How I Met Your Mother 'Sunrise' Review: Ted Lets Go of Robin...Maybe

How I Met Your Mother followed up last week's superb 200^th episode with another quality Season 9 installment in "Sunrise." The episode shifted focus back to Ted as we find out what he was up to in the days before the wedding and, as usual, his greatest strength is his greatest weakness.

We've spent eight-plus seasons exploring the psyche of Ted Mosby, the hopeless romantic who has been trampled by love as he relentlessly pursues it. Each time he came within an inch of what he thought was true love, life would rip it away from him, often times painfully. But as Josh Radnor himself as said, it's all worth it because we know that he wins in the end. He finds the woman of his dreams.

But man is it a rough road for the poor guy. "Sunrise" was a walk down Painful Memory Lane as Stella (Sarah Chalke), Victoria (Ashley Williams) and Jeanette (Abby Elliott) all made appearances in Ted's quest to find Robin's locket. As he and Robin walked on the beach during the wedding weekend, the two recounted his best and worst relationships, which eventually led to Ted's dropping some revelations on his ex.

Ted told her that he broke up with Victoria and that he is moving to Chicago because of her. Robin naturally reacted with shock that Ted would do these things because of their relationship, but Ted didn't pull any punches and made it clear that he simply can't be around her anymore. It hurts to be in her presence. He needs to move on.

Their conversation in the present made the flashbacks all the more painful, as we watched Ted try to fight through quicksand and retrieve the locket. Jeanette, of all people, tells him that he's being crazy, that he's going to ruin his best friends' wedding and that there's no way he will ever be with Robin.

And that's when Ted lost it.

He knows already. He knows that he's never going to be with Robin. He knows that this woman is out of his reach and deep down, he may even know that she's not the one for him. But he doesn't care. Because as he so eloquently put it, that's what love is: fighting for someone even when everyone else tells you to give up. Anything less than that is not worth it, which is why he'll keep fighting for Robin no matter what happens. His greatest strength is his greatest weakness. He'll fight to get the girl at the expense of everything else in his life, even if it destroys him.

(Quick side note: Josh Radnor excels at Ted's big, emotional speeches. His acting on this show is sometimes criminally underrated.)

Jeanette did him a favor by throwing that locket into the water, and by the end of the episode, Ted has let Robin go. It seemed like closure on eight years of turmoil, but I'm still convinced that Ted is going to do something to torpedo the wedding somehow. There's one more hurdle to jump before Ted gets to his true love, and I have a feeling it's going to be a tough one to get over.

Elsewhere in the episode, Marshall talked to ghost/imaginary versions of Lily as he tried to work through their fight. By the end, he realized that he could win this battle, but he'd lose the war (as in his marriage) if he kept on this path. The real Lily returned and told Marshall that they would stay in New York, and it seems (for now) like they've reached a resolution.

Barney also had a mostly throwaway subplot in which he taught two random guys how to live, but there was actually some sweetness to it as he gave the Playbook (written on 100 napkins) to them and told them to "take care of the game" for him because he didn't need it anymore. There was some genuine humor in this story, but it mostly felt like a reason for Barney to be away from the main action for the episode.

"Sunrise" kept Season 9 moving in the right direction, and with the wedding day finally upon us, we shouldn't have to suffer through any more filler episodes as the show sprints to the finish line.

Notes and Quotes:

-       Zoey made the list of Ted's best and worst girlfriends on the gang's running email chain. Sounds about right.

-       "We just put down a deposit on adult bunk beds. Would getting killed really be so bad?"

-       It took eight years, but Ted now knows that Robin wanted him to kiss her on their first date. Smooth, Mosby.

-       "Whatever you do in this life, it's not legendary unless your friends are there to see it." Sound advice, Barney.

-       I don't care what Barney says. There is no way that the meatballs at a strip club are anything but an affront to creation.

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