its ninth episode of the (potentially) final season “Lobster Crawl,” as Robin tries desperately for one last fling with Barney, while Ted's over-enthusiastic babysitting of Marvin causes Marshall and Lily to miss his most important moments.

Last week’s ‘How I Met Your Mother’ episode “Twelve Horny Women” saw Marshall battling former buddy Brad (‘True Blood‘s Joe Manganiello) in the court case of his life to defend Frog Lake, while Barney, Robin, Lily and Ted debated which of them was the biggest badass, so what did tonight's episode bring  Are we any closer to learning how the last year for Ted, Robin, Barney, Marshall and Lily plays out?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 8 episode 9, “Lobster Crawl!”

With Mickey sick for the week, Marshall and Lily are reduced to bringing Marvin into the bar with them, at least until Ted offers his services babysitting.  Meanwhile, Robin giggles flirtatiously at everything Barney says, and Barney’s hoarding of food causes him to spill ketchup on his tie.  Barney tries in vain to save the tie, while Lily pulls Robin aside to learn that she once again wants Barney, this time only because she believes she can’t have him.

The next day, against Lily’s advice, Robin tries to get Barney alone at MacLaren’s, though the man is too distracted by his new idea for “Bro Bibs.”  Later, Lily only focuses on the Bro Bibs part of the story, before retreating upstairs to find that in her absence Marvin did his first crawling in front of Ted.  Marshall assures Lily there will be other firsts, but they seem to miss the crawling at every turn.

Robin entreats Lily’s help to hopefully get Barney out of her system with one last fling, first attempting to call him to her office, next surrounding herself with other men and finally meeting him at laser tag (dressed as Lara Croft), though nothing succeeds.  Lily proposes that Robin flirt with a woman to get Barney’s interest, initially suggesting herself, though Robin ultimately goes for her co-worker Brandi.  The two dance together at MacLaren’s, earning Marshall’s attention, but failing once more as Barney seduces Brandi into going to the news studio together.

After Ted goes too far with Marvin by taking him shopping for winter clothes, putting off an interview and giving Mickey additional time off, Lily and Marshall fire Ted as babysitter.  They offer him a compromise of taking Marvin to “Bubble Buddies” swim class, but once there confront Ted for his over-parenting of Marvin.  Having realized that Ted has been compensating for his GNB building project being over, the husband and wife pair set him up to find his next job, reminding him he’s shirtless at a youth swimming class with no kids.

Barney returns to MacLaren’s, but reveals that he couldn’t go through with sleeping with Brandi.  Backing off at the last moment, Barney instead shared a late-night conversation with Robin’s nemesis Patrice, and realized that most of what he’s done since breaking up with Quinn has been a cry for help.  Robin feels guilt for focusing on herself, while Barney clearly struggles to find some purpose, and resolves to give him time.  Until she shows up at his apartment in lingerie, that is!  Robin’s efforts are quickly shot down, however, as Patrice is present on a date with Barney, and Robin quickly leaves.

Marshall and Lily assure Ted they have no hard feelings about him taking Marvin to see Santa for the first time, but years later, wait for their chance to babysit Ted’s daughter to enact their revenge.

After last week's noticeably funnier effort, it seemed like 'How I Met Your Mother' dipped once more into the broad, leaving most of "Lobster Crawl"s jokes to fall flat.  We did appreciate the multiple scenes highlighting the oft-ignored natural hotness of Cobie Smulders, and the attempts at sincerity toward the end, but ultimately found very little redeemable about "Lobster Crawl."  We're fast approaching the midpoint of the season, so we'll need that season 9 decision sooner rather than later to make the show inch closer toward its peak potential.

Did you get a thrill out of “Lobster Crawl,” or did it leave you in need of a cold shower?  Do you think it made for a solid entry into the (potentially) final season? Join us next week for an all-new episode recap of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ “The Over-Correction” on CBS!