Episode 'How I Met Your Mother' Season 6, Episode 20 - 'The Exploding Meatball Sub' Recap

After two emotionally-charged episodes focusing on Barney and his relationships, "How I Met Your Mother" took some time to focus on Ted and Marshall this week.

Ted and Zoey, who take the "you hang up" thing to a whole new level, are challenging each other both professionally and in their relationship. This brings on the main lesson of the episode: some couple support each other (like Lily and Marshall) while others challenge each other.

But full support isn't that easy either: when Marshall chooses to quit his job and volunteer at a nonprofit, Lily finds herself dealing with more and more stress, until she decides she needs to go to Spain to get away from it all. She never makes it, luckily...she probably would have been stopped by those TSA agents anyway.

When Ted gets a taste of what support feels like, he realized how unhappy he's been with Zoey. But just when he's about to break up with her, the "graduation goggles" set in, and he changes his mind. So, it looks like Ted and Zoey live to fight another day.

So why is this episode called "The Exploding Meatball Sub" then? Well, it turns out that Marshall caused Barney to experience the most embarassing moment of his life...when Marshall pointed out that he had some marinara on his tie. Barney swears his revenge and sets out crafting a complicated plan to give Marshall an exploding meatball sub. And only ten years and tens of thousands of dollars later, he gets his wish!

So, we didn't have to handle any heartbreaking Barney moments this week. Looks like he's back to normal. I'm sure, though, that before the season ends we could end up revisiting his near-love experience with Nora, or his shocking encounter with his father.

The Psychological Question of the Week award goes to Robin for her analysis of the sexual relationship between Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. Zinger of the Week goes to Lily, for "That's love, bitch."