“Hopeless”

It was distressing to see Barney struggle to reunite with his father this season not only because we wanted the reconciliation to be a happy one, but also because we wanted to see John Lithgow break loose and show off his comic skills.  This finally happened with “Hopeless,” in which Jerry (Lithgow) realized that Barney would never start having a good time with his father until they had a legendary night of partying.  So the sometime magician pulls off the ultimate magic trick: a pretend night of debauchery.  Using sleight of hand, he downs several shots in a row, and in the hours that follow, he picks a fight with a biker, yanks out a parking meter, and pukes on a cop car, or at least that is how a very drunk Barney sees it.  Really, the biker is a statue, and Barney is the one who threw up.  As Jerry explains his ruse and its purposes of bonding with Barney and teaching him that he cannot party forever, we have one of those great “think back, remember how it really happened” moments.

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