As *HIMYM* enters its seventh season, things are a little trickier. We know where a lot of the stories seem to be headed; we've been through major life events for every character, and the show seems to be gesturing more firmly toward its endgame. That means we've entered the stretching period, or the point where the show had its destination in mind, and wasn't quite sure how quickly it had to get there, so had to set up a number of arbitrary conflicts to eat up time between this point and the final episode. **SPOILER: I don't usually do this, but I'm going to talk about the end game for the series here, so please avoid reading the rest of this review if you haven't seen the whole show.** So we get a love triangle with Robin, Barney, and Nora, and that's flawed for a lot of reasons. The easiest one is that the show has yet to give us a good reason to be invested in Barney and Nora's relationship, so thus far she's still just the uber-girl by pairing, and is now reduced to being The Baxter between two main character. Worse yet, Robin suddenly decides she loves Barney again, even though the S6 finale (which admittedly teased this rekindling) had a nice beat about how even if Robin and Barney had a spark, they weren't right for each other. The fact that they marry and divorce works for that idea, but the show spends so much time going in circles trying to sell us on Robin and Barney that it feels like too little too late. And the show acknowledges this here! Lily and Robin's conversation explicitly states that Robin's attraction makes no sense! And Lily's retort that chemistry doesn't have to make sense is a weak cover for what is a fruitless pairing to goose the romantic drama as we head toward the finale. Look, Robin and Barney can do an enjoyable (if empty calorie) dance routine that is delightful and fun. But we're suddenly supposed to believe that Robin is infatuated with Barney and that Barney is infatuated with Nora and the show just hasn't done enough to lay the groundwork for either development. Robin's scene with Ted takes on new meaning knowing where this is heading. I'm on board as not being in favor of the ending, because I think the show did a good job, at this point and beyond, at showing how Robin and Ted worked better as friends than as romantic partners, but I do like the seed they plant for the idea here, that they could theoretically pick this up so long as they have "chemistry" and "timing." Again, the execution of that idea is tepid at best, but it's some solid storytelling and a nice ethos. Ted's speech about his idealism and excitement for romance waning a little more each day is nice too. There's a story with meat on the bones, and gets to the broader foundations of the show. Again, I don't like how they did it, but it's a nice setup for what's to come. And hey, the comedy was a little silly, but the false starts with Marshall ruining the wedding until the way he actually ruined it was some nice narrative structure, and the conceit that Ted's fated to break down giving his speech, while what does it this time is the news that Lily's pregnant is a nice little dovetail as well. Again, there's a lot to like about this episode, but it spends a lot of time focused on ideas that don't quite work, and lean into the water-treading, romantic drama-for-drama sake issues that would plague the series over the final third of its lifespan.