How I Met Your Mother - Season 8 Episode 17 - Recap and Review - The Ashtray

Recap and review of How I Met Your Mother - Season 8 Episode 17 - The Ashtray:

It's been a while since How I Met Your Mother has done a concept episode. Or, at least, it feels like a long time. "The Ashtray" is an episode that will either succeed or fail based on each individual audience member's willingness to go along with the central concept: a Rashomon-style series of flashbacks in which each member of the gang has a different recollection of the same past event. The show doesn't really need to wear its heart on its sleeve every week to be effective, yet I find that the emotional aspects of the series resonate that much more when they're not expected. Lily (Alyson Hannigan) hasn't had much to do this season, so her little subplot, a continuation of the arc examining her lack of fulfillment with her life, is the best plot in the episode, even though it technically shouldn't be, since we haven't been keeping up with her as much as we have the other characters this season. The individual aspects of the main comedic plot are a resounding success, at least for me, but it's the heart at the center of it all that puts this in the win column, as it's not only Lily who gets a moment of sentimentality, but also Barney (Neil Patrick Harris).

Credit: CBS

"The Ashtray" brings us the return of The Captain (Kyle MacLachlan), the man whose wife Ted (Josh Radnor) pursued romantically, resulting in one of the more tumultuous relationships of Ted's romantic history. When Ted receives a phone call out of the blue from the mercurial millionaire, his resulting panic over what The Captain could possibly want with him triggers a series of recollections about the last time they encountered The Captain at an art gallery opening. Each iteration of the story has one overarching theme in common: the teller of the story always places his or herself as the central figure in The Captain's reason for calling. Oh, and Barney is always left out in each retelling, as each member insists that Barney wasn't actually there, though Barney continues to insist, with increasing desperation, that he was. Ted believes that The Captain's grudge issues from Ted having inadvertently stolen yet another woman from him, while Robin's (Cobie Smulders) version centers on the belief that The Captain is obsessed with her. Yet Lily's is the version of the story that comes closest to reality, as Lily reveals that she stole The Captain's ashtray in retribution for his having told her that her opinion on the merit of an apparently-worthless painting doesn't matter since she's only a kindergarten teacher.

Credit: CBS

When Marshall and Lily get into an argument over why Lily stole the ashtray, she reveals that it's because The Captain was right: she has an art history degree, but she hasn't actually done anything with it. She hasn't made one single step towards realizing her dreams, and now it's too late, as she's now a settled wife and mother. It's some of Alyson Hannigan's best work, and echoes the sentiment earlier in the season, as she admitted to a brief, momentary feeling of resentment towards baby Marvin for anchoring her down so completely to the home life. I actually feel it's a shame that Hannigan doesn't get more to do on the series, as she really has a lot to offer as a dramatic actress, beyond the practiced skill of her comedic timing. Marshall (Jason Segel), for his part, understands where Lily is coming from and encourages her to quit her job and pick up where she left off in pursuing her dream. Lily seems to consider it, but it's really no use. She resigns herself to returning the ashtray to The Captain and offering her sincere apologies.

Of course, upon meeting with The Captain, she learns that he never even noticed the ashtray was missing. What he had wanted to show her was the picture he chastised her for liking at the art gallery. He reconsidered her recommendation, and went back and purchased the painting - which just sold for $4 million. Turns out the artist became famous after he purchased the painting, and it's a purchase he'd never have made had Lily not spoken up, since no one else saw the painting's value but her. The Captain offers her a job as his new art consultant, and she says yes, naturally. It's a lovely cap to the subtle arc of Lily's resentment and dissatisfaction. While it's true that not everyone gets to live their dream (and it's getting a bit weird that everyone on this show ultimately gets what they want), it's heartening to see Lily attain some semblance of self-satisfaction with her life, especially since she's so often the one tasked with being the wet blanket of the group.

There's also a nice moment in which Barney reveals that the reason he's been trying to insert himself into their stories is because, normally, telling outlandish stories has been his thing. In essence, Barney feels excluded, so Ted and Robin throw Barney a bone by pretending that he was there, reassuring him that he doesn't remember any of it because he was busy running a play from his playbook on The Captain's date. What's funny is that this turns out to be exactly what happened, as the episode's tag reveals the play in question, in which Barney replaces a painting from the art gallery with a painting of himself dressed as an Archduke, at which point the mark recognizes him from the painting and is starstruck. The entire plotline is funnier than it is touching, but it's still a welcome addition to the episode. In fact, nearly all of the individual comedic aspects of the episode are successful, from the running gag of sandwiches subbing in for marijuana in Future Ted's storytelling, to Barney's increasingly ludicrous attempts to guess where each of his friends' stories was going, in an attempt to make it appear as though he'd actually been there. It's a solid episode from top-to-bottom, and that's certainly enough to count this as an unqualified success overall. We're closing in on the end of the season, but the show isn't really slowing down much, and I can appreciate the sort of liveliness that this show is still capable of, eight seasons in. But then, this is something that we should hope for, given how well-established both the characters and this world are to the viewer.