TV Review: How I Met Your Mother - "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns"

Season 7 - Episode 8

CBS (US)

This should have been amazing. It really should have been. The Slutty Pumpkin was first mentioned in season 1, and has been in pretty much every Halloween episode of the show since. Furthermore, while How I Met Your Mother never goes full on silly for Halloween like say, Community or The Office, the episodes centred around the event are usually some of the best.

Then they cast Katie Holmes as Naomi, the Slutty Pumpkin. Sometimes stunt casting works - like the couple of episodes Britney Spears appeared in a few years ago. Sometimes though, it's Katie Holmes. Who sucks the life out of every character she's ever played - I mean Batman even recast her character! Naomi is a dreadful character, and really, other than the fact that he's been chasing her for ten years, there's no reason Ted would even like her at all. Thankfully she won't be back, but even appearing in the show has made this episode worse than it could have been.

Elsewhere, Lily has developed "pregnancy brain" which leads her to make some highly uncharacteristic decisions. While the decisions she makes actually please Marshall, he knows that they'll upset her in the log run. What transpires is a warm, touching show of love from Marshall, who really has been the MVP of season 7 so far. The C-plot this week, though, is the highlight of the episode. Robin finds out (through his dad's Facebook - please can we have a return from John Lithgow soon?) that Barney is a quarter Canadian and relentlessly mocks him in revenge for years of torment herself. If Barney dresses as a Mountie at the Halloween party, Robin will stop the mocking. Cue Barney dressed as Apollo Creed, complete with a "Living in America" intro. A classic HIMYM moment. The tag scene is also a spot of genius.

Outside of Ted's plot this week, How I Met Your Mother was actually really good. However, with that being the A-plot, and taking up the majority of the episode, unfortunately, "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns" fell short of what it should have been.

*** 1/2