I’m gonna stop you right there. It’s the suits. Come on, Lily, get your head out of your ass. It had a song-and-dance number that was fun. There was no time-shifting, and not a lot of misdirection. It just told two straight-ahead stories that were really funny and gave us confidence in how things are going to play out going forward. Everything we know about the mother is awesome – almost too awesome. I guess only time and ratings will tell.

Josh Radnor and Rachel Bilson in How I Met Your Mother: Girls vs. SuitsLet’s start with Ted. At the end of this episode, we’re as close to the mythical Mother as we’ve ever gotten. And it we got there in quite an interesting way: he dates a woman who’s jealous of her “perfect” roommate. Rachel Bilson did a nice job of playing Cindy, making her vulnerable because of this problem, but not crazy. And it seemed at the start that Cindy could be the mother, when Ted had confiscated beers with her in his classroom, but I’m happy that the magical roommate was brought up right away.

The “Girls vs. Suits” musical number was played well. It didn’t dominate the episode; it just played out in Barney’s head as he had to figure out whether to bed the bartender or keep the suits. It was a tour-de-force for Neil Patrick Harris, as he reached notes I never thought he could. And it was fun to see the gang dancing around in suits, with the guys surprisingly moving very easily in theirs and the girls looking like they’re wearing oversized duds that would make David Byrne jealous.