Last night’s How I Met Your Mother, entitled The Playbook, centered around Barney’s antics after his breakup with Robin. Any episode that centers around Barney Stinson, has me hooked from the beginning. I’ve said before that I think he is one of the greatest characters on television (if not the greatest), and this episode truly featured him in the best way. Barney used The Playbook, which contained ridiculous ways of picking up girls, to well, you guessed it. It all started when Barney picked up a girl that was supposed to go out with Ted (Lily was setting them up). He used the “play” entitled Lorenzo Von Matterhorn, where he creates an internet celebrity persona and then gets the girl to look up his fake news stories and website, thus winning her over with his “celebrity.” Some other favorites were the “SNASA:” convincing a girl he was a part of “Secret NASA,” and he’s been to the smoon (secret moon), “The Ted Mosby:” where he goes up to a girl with a wedding ring and says he’s been left at the altar, the “Mrs. Stinsfire,” where he dresses up like Mrs. Doubtfire and becomes a house mother to a sorority, and the “He’s Not Coming,” where he goes to the top of the Empire State Building and says “He’s not coming,” to every girl until one actually believes him and seeks his comfort. While all of this playbook greatness is going on, Lily is trying to take away Barney’s playbook, because she thinks he can’t be up to his old ways anymore after his relationship with Robin. Meanwhile, Ted and Marshall pick on Robin, saying now that she’s not interested in a relationship and just “focused on her career,” she will be married in no time.

This episode may not have had a ton to forward the plot along, or find out who the mother is (but really, that may not really happen until the last episode), but The Playbook was pure brilliance. As HIMYM tends to do, I assume this will actually come out in book form sometime soon. The writers are just so creative and brilliant. The best play however, was not mentioned above, it was the final play, entitled The Scuba Diver. Barney had ripped this play out of The Playbook so the gang couldn’t read it. Ultimately it ended up that he planned/knew about the entire thing: that Lily stole the playbook, that she set the Empire State Building girl up, that she would try to interrupt the Scuba Diver “play” and that in the end, he would get the girl by voicing his non-existent insecurities. Basically, Barney Stinson is, and will forever remain, the player, and not the played.

I would have liked to see more Marshall in this episode, but I really love the way Barney has become such a strong character. Every episode, he truly pushes the boundaries, and it’s always hilarious. I still question whether Barney and Robin should have stayed together (although I feel like maybe another hookup is in their future), but I understand that the creative team needs Barney to stay true to himself. Eventually the player will settle down, but not quite yet…because we still need many more playbooks, bro codes, and lemon laws…you son of a beetch.

How I Met Your Mother airs on Monday nights at 8 pm on CBS.