How I Met Your Mother S6 E10 "Blitzgiving"

Synopsis: On the eve of Thanksgiving, the gang is visited by an old college friend who has "the Blitz," a condition that causes him to ditch outings with his friends and consistently miss an amazingly fun time. However when Ted leaves the bar early that night, "the Blitz" is passed onto him and he misses an awesome night of partying. The next day (Thanksgiving), "the Blitz" continues to be passed around and Ted manages to put aside a longtime conflict with Zoey (a woman who has been trying to put a stop to his architectural ambitions) in order to save the gang's Thanksgiving.

Review: I give a lot of credit to this episode's writer, Theresa Mulligan, because this episode had jokes more concentrated than a laugh a minute. My favorite was "Boom-a-Wang," the term given to the dirty picture message response to Marshall's own picture of his junk, that he sent to a complete stranger on a dare. Of course, the focus of the episode was the condition of "the Blitz," and it created many hilariously outrageous spectacles such as a skateboarding dog and a beautiful woman strolling into the room entirely naked (all of which were missed by whoever had "the Blitz" at the given time). "The Blitz" concept is right in line with the spirit of the show, as How I Met Your Mother has deemed countless other terms for otherwise unnamed social phenomena.

While Blitz carried the episode, a narrative where Ted is struggling to see eye to eye with Zoey lacked the same intrigue. This relationship with Zoey has spanned several episodes and it seems to me that Zoey should have either been written out of the show or she and Ted's relationship should have developed to something else by now. The writers are beating this conflict like a dead horse and I am eager to be done with it or have Zoey evolve somehow.

My Grade: B+ (Minus Zoey, this episode is an A+ for unrelenting hilarity)

Reviewer's Quotes: Robert Canning (IGN): "The writing has never fully made me believe or care about their conflict, so when Zoey shows up, it can be difficult to fully engage. But in "Blitzgiving," the curse and the fun flashbacks helped a bit. Seeing Zoey as more of a regular person than the extremes she had been portrayed as is helping to make the character more likeable. I still don't see her and Ted as a couple, but perhaps she can still work on an episode-to-episode basis, like in "Blitzgiving."