'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9, Episode 14: 'Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmara' Recap

As a beloved series draws to a close, fans are almost certainly going to cherish episodes in which ongoing plotlines are tied up, as nostalgia casts its bittersweet shadow over the final weeks of the series. That's why it's so surprising that this week's episode of "How I Met Your Mother," "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slap," is being referred to by many as one of the worst episodes of the entire series.

The episode was a continuation of the Slap Bet saga, in which Marshall prepares to deliver the penultimate slap to Barney's "stupid face." In preparation for the slap, Marshall tells Barney a fake story about how he traveled to Shanghai to study with a series of Slap Masters—who are played, in faux flashback, by Robin, Lily and Ted—in order to be able to deliver "the slap of a million exploding suns."

The whole thing is farcical and pun-filled—not to mention labored and largely unfunny—and it's not made much better by a show-ending cameo by Boyz II Men. We've been waiting a long time for the final slaps, and this episode somehow managed to, at the same time, take the next-to-last slap too seriously and not seriously enough.

There was also no B plot, no advancement of the wedding-weekend storyline, and no sign of Cristin Milioti. Considering all of that maybe the worst-episode-ever accusations are not so surprising after all.