HIMYM S4E3: I Heart NJ

“No snakes on that plane.”

Ted lives in New York, Stella lives in New Jersey. He feels like he spends all of his time on the train, so he invites his buddies to hang in NJ one night even though they all hate NJ – and Ted hates it most of all. Once there, he is horrified to learn that Stella expects him to move in with her once they’re married. Ted is totally immature and is SO not ready to get married. How could he possibly expect Stella to move in with him? As she points out, she has a house in NJ, her kid’s school is in NJ, her kid’s friends are in NJ, her family is in NJ, etc etc etc. They get into a big fight about it, but then he runs into her daughter, who asks him to read her a story. And naturally she woos him, and he decides to move to NJ after all.

Whatever. I’m a Sarah Chalke fan, but the Ted-Stella relationship just doesn’t work. As I said before, Ted is so immature and petty that I can’t believe Stella would actually agree to marry him. The whole proposal storyline came on way too fast – obviously on purpose, as evidenced by the “Do I Know You” episode. We are meant to believe that every event in Ted’s life eventually leads to the mother, so obviously there is a reason for all of this…I’m just getting tired of waiting.

Meanwhile, Robin quits her job at Metro News One after getting the national anchor job. Only it turns out she didn’t get the job – she got an audition. Desperate, she begs for her old job back even though Lily and Barney try to convince her she’s better than Metro News One. She goes through a bunch of rigamarole to get her job back, but then ends up quitting on air, for good. And then, in the least surprising twist ever, Robin doesn’t get the national anchor job…she gets a job as a foreign correspondent, which means she’s moving to Japan.

On a related note – there is a promo photo out there that shows Stella punching Barney, and it was touted as being related to this episode. Obviously not. Hmmmm….