Lily has her birthday and all the pictures have to be just right. It's going great until Ted arrives--with a girl. This random "skank" as Lily calls her will forever be etched into the photo of friends and a girl no one remembers. The story didn't really go anywhere, but it did resolve some issues between Ted and Lily which came to a very satisfying conclusion when Lily realizes that Ted included her in a past picture.
The rest of the episode was spent going through memory lane. In all these photos, there's random skank after random skank. Ted can hardly even remember the names. It was fun to see Laura Prepon and Anne Dudek, and the laughs were numerous. But for all the time dedicated to the past, the story didn't move one bit. There were also a few gags with Barney and Marshall. Barney can't take a bad picture and Marshall can't take a picture without looking dead, stoned, and cold. Again, really funny stuff that didn't matter much in the end.
The one-year flashforward may have shed some light on what will happen. Don isn't there and neither is anyone Ted is seeing. Can we expect Don out of the picture and still no Mother in a year? I'm kind of disappointed in that, but the writers could easily come up with an excuse.
Score: 8.8/10
