How I Met Your Mother 'Unpause' Review: Barney tells the truth and Lily and Marshall have their fight

How I Met Your Mother returned to form on Monday night with "Unpause," which featured Lily and Marshall's resuming their big Italy/judge fight. Let's consider last week's weird trip to faux-China as a "pause" on HIMYM's ninth and final season and 

"Unpause" as what the show should have come back with in the first place.

The episode had the entire gang together and got things off on the right foot with a funny bit in which Marshall embarrassed Ted with the items he got from his home in Ohio. After that, he tried to bang his wife to sleep to avoid their fight, but to no avail. And boy, what a fight it was.

This was a long time coming, and HIMYM delivered with a fresh and very heartfelt argument that was worthy of the most stable couple on the show. They took shots at each other that cut to the core, and Lily got so upset that she had to leave the Farhampton Inn. This one fight was better than any of the contrived Barney/Robin drama that dragged down the first half of the season. Well done.

Down at the bar, Barney got so drunk that he reached a stage of clarity where he could not tell a lie, so Ted and Robin of course took advantage of the situation. And we finally found out Barney's job: PLEASE. It turns out that Barney was telling us his job all along, which is a master plan to screw over the guy who stole his girlfriend and turned Hippie Barney into the Barney we know and love.

And last but not least, we found out Ted's children's names: Penny and Luke. At least ol' Mosby got one out of two Star Wars names in there!

We also got more of Ted and The Mother together, which is always a shot in the arm for Season 9. We've only seen bits and pieces of their life together, but what they've showed has felt very real and loving. One of the biggest wishes I had for HIMYM this year was to show, not tell, the relationship between the two, and they've done a decent job of that to this point. Hopefully next week's 200^th episode will continue on that theme.

Notes and Quotes

-       So there WILL be a ring bear at the ceremony!

-       Barney didn't actually bang Ted's mom. Ted can live with that and so can we.

-       "Medium-sized Fudge." Poor Marshall. Also, we learned Barney's...size. Too much information?

-       If Robin is wealthy, why was she staying on Lily and Marshall's couch for so long? Unless, of course, she can't actually access the money.

-       Nice callback to Lily's shopping addiction during the flashbacks to her and Marshall's fights.

-       "Jabba Drunk" was great.

-       Any ideas what will happen on the 200^th episode next week?

What did you think of tonight's episode, HIMYM fans? Let us know in the comments below.