6.8/10. I like the concept of the episode, starting at the present (or future?) and continually taking steps backwards to show the cause and effect of how the characters reached that point. I just didn't find the steps very compelling or funny. Barney's was probably the best of them, and his surprise at his legs not working was silly, but enjoyable. Marshall's story seemed like the kind of thing I would enjoy, but there was something off in the montage in terms of timing or rhythm to where the jokes felt very sitcom-y. The wedding dress wait felt like a rejected SNL sketch, and even Ted's dorky penny appreciation (continuity!) was pretty slight. Plus, while the show couldn't have known this in Season 2, the whole "it led to me meeting your mother" feels both trite and wrong given how many intervening events happened over the 7 1/2 more seasons worth of events that happened after this. It was a good idea for an episode, but the execution just didn't work out.
Shout by LineageBlockedParent2019-02-07T23:38:07Z
Legend has it that Barney is still on that train.