2x11 How Lily Stole Christmas

7.7/10. Mrs. Bloom and I skipped this one when we started the big rewatch in order to save it for the holiday season, and here we are! It's a nice visit back to the gang circa Season 2. The B-story material is fairly hit or miss. I forget that Barney didn't have much depth at this point in the show, and so using him as pure broad comic relief starts to grate a bit. While his sneezing so hard that he throws himself into the wall is kind of fun, the attempts to power through via awesomeness and resulting bit where he acts like a little kid with Robin come off as tacked on comic relief.

Marshall trying to save the winter wonderland decorations as a treat for himself until he finishes his paper, then secretly blowing it off to track down Lily's gift, only to be moved to help the deliveryman deliver every single gift in his truck before X-mas, fares a bit better. It's shorter, and hews toward the sort of goofy earnestness that the character does well with.

But the meat of the episode, and the thing that pushes it into the quality territory is the main story with the fallout from Ted calling Lily a "grinch." (As an aside I cannot for the life of me decide what word Ted's euphemizing there. Thoughts?) There is some of the vindictive and unreflective characterization of Lily that I don't really care for. Her stealing X-mas and refusing to see any merit in Ted's explanation for his of the g-word is a sort of childishness and myopia that the show would emphasize in the character more often than I'd like.

And yet, as the show does at its best, it finds the heart and humor in that story. Ted's X-mas with his super religious cousins was a hoot, as was his awkward phone call with his mom, and the various times he substituted innocuous words for swears (the "that time I really said 'Grinch'" joke was a real winner on that front) were all entertaining comedy bits. And as frustrating as the argument was at times, it's well-observed as to how friend group breakups and makeups go.

What's more, there's real emotion in Ted telling Lily that she may have apologized to Marshall, but never apologized to him, that he was her friend too, and she abandoned him as well. The same goes for Lily realizing that Marshall got the gift idea for him from Ted, from a conversation that they'd had eight years ago. Rather than making it a Marshall and Lily thing, it becomes a Lily and Ted thing, one that reminds us that the two of them have their own unique friendship independent and apart from Marshall that needs maintenance and repair as well. It's a nice touch, and the resolution, though a little cliche, is a fine note to end on.

Overall, it's a very good holiday episode, but also a very good episode centered on one of the best, but occasionally underserved relationships on the show.