TV.com

How I Met Your Mother Season 4 Episode 15

The Stinsons

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 5

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

8.4

User Rating

336 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

AIRED: 3/2/09

Suspecting he has a secret girlfriend, the gang follows Barney when he leaves MacLaren's and discovers he seemingly has been keeping a family secret from them.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (13)

Barney's new life

8.5

By Lostindharma, Jan 03, 2013

A surprising start to this episode when Barney decides to skip the blonde drunks at the bar to do something else. The gang follows him and u find out that he has a family. It was a good start to the episode. However similar when you find out that Barney might have been a father, you quickly realize this it not true. Also like when Barney tries to seduce he comes up with a rich back story. This time he does it to impress his mom. You have to admire his dedication to making his mom happy. The role of Barney's mom was a good choice. Like Barney she enjoyed "company" in her younger days. Now she is a women trying to better herself. While Barney trying to please his mom was nice I wonder why did it since his half-brother had a child and is married. Barney's "wife" and "kid" were admirable choices. I like the wife better. It was enjoyable how Barney wanted everyone to skip to the "script". The kid was a little annoying. I enjoyed Barney's comment about kid actors being better in the 80's. It was not much of a surprise that Ted and the wife were interested in each other and hooked up with a shared love of theater. I liked the back story on why Ted did it with the tips she gave Ted on acting. Barney tried to cover this up with more lies but decided to come clean and tell her the truth.

Other funny moments are when Lilly and Marshall debated whether they should do it on Barney's childhood bed again and the call between Lilly and Marshall's

The ending was really nice when Loretta told Barney he shouldn't run away from some one he likes and then Robin came in. While this episode might have been as others, this was still worth watching. And yes another good song at the end.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
Barney casts a wife and kid to please his mother.

7.5

By pudgebyrd722, Jan 03, 2012

This was a unique episode, but a little crazy and unrealistic. But it shows how there ARE some people that Barney doesn't ever want to upset which is nice, even if it is his mother who admitted to being a whore when she was younger. When she thinks she is dying, Barney realizes she told him she didn't want him ending up alone, so he casts a fake wife and then when she requests grandchildren, his "wife" lies and says she's pregnant, with their fake son. The other subplots were even less enjoyable as Ted all of a sudden wants to become an actor and then Lily admits she doesn't like Marshall's mother. I thought we knew this?moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
The gang follow Barney and find out he has a wife and son.

8.0

By Jon_MW_14, Aug 25, 2011

"The Stinsons" in my opinion is an entertaining episode How I met Your Mother episode. I love how the gang is suspicious the Barney has a secret lover and they follow him and it turns out he has a wife and a son. I love how he reveals that they are actors and he hired them because he thought his mom was dying and he thought it would make her happy if she died knowing he was married. But then she recovered, so Barney has a fake family. I love how Barney writes scripts for his friends. I love how Barney reveals to his mother that Betty and Tyler are just actors and I love how she's relieved because she doesn't like them. I give this episode a 8/10.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Flag
Share Hide
Unrealistic.

4.0

By Canogaparkcindy, Oct 15, 2010

I laughed when I looked at the episode page picture, it's like everybody is saying, "Why am I even in this show? This episode was pretty bad." This is the lowest I've given a HIMYM episode, it seems as though the writers have just given up, and there has been no mention of the mother in weeks. Barney casts a fake family? The only good thing about this episode is that we finally meet Barney's mom, but that's just about it. Ted was incredibly annoying in this episode, with Barney's "wife". Didn't we know that Lilly & Marshall's mom had issues since 109? The first season Thanksgiving episode. The fact that they had to bring this random plot out of nowhere made no sense. Robin bonding with the little boy was laughable. It's like I was watching a different show. It's like someone won a contest, and won the rights to write an episode of HIMYM. All the characters were out of place and unlikable in this episode. The only worthy scene is the bonding between Barney & his mom by the end, and when he looked at Robin which shows the viewers he's still in love with her. A poor episode, with pretty much nothing "great" about it. Just one eventful scene, nothing funny or anything. Not up to par.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 4

Flag
Share Hide
Undoubtedly the worst episode of the series. We're all willing to suspend reality, but this one was just too much.

1.0

By judolphin, Oct 08, 2010

This was undoubtedly the worst episode of the series. We're all willing to suspend reality, but this one was just too much. This was too much. I hope this episode was an aberration. This show is basically a soap opera, and this plot twist has absolutely no redeeming qualities regarding character development or plotline, and wasn't very entertaining. Hopefully it's an aberration and not a trend, because this is in general a well-written show. This review has to be at least one hundred words long or tv.com won't let me post it. This review will end in just a second.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
4 19

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Josh Radnor	Ted Mosby
Neil Patrick Harris	Barney Stinson
Alyson Hannigan	Lily Aldrin
Jason Segel	Marshall Eriksen
Cobie Smulders	Robin Scherbatsky

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Brooke D'Orsay	Margaret	Guest Star
Zachary Gordon	Grant	Guest Star
Kimberly Pfiffer	Stage Mom	Guest Star
Frances Conroy	Loretta Stinson	Recurring Role

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (0)
ADD TRIVIA
- ADD TRIVIA from this episode.
QUOTES (5)
ADD QUOTES
- Barney: Look, mom, there's something I have to tell you, something I should have told you a long time ago. Tyler is dying, and Betty said that when he goes she's gonna off herself. So that's all probably going to go down pretty soon.
  EDIT SHARE
- Lily: Barney, check it, three blond babies drinking bad decision juice at eight o'clock.
  EDIT SHARE
- Marshall: Where is Barney going?
  Ted: Yeah. We're not even in Manhattan anymore. Where's this girl live?
  Robin: We're talking about a woman who's gotten Barney to commit. I'm guessing Narnia.
  EDIT SHARE
- Lily: Wait, Barney, hold on. Where are you going?
  Barney: Nowhere. (he pauses) The beach. It's winter. Laser tag. Home. Shut up! You're going somewhere.
  EDIT SHARE
- (Talking about Barney's choices for heroes in films)
  Robin: I got one: Terminator?
  Barney: What is the name of the movie, Robin? Who among us didn't shed a tear when his little red eye went out at the end, and he didn't get to kill those people?
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (5)
ADD NOTES
- The German episode title is "Die Stinsons". The French title is "La famille Stinson", meaning "The Stinson Family". The Italian title is "Famiglia in affitto", meaning "Family for Rent".
  EDIT SHARE
- The nephew in the episode "How Lily Stole Christmas" is the same actor as the kid who plays Barney's son Taylor, or Grant which is his real name, in the episode.
  EDIT SHARE
- International Airdates: Australia: April 27, 2009 on Channel 7; United Kingdom: March 18, 2010 on E4; Czech Republic: November 16, 2010 on Prima COOL
  EDIT SHARE
- Music: "Vertigo" by Anya Marina played when Barney comes clean to his mother about not being married.
  EDIT SHARE
- This episode was originally scheduled to air February 9, 2009, but was pre-empted due to President Obama's first prime-time news conference.
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (2)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- When the gang is following Barney on his way to meet his "girlfriend," they wonder out loud where his mystery girlfriend could live. Robin jokes that for the girl to be able to get Barney to commit, she must live in Narnia. Narnia is the mystical world created by C.S. Lewis for his fantasy novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that the main characters enter via a portal in the wardrobe.
  EDIT SHARE
- Barney, talking about the actor playing his son's poor abilities, says, "Call me crazy, but child actors were better in the '80s," slyly referring to Neil Patrick Harris' own career. This is accompanied by sound-alike music to the theme of his show, Doogie Howser, MD.
  EDIT SHARE