Oh How I Met Your Mother. I missed you.

It’s not that this week’s episode, “The Stinsons”, was one of my all time favorites. The plot was a bit outlandish for my taste. It featured Barney making up an entire family in order to keep his mom (Frances Conroy, from Six Feet Under) happy. Most of what I love about this show is how relatable it feels (They’re late-twenty somethings with an extremely tight-knit group of friends who make a lot of sex jokes and drink a lot of beer. I’m an early-twenty something with an extremely tight-knit group of friends who make a lot of sex jokes and drink a lot of beer and Carlo Rossi), and this week’s episode was firing on high-concept, cheaper joke cylinders. That’s okay, though, because as it turns out, I really just missed the high-wit, high-chemistry vibe that HIMYM gives off even in a not-so-great week. And whether or not this was HIMYM gold, it featured a lot of Neil Patrick Harris being goofy and a Robin storyline that involved getting hit on by a seven-year-old. Plus, I sort of loved the “theater” Ted who came out as he gushed about Brecht. Other gals may go for Ted the ridiculous romantic or Ted the Nice Guy, but I’m all about Ted the pretentious, grammar-correcting douche bag.

I can’t wait for next week, but I have to wonder: how long can this Barney/Robin tension last without anything happening? I’m all for painful pining, but there’s only so many times a show can end with a poignant reminder to Barney that he should do something about Robin before it’s too late. Which isn’t to say that this week’s capper (the shy smile shared by Barney and Robin in the back of the cab) wasn’t the perfect antithesis to this week’s zaniness, it’s just to say that I sincerely hope the show is building to something.