Week after week the show I look most forward to seeing is How I Met Your Mother on Monday nights. It’s consistently packed with great writing, great performances and great stories with wonderful little surprises at every turn. This week, those little delights came in the form of two of my favourite television actors: Jamie Kaler and Joanna Garcia.

The guest spots by the stars of My Boys (Kaler) and Privileged (Garcia) came as a surprise to me (someone who is sorely behind on her entertainment news these days) and I couldn’t have been happier to see them. Garcia really is the ultimate girl next door, a fan (and My TV) favourite and the perfect actress to play Ted’s missed opportunity of the week. I’m never unhappy to see Jamie Kaler on the small screen, even without the rest of the perfect My Boys ensemble, and his role as Garcia’s sweet coworker was a complete 180 from My Boys‘ Mike, a nice change of pace for the comedian.

All in all, the Maggie story was quite lovely. Ted’s bit with his students was cute but ridiculous, Robin’s role was worth a chuckle or two but not much more (one of her weakest episodes in a very long time- Cobie’s been a highlight of the last couple seasons for the most part) and Barney was up to some of his least amusing antics ever. But the mediocre episode was saved by HIMYM‘s secret weapon: an oversized, sugar-coated marshmallow heart. Not only was Marshall’s B-story typically sweet but at the center of all the crazy swirling around the A-story was what Ted called “the second greatest love story [he’d] ever heard”, and that’s always welcome. It also means that the Maggie incident has put Ted on the right track, one that will lead him to that titular mother. I have a feeling he might get there soon, say right around the show’s 100th episode, coming later this season.