How I Met Your Mother: 10 Episodes Proving It's Past Its Best

10. The Rough Patch

This season 5 atrocity was really the first episode in the show's nine year run to give viewers the impression that older Ted desperately needed to, in the immortal words of Monty Python, GET ON WITH IT! Season 5 introduced a novel component to the show; that swinger and philanderer Barney Stinson could actually maintain a committed relationship... with Robin, aka his best friend's ex-girlfriend whom he slept with "by accident" two seasons before and has been pining for ever since. Together €“ albeit in secret €“ since the conclusion of season 4, it's a safe bet that nobody really thought it would last, and alas it did not. The Rough Patch showed us what really went on behind closed doors when Barnman and Robin (as they later came to be known) weren't in the presence of Ted, Lily and Marshall. They were probably the worst couple imaginable. Constantly fighting, irritated by the slightest presence of each other, and each letting themselves go, the relationship had to end. Concocting a rather unorthodox variation of Lily's infamous and in my mind despicable "Aldrin Justice," the gang resolves to break up the toxic relationship and save the gang's friendship by basically throwing the kitchen sink at them while they're out to eat. The plethora of characters in one scene include Alan Thicke, Barney's stalker ex, a busboy and a random guy dressed up as the Lost In Space robot (because Stormtroopers are apparently robots, according to Lily). So Robin and Barney broke up, for now. It was a nice break and it was great to have the real Barney back.