Unfinished (How I Met Your Mother)

"Unfinished" is the third episode of the sixth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 115th episode overall. It aired on October 4, 2010.

Plot

Future Ted states that during his early years as a professor, he had a simple goal: to give a lecture that would change someone's life. Ted believes he accomplished that goal, and recalls the story. The story begins when Ted is just beginning a lecture. He takes an airplane out of his pocket, but Future Ted decides to go back in time a couple days earlier, when Barney surprises Ted one day by telling him that Goliath National Bank is reconsidering Ted's design of the new GNB building that had been scrapped before. Ted is intrigued, but decides he doesn't want to work for GNB, with he and Marshall likening them to the Galactic Empire. Barney seems to accept this, but later is seen to be ignoring Ted. Ted realizes Barney is playing him like he would a hot girl, as Barney really does want Ted to design the building. Barney's attempts to "woo" Ted seem to be working, as Ted finds himself wanting to accept the job more and more. Finally, Barney tells Ted they have already accepted another offer, with Marshall backing up his claim. Ted goes to Barney and offers to do the job at half price, but Marshall reveals they hadn't accepted another offer, only pretending to do so to convince Ted even more. Shocked that Barney and Marshall had lied to him, Ted declines the offer again.

Meanwhile, Robin reveals she may not have gotten over her relationship with Don as easily as everyone thought; having seen him on TV for a news show in Chicago, she ends up drunk dialing him and leaving angry messages. Lily tries to get her to delete Don's number, though at first she lies about it and leaves another message. Robin confronts Lily about some of her unfinished passions and asks her to delete the number of a karate dojo. Lily had accidentally walked into a group of kids training, where to her embarrassment had been trounced by one of the kids. Marshall also deletes the number of a booker for the club where his band played once, and Marshall is forced to agree they would probably never get back together. When they delete the numbers Robin deletes Don's number, but ends up calling him anyway and leaving another message as she had memorized his number. Some time later, Robin attempts to leave him another message, but finds she has forgotten his number; smiling, she realizes she finally got the closure she wanted.

While giving a lecture on Antoni Gaudí's unfinished magnum opus, the Sagrada Família, he changes his mind and rushes to Barney to accept the job; he however forces Barney to take him out to dinner first, as Barney had stated he never took a woman out before "closing the deal" first. Lily and Marshall show they're still attached to their respective passions; Lily practices a kick, while Marshall sings like he had in his gig.

In the end Lily returns to the karate dojo to confront the kid; now older, the boy replies, "I knew this day would come" and he and Lily rush towards each other to fight.

Production

In a July 2010 interview, show co-creator Craig Thomas said the GNB tower project is a result of the bank getting bailout money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.^[1]

Music

• The opening music is Franz Schubert's Symphony Number 8, the "Unfinished Symphony"
• "Beach Comber" by Real Estate plays when Ted goes to meet Barney at the end of the episode

Barney's blog

In his blog, Barney promotes his newest book "The Playbook". ^[2]

Cultural references

• The episode opens with a picture of the Sagrada Família, a building designed by Antoni Gaudí. Its long history and reputation for being "unfinished" was used as a parallel to the episode's storyline.
• The episode references the design of the Death Star from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and its destruction by a single X-wing proton torpedo aimed at a vent. The scene in the garbage compactor with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca is also referenced.
• Lily mentions "the time when everyone was going, 'Whassup?'" when trying to determine how long it had been since she took a karate class.
• The repeated phrase, "Barney Stinson always gets the yes" is said in the same way that Klondike Kat says his catchphrase, "Klondike Kat always gets his mouse."^[3]
• Barney's method of seducing women (and Ted) mimics those of author and pickup artist Neil Strauss as mentioned in The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists.
• When Robin sends a threatening message to Don she mentions going to see the Bears game when she goes to Chicago.

Critical response

Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+ rating.^[4]

Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a rating of 9 out of 10.^[5]

DeAnn Welker of Television Without Pity gave the episode a B+ score.^[6]

Chris O'Hara of TVFanatic.com gave the episode a rating of 3.5 out of 5.^[7]

References

External links

• "Unfinished" at the Internet Movie Database