How I Met Your Mother Episode 8.08 "Twelve Horny Women" Recap

“What’s the real story, here?” should have been the title of this week’s episode. We finally reached the “biggest trial in Marshall’s career,” but the real story lies in what happened both before and after the trial took place.  The episode opens with an implication that Marshall got in some trouble with the courts while going through his trial against Brad (Joe Manganiello). We see Marshall sitting before a panel of judges, discussing the events of the trial that – according to that timeline – happened way back in November of 2012. Things don’t really look too good for him – especially as we know that Brad had just stolen Marshall’s entire strategy for the case in a huge double-crossing from last week’s episode.

Although Brad had just stolen Marshall’s strategy, we didn’t see too much of that being used against Marshall in the trial. It seemed that Brad’s primary form of defense in court was by using sexual innuendo to win over the all-female jury [hence the episode’s title: “Twelve Horny Women”]. You could really see Marshall’s frustration with the entire situation – which naturally led the viewers to anticipate some sort of fight or outburst on Marshall’s part.

However, in typical How I Met Your Mother fashion, the real story as to why Marshall (Jason Segel) is standing before a panel of judges discussing that particular case has nothing to do with him being in any sort of trouble. In fact, Marshall actually wins the case against Gruber Pharmaceutical – the only drawback being that he doesn’t win the $25 million he was shooting for, just a measly $25 thousand. Still, Marshall took the news reasonably well, and as it turns out, was later convinced by Brad to try and become a judge one day – which is the real reason he was standing before the panel: they were interviewing him to determine whether or not they should allow him to become a judge!

While all this trial re-hashing was going on in the future, the actual case was being fought out in the courtroom here in present time. The gang – in a show of support for Marshall – took time off work to go see him in action in the court room, and – spurred on by the fact that they all called into work to go spend time in a courtroom – also spent a great deal of time trying to convince each other of their respective “badass” childhoods.

We’re led to believe that Barney’s (Neil Patrick Harris) stories are the only ones to be true [for once in Barney’s life]. However, for all their competition and stories, by the end of the episode it would seem that Lily is the only one with any truth to her stories – though I’m sure even her’s is at least a little exaggerated. Who can even imagine sweet Lily Aldrin Eriksen scaring kids and slapping police officers? [Though, I can’t pretend I didn’t like “badass” teen Lily as her costume certainly brought back memories of evil Willow from Alyson Hannigan’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer days.]

Meanwhile, Barney and Robin (Cobie Smulders) are experiencing the awkwardness of two people who recently kissed and don’t know how to handle it. While managing to hide it from the group, the two are unable to really interact with each other beyond the standard “Hi, how have you been?” exchanges common between acquaintances – not two people who have been friends as long as they have. It is certainly painful to watch.

Fortunately, at the end of the episode, Barney takes matters into his own hands, pointing out their awkward situation – and telling Robin that he’s through trying to win her over, and that he wants to go back to the way they were before. She agrees with him, and the two proceed to drink and chat the night away at MacLaren’s – though not before we see a strange facial expression on Robin’s face while Barney is getting the two a round up at the bar.

Though we could try and speculate on the meaning of Robin’s final facial expression, I think that we all have a pretty solid idea of where that look was going – knowing what we know about the two’s mutual fate. Though, as Future Ted would say, “more on that later”. Speaking of “more on that later,” we also have to wait to a future episode to find out whether or not Marshall was accepted for the position of judge – though I’m sure I’m not the only one assuming he’s a shoo-in.

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Tune in next week for “Lobster Crawl”: Robin is determined to hook up with Barney one more time. Meanwhile, Ted fills in as Marvin’s nanny, leading Marshall and Lily to realize that Ted is using baby Marvin to replace his other baby…the GNB building. This episode airs Monday, Dec. 3 (8:00-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS.