"Kids, if there's one big theme to this story (and I swear, we're totally almost, not really all that close to the end), it's timing. Timing is everything."
Let's discuss the relevance of this quote to this episode, this season, and if you're really ambitious, the whole of the show!
Timing is the shows theme through the years, timing is everything for each character and it was a major them since B/R broke up and for this episode. Timing wouldn't be a thing if B/R were together or got together at some point during this season, it wouldn't have been a issue for Lily and her dad issues, Marshall and Lily telling the others about being pregnant and it most certainly is an issue for Ted and the Mother cause lets face it there was plenty times they could have met over the years but if all these things happened at earlier times in the show than the show would've ended much earlier than season 9.
I think timing is a huge theme of the show in general; and not just S7.
In S7, timing is used a few times with B/R. First, the phone call in The Best Man, where Barney is clearly still hung up on Nora and ruins where Robin is going to tell Barney she is interested. Then, again, we see they had a timing issue during the hurricane in Disaster Averted. Finally, timing does become a huge obstacle in their getting back together because they both end up cheating on their SO's; and Robin realizes she can't get back to Barney this way in Tick Tick Tick. Whereas, if B/R had slipped up when they were both single, they might've actually gotten back together. But at the same time, neither was really ready to get back together until they finally did in The Final Page because Barney needed to deal with his family stuff and to realize that he *wanted* commitment, and Robin had to realize that she truly loved Barney for even the "most sociopathic" parts of his personality
( ... )
Hate to be a Ted but match girl isn't the mother because Ted gets a description of her. Future Ted specifically says that the first description he ever got of the mother was the one Cindy gave him in "Girls Vs Suits".
"The Best Man" had a lot of parallels to Season 4, with Barney and Robin's roles being reversed to an extent. Do you think the rest of the season delivered on this promise? Were there any parallels you particularly loved, or wished they had attempted but didn't?
The Best Man 'is one of my favorite episodes of Season 7 because finally we have some clues about Robin's feelings.
I see many similarities between 'Do I Know You?' and 'The Best Man':
'Do I Know You?' begins with Barney finally admits to himself and to Lily that he's in love with Robin. In 'The Best Man', the one who's talking with Lily is Robin, who admits practically the same thing, saying "I wish Barney were my boyfriend again." Barney in 'Do I Know You?' tries to impress Robin and tries to talk about his feelings, which Robin tries to do with Barney in 'The Best Man' after their dance. But, in both cases, things do not go as hoped: Robin arrives with April in the first case while in the second one Barney gets a call from Nora.
'Benefits': the "I love you" from Barney can be compared to the speech that Robin does in 'The Best Man' when Barney is on the phone with Nora. In both situations, one of the two does not realize that the confessions of the other are true
( ... )
I also love The Best Man and parts of early S7 because it does finally give the audience some clue into Robin. And I think the parallels to Do I Know You are absolutely intentional. Both The Best Man and The Stinson Missile Crisis are almost deliberately written to be parallels to B/R in S4, although this time we get all of Robin's feelings and *none* of Barney's until the very end of Disaster Averted (and even in that episode, it's Robin who brings what happened during the hurricane up, which leads to their hookup).
Robin even has similar random blurt-outs (like Barney's in S4 and Hopeless) in both The Best Man and Noretta. But I think CTCB had to know that in order to make the general audience buy B/R getting back together, they had to show the relationship from Robin's side both this time, and again in S8.
Given the later reveal of what went on between Barney and Robin before this episode in "Disaster Averted," what do you make of Barney's behavior in this episode? Do you think he is completely unaware of Robin's resurgence of feelings toward him, or is he trying to avoid misinterpreting the situation (as he does later in the season)?
I think Barney had come to the point of suspecting that Robin still felt something for him after the almost kiss in the rain. The fact that he has not called Nora ad he did not thought about her in that time, is due to the fact that he thought he had a few more chances with Robin, all the more confirmed by the talk that B / R made in the car in 'Challenge Accepted'. Robin's speech about the fact that you can not go back into the past just because it is familiar, removed the security in regards to what Barney thought that Robin was feeling for him. So, I'm not sure that Barney was completely aware of the fact that Robin had still real feelings for him in 7x01. I think he was just confused and he did not want to misjudge the situation.
I think that, not just in this episode but really in 7.01-7.09, Barney sees little things here and there that make him wonder what Robin's feeling (he must have observed something based on his comment in 7.10 "You can't stop thinking about me either") but he is afraid of misinterpreting it and making biased assumptions just because he really wants her to be feeling that way
( ... )
I definitely think Barney has to know that Robin still felt *something*, especially after the almost-kiss in the rain. But I think he took their talk in Challenge Accepted to heart and decided that running back to Robin would be a mistake, which is why he chooses to pursue Nora instead; even after their second almost-kiss in no more than a month or so later.
But I think they both end up experiencing way more active denial then they did in S6, which is why they end up backsliding in Disaster Averted. In both Mystery vs. History and The Slutty Pumpkin Returns, they're back into BFF mode, but, especially in Slutty Pumpkin Returns, there is way more flirtation between them -- despite them being in other relationships -- which ends up causing a *huge* issue for both.
Obviously it was a pre-rehearsed dance that Neil and Cobie did for it but Barney and Robin didn't rehearse that because it was a moment that came out of the blue all of a sudden. Robin wasn't aware of what Barney was talking about at first but then when Barney said "Let's show Cleveland how it's done" she then knew what he was talking about.
I love this dance, it's possibly my favorite BR moment and I have so many moments I love but this one I will remember for along time because it was a moment that was both fun and romantic all at the same time.
I love this dance, it's possibly my favorite BR moment
Mine too! I loved it, it was so fun, sweet and sexy. That dance is basically what their relationship is and i would think about it as something that came out of the blue because it would be the clearest example of their chemistry at work.
I remember that when i watched that scene for the first time, that was the moment i knew for definitive that B/R were endgame.
Totally one of the best moments of the entire series, I remember the first part of the dance was on one of the previews, it went all the way up to the counting part.
This episode and "Stinson Missile Crisis" are some of the last big references to Barney's plays before the culmination of that arc in season 8. Considering these plays are being used in the context of the knowledge that he will be settling down and getting married, and his romantic entanglements with Robin, and the fact that the Playbook as an entity did not appear until their first breakup... do you think that their appearances in episodes revealing Robin's feelings have been conscious choices throughout the series? What is your opinion of the correlation between Barney's plays and Robin's feelings coming into play?
I think that on both a canon and a symbolic level, the Playbook acts as Barney's 'weapon' against the possibility of getting involved with Robin again. He both hides behind it like a shield - from fear of getting involved with her again - and at the same time actively wounds her with it. He creates it after the breakup in order to hide from the fact that he's hurting. He starts talking about plays again in 'The Best Man' because of the tense situation between him & Robin after the almost kiss and the cab conversation, where he knows he's having feelings again and isn't sure about hers so he hides behind this when he think his first attempt at deflection (calling Nora repeatedly) has come to nothing
( ... )
That would've been much more meaningful if the Playbook was under the sword but it was quite funny when it was above the Stormtrooper.
The Playbook is Barney's Samurai Sword in that it protected him from HIMSELF from showing that he was hurting over his breakup with Robin and he used it as a protective shield against fighting his feelings for Robin. But, it also helped him win Robin back so the Playbook is/was his life until he realized Robin is really his whole life and he doesn't need the playbook anymore.
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Let's discuss the relevance of this quote to this episode, this season, and if you're really ambitious, the whole of the show!
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In S7, timing is used a few times with B/R. First, the phone call in The Best Man, where Barney is clearly still hung up on Nora and ruins where Robin is going to tell Barney she is interested. Then, again, we see they had a timing issue during the hurricane in Disaster Averted. Finally, timing does become a huge obstacle in their getting back together because they both end up cheating on their SO's; and Robin realizes she can't get back to Barney this way in Tick Tick Tick. Whereas, if B/R had slipped up when they were both single, they might've actually gotten back together. But at the same time, neither was really ready to get back together until they finally did in The Final Page because Barney needed to deal with his family stuff and to realize that he *wanted* commitment, and Robin had to realize that she truly loved Barney for even the "most sociopathic" parts of his personality ( ... )
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I see many similarities between 'Do I Know You?' and 'The Best Man':
'Do I Know You?' begins with Barney finally admits to himself and to Lily that he's in love with Robin. In 'The Best Man', the one who's talking with Lily is Robin, who admits practically the same thing, saying "I wish Barney were my boyfriend again."
Barney in 'Do I Know You?' tries to impress Robin and tries to talk about his feelings, which Robin tries to do with Barney in 'The Best Man' after their dance. But, in both cases, things do not go as hoped: Robin arrives with April in the first case while in the second one Barney gets a call from Nora.
'Benefits': the "I love you" from Barney can be compared to the speech that Robin does in 'The Best Man' when Barney is on the phone with Nora. In both situations, one of the two does not realize that the confessions of the other are true ( ... )
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Robin even has similar random blurt-outs (like Barney's in S4 and Hopeless) in both The Best Man and Noretta. But I think CTCB had to know that in order to make the general audience buy B/R getting back together, they had to show the relationship from Robin's side both this time, and again in S8.
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Robin's speech about the fact that you can not go back into the past just because it is familiar, removed the security in regards to what Barney thought that Robin was feeling for him. So, I'm not sure that Barney was completely aware of the fact that Robin had still real feelings for him in 7x01. I think he was just confused and he did not want to misjudge the situation.
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But I think they both end up experiencing way more active denial then they did in S6, which is why they end up backsliding in Disaster Averted. In both Mystery vs. History and The Slutty Pumpkin Returns, they're back into BFF mode, but, especially in Slutty Pumpkin Returns, there is way more flirtation between them -- despite them being in other relationships -- which ends up causing a *huge* issue for both.
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I love this dance, it's possibly my favorite BR moment and I have so many moments I love but this one I will remember for along time because it was a moment that was both fun and romantic all at the same time.
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Mine too! I loved it, it was so fun, sweet and sexy. That dance is basically what their relationship is and i would think about it as something that came out of the blue because it would be the clearest example of their chemistry at work.
I remember that when i watched that scene for the first time, that was the moment i knew for definitive that B/R were endgame.
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The Playbook is Barney's Samurai Sword in that it protected him from HIMSELF from showing that he was hurting over his breakup with Robin and he used it as a protective shield against fighting his feelings for Robin. But, it also helped him win Robin back so the Playbook is/was his life until he realized Robin is really his whole life and he doesn't need the playbook anymore.
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