By Matthew Wood

That Barney, he’s one smart guy. Not only does he call out Ted’s new girlfriend for being nutso, but he also brings us his “crazy scale,” complete with visual aides.

The crazy scale is very simple, according to Barney (Neil Patrick Harris): The level of craziness for a chick cannot exceed her level of hotness, or else she crosses the Mendoza line and becomes too crazy to date. Pretty simple, right?

Well, during a night out at the bar, Ted’s (Josh Radner) new girl runs the gamut on the scale, eventually registering on the wrong end of crazy. In the meantime, we get some back stories as to how each of the friends met each other, after it comes out that Ted actually met his new lady online.

Through the flashbacks, Ted reveals that he actually made out with Lily (Alyson Hannigan) in college before hubby Marshall (Jason Segel) did, which doesn’t make anyone very happy. And when Little Miss Psycho Date finds out Ted and Robin (Cobie Smulders) used to date, well, things only get uglier.


I guess we all knew that the new girl (who’s name Ted can’t even remember) was doomed from the start, which goes to show you just can’t find nice girls on World of Warcraft anymore.

Normally the numerous flashbacks on the show tend to annoy me, but this week it was more than a little endearing to see the gang back in college – facial hair and all. And I loved their continued references to “eating sandwiches,” which is just a pseudonym for smokin’ the reefer (after all, they are telling the story to their kids, so they need to clean it up a bit). And you gotta love seeing Barney meet the guys, which involved him telling a chick that Ted was his deaf brother in order to get her number. Classy stuff, Barney. I would expect nothing less from you, old man.


But here’s my big question: How are Ted and Robin – fresh off a bad break-up from a yearlong relationship – such good friends again? Is it just because they don’t have any other friends, that they just take what they can get? Man, I’d tell that bitch to go find her own crew. But hey, that’s just me.