Lobster Crawl

"Lobster Crawl"
How I Met Your Mother episode
Episode no.	Season 8 Episode 9
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Written by	Barbara Feldman
Original air date	December 3, 2012 (2012-12-03)
Guest appearance(s)
Chelan Simmons (Brandi) Ellen D. Williams (Patrice)
Season 8 episodes

"Lobster Crawl" is the ninth episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 169th episode overall.

Plot

The gang dines out at MacLaren's with baby Marvin and Marshall and Lily are confident anyone can take care of Marvin. Since Lily's father Mickey is ill, Ted volunteers to take care of the baby. Ted is always present for the baby's firsts, such as learning to crawl, which angers Lily. When Ted cancels a meeting with a headhunter for a new project in order to spend time with Marvin, Marshall and Lily fire him as a babysitter. They reconcile with him after discovering that he made a scrapbook of Marvin's firsts, and persuade him to meet the headhunter. A flashforward sees Marshall and Lily taking Ted's daughter to see Santa Claus as payback for taking Marvin to see Santa for the first time.

Having rebuffed Marshall's attempts to get some of his food, Barney accidentally spills ketchup on one of his favorite ties. Despondent that his tie has "died", he mourns its loss but later has a business idea. He intends to produce "Bro-Bibs," a line of adult-themed bibs designed to protect men's clothes against spilled food.

Meanwhile, Lily notices that Robin has been flirting with Barney even though he made it clear he will never pursue her again. She tries to discourage Robin from trying it again, and brings up the time Robin was diagnosed as allergic to lobsters. After learning about the allergy, Robin deliberately ate lobster because she knew she couldn't have it; Lily links Robin's feelings for Barney to Robin's allergy. Robin stubbornly refuses to listen and tries various methods to get his attention, with all of them failing. During Robin's last play, Barney winds up seducing WWN's new weather forecaster Brandi, but he changes his mind after realizing that he's been feeling adrift since breaking up with Quinn. Robin decides to give him space, but arrives at Barney's apartment to seduce him again. To her surprise, he's on a date with Patrice, who has been giving him advice about his problems. Robin leaves, looking very hurt and sad.

Critical reception

Donna Bowman of the AV Club gave the episode a B+. She says that the episode "doesn't have the effortless exuberance of the very best HIMYM episodes. But it has an overflowing lollipop bin of throwaway lines and little character moments." She also notes that while "some people will dismiss the rollercoaster of the Barney-Robin pairing as just ... by the numbers sitcom writing ... it has a kind of sincerity ... that I can't help but respect."^[1]

Michael Arbeiter of Hollywood.com writes that while it is "one of the better episodes of the present season, ... [it] falters in regards to one incredibly important element: Ted." He says that "Ted has been used as set dressing" and "even his comedy is pretty one-dimensional these days." Regarding the Robin and Barney romance he writes, "I'm ready for their back-and-forth to be done with. It's tiresome."^[2]

Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode a score of 5.9/10 (Mediocre), saying that "for the most part, I did enjoy Ted's babysitting storyline" but "tying the whole thing in to Ted's work felt a bit contrived." He says that "Barney's 'Bro Bib' storyline was decent, if not a little distracting" and calls the final scene "bizarre." Overall, he argues that the episode "did ... feature one pleasant (if not flawed) storyline and a few gratifying jokes."^[3]

Angel Cohn of Television Without Pity gave the episode a C−, saying that overall the episode was "pretty damn terrible. So much so that if it wasn't my job to watch it, I would have turned it off." Cohn says, "I miss laughter and writing down lines that cracked me up, but instead my notes are filled with things that annoyed me. It's depressing."^[4]

References

↑ Bowman, Donna (December 3, 2012). "Lobster Crawl". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
↑ Arbeiter, Michael (December 3, 2012). "'How I Met Your Mother' Recap: Stop Dancing Around Like That, Robin! You're Like 35!". Hollywood.com. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
↑ Nicholson, Max (December 3, 2012). "I'm getting too old for this shirt!". IGN. Retrieved December 4, 2012.
↑ Cohn, Angel (December 4, 2012). "The Bibbing War". Television Without Pity. Retrieved December 4, 2012.

External links

"Lobster Crawl" at the Internet Movie Database
Bro-Bibs website

How I Met Your Mother

Episodes	Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 8 Season 9

Characters	Ted Mosby Marshall Eriksen Lily Aldrin Barney Stinson Robin Scherbatsky The Mother (Tracy McConnell)

Related articles	Awards and nominations The Bro Code Cheerleader effect "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit"

How I Met Your Mother episodes

Season 1	"Pilot" "Purple Giraffe" "Sweet Taste of Liberty" "Return of the Shirt" "Okay Awesome" "Slutty Pumpkin" "Matchmaker" "The Duel" "Belly Full of Turkey" "The Pineapple Incident" "The Limo" "The Wedding" "Drumroll, Please" "Zip, Zip, Zip" "Game Night" "Cupcake" "Life Among the Gorillas" "Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M." "Mary the Paralegal" "Best Prom Ever" "Milk" "Come On"

Season 2	"Where Were We?" "The Scorpion and the Toad" "Brunch" "Ted Mosby: Architect" "World's Greatest Couple" "Aldrin Justice" "Swarley" "Atlantic City" "Slap Bet" "Single Stamina" "How Lily Stole Christmas" "First Time in New York" "Columns" "Monday Night Football" "Lucky Penny" "Stuff" "Arrivederci, Fiero" "Moving Day" "Bachelor Party" "Showdown" "Something Borrowed" "Something Blue"

Season 3	"Wait for It" "We're Not from Here" "Third Wheel" "Little Boys" "How I Met Everyone Else" "I'm Not That Guy" "Dowisetrepla" "Spoiler Alert" "Slapsgiving" "The Yips" "The Platinum Rule" "No Tomorrow" "Ten Sessions" "The Bracket" "The Chain of Screaming" "Sandcastles in the Sand" "The Goat" "Rebound Bro" "Everything Must Go" "Miracles"

Season 4	"Do I Know You?" "The Best Burger in New York" "I Heart NJ" "Intervention" "Shelter Island" "Happily Ever After" "Not a Father's Day" "Woooo!" "The Naked Man" "The Fight" "Little Minnesota" "Benefits" "Three Days of Snow" "The Possimpible" "The Stinsons" "Sorry, Bro" "The Front Porch" "Old King Clancy" "Murtaugh" "Mosbius Designs" "The Three Days Rule" "Right Place, Right Time" "As Fast as She Can" "The Leap"

Season 5	"Definitions" "Double Date" "Robin 101" "The Sexless Innkeeper" "Duel Citizenship" "Bagpipes" "The Rough Patch" "The Playbook" "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap" "The Window" "Last Cigarette Ever" "Girls Versus Suits" "Jenkins" "Perfect Week" "Rabbit or Duck" "Hooked" "Of Course" "Say Cheese" "Zoo or False" "Home Wreckers" "Twin Beds" "Robots Versus Wrestlers" "The Wedding Bride" "Doppelgangers"

Season 6	"Big Days" "Cleaning House" "Unfinished" "Subway Wars" "Architect of Destruction" "Baby Talk" "Canning Randy" "Natural History" "Glitter" "Blitzgiving" "The Mermaid Theory" "False Positive" "Bad News" "Last Words" "Oh Honey" "Desperation Day" "Garbage Island" "A Change of Heart" "Legendaddy" "The Exploding Meatball Sub" "Hopeless" "The Perfect Cocktail" "Landmarks" "Challenge Accepted"

Season 7	"The Best Man" "The Naked Truth" "Ducky Tie" "The Stinson Missile Crisis" "Field Trip" "Mystery vs. History" "Noretta" "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns" "Disaster Averted" "Tick, Tick, Tick..." "The Rebound Girl" "Symphony of Illumination" "Tailgate" "46 Minutes" "The Burning Beekeeper" "The Drunk Train" "No Pressure" "Karma" "The Broath" "Trilogy Time" "Now We're Even" "Good Crazy" "The Magician's Code"

Season 8	"Farhampton" "The Pre-Nup" "Nannies" "Who Wants to Be a Godparent?" "The Autumn of Break-Ups" "Splitsville" "The Stamp Tramp" "Twelve Horny Women" "Lobster Crawl" "The Over-Correction" "The Final Page" "Band or DJ?" "Ring Up!" "P.S. I Love You" "Bad Crazy" "The Ashtray" "Weekend at Barney's" "The Fortress" "The Time Travelers" "Romeward Bound" "The Bro Mitzvah" "Something Old" "Something New"

Season 9	"The Locket" "Coming Back" "Last Time in New York" "The Broken Code" "The Poker Game" "Knight Vision" "No Questions Asked" "The Lighthouse" "Platonish" "Mom and Dad" "Bedtime Stories" "The Rehearsal Dinner" "Bass Player Wanted" "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra" "Unpause" "How Your Mother Met Me" "Sunrise" "Rally" "Vesuvius" "Daisy" "Gary Blauman" "The End of the Aisle" "Last Forever"

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