'How I Met Your Mother' Season 7, Episode 10 Recap - 'Tick, Tick, Tick...'

An absolutely gorgeous episode of "How I Met Your Mother." Interesting, too, that in a week when "Community," one of the most innovative shows ever in terms of story structure, is essentially cancelled, we see two very bold episodes from "HIMYM" and "Family Guy," both of which dealt with time in one sense or another.

Playing with time isn't anything new to "HIMYM," though. We've seen all kinds of gags come to fruition through flashback reveals, skipping ahead to later in the episode (or even the season), and freeze frames of various shapes and sizes. So when you have an opening with the illustrious Mr. Saget talking about Einstein's relativity and how time moves at different speeds, you know you're in for a treat.

We spend most of the episode watching some uncomfortable situations play out. Barney and Robin, after spending the night together, are supposed to go on Sandy Rivers' annual cruise with Nora and Kevin.

They struggle with whether or not to tell their signifcant others about the cheating, but decide (rather wisely) that it isn't a great idea to do it on a boat, no matter what that ultra-specific song that the band was playing says. I think the title of that one was "You Fooled Around On Your Baby."

Ted and Marshall, meanwhile, are going to Groovapalooza with Lily, and decide to have some "sandwiches" before they go. Interesting how Older Ted is comfortable with telling his kids about his and his friends' sexual escapades, but not about marijuana use, isn't it?

Marshall starts to think the sandwiches were laced with some "hard meats," and the two of them get pretty messed up. So messed up, in fact, that they wander around the arena for two hours looking for nachos, stand in the line for the women's restroom, get freaked out by a creepy guitar guy, and have a friendship crisis and subsequent resolution.

But the big reveal--the big, gorgeous reveal--is that they haven't been wandering around for two hours. It's only been two minutes, and they just perceived the time differently. The icing on this gag's cake is that we get to see those full two minutes on the security camera as Ted and Marshall play out a hurried microcosm of the episode we just saw. Amazing.

Equally gorgeous, but in a different way, was the payoff for the Ted/Robin storyline. The two decide that they need to tell their significant others about the cheating, after which point they'll meet at MacLaren's and "talk about us." Only one of the two followed through, though, and surprisingly it was Barney.

A beautiful moment as Barney lives out "the second that would never end."

And possible complications on the horizon, as Ted catches Barney clearing candles and rose petals out of Robin's room. Will Ted tell? And what does this mean for Barney's wedding that we got a glimpse of earlier this season? Can he repair things with Nora, or are we pretty much guaranteed to see a Barney/Robin union, as soon as Kevin is out of the picture?

Other notes:

-Nice touch by Jason Segel, choking a bit on the sandwich.

-"They know!" "She knows!"

-"What if this isn't the story of how we made a horrible mistake? What if it's the story of how we got back together?" Awww.

-The montage of Barney/Robin shots while Nora's dad was talking. Cute and very, very sad at the same time.