"Zoo Or False" examines our perceptions of truth, even as it plays with them. The episode centers on one particular tall tale and subsequent versions thereof. The facts are these: Marshall either doesn't want to or can't pay for the gang's pizza. Eventually, he says he doesn't have any money on him because he got mugged. This news sends Lily into a tailspin. In fact, she later goes to the firing range with Robin and decides she wants a gun (a pink Beretta to go with some new strappy sandals she just bought). Since Marshall is always accidentally injuring Lily, he's afraid to have a gun in the house, but Lily says she's getting one and that's that.

Once it becomes clear how undone Lily is over the mugging, Marshall tells her and the gang that he was actually mugged by a monkey at the zoo. The monkey reached through the bars of its cage and grabbed Marshall's wallet right out of his pocket. After the gang engages in an exhaustive round of monkey-related jokes (see weecap), Robin asks Marshall if she can interview him on her show. She's been hating her job recently, and she thinks this is just the sort of human interest piece that might nab her some national attention.

Once Robin's producer okays the segment, Marshall tells Ted and Barney he wasn't mugged by a monkey. He says made up the story to placate Lily -- to keep her from getting a gun. Marshall says that although he can lie to them about it, because they're his best friends, he can't lie on TV.

And yet, he goes on Robin's show, ready to lie, at least until the zookeeper tells Marshall that they'll be sending the monkey, Bobo, off to a wildlife sanctuary. This will separate Bobo from his longterm mate, Milly. At the sound of Bobo's mate's name, Marshall over-identifies and then tells Robin and the zookeeper that he wasn't mugged by the monkey. But when Lily overhears, he swears by the monkey mugging. He waffles between the two stories for a while, and once the pressure becomes too much, he leaves the studio without confirming either one. Ted is there to pinch-hit as a guest, and I'll explain that in the weecap.

There was no end tag as such, but the final scene was so outrageous, I'll save it for the full weecap, too. Right now, I'd like to talk about this episode, and this season. Is it just me, or is something...missing? This was a cute, amusing episode. It poked lightly at the audience, but more in a tickling way than a nasty one. It was a clever acknowledgment of something the audience has known for some time: Ted is not a reliable narrator. Everyone got along. No one was so annoying that I had to put him or her into a timeout. And yet, this episode did nothing for me.

I've felt for some time now that HIMYM should have been planned out as a five-year show. Just when it feels like we should be diving down deep, instead we're still killing time, splashing around in the shallow end. Don is given a big build up, turns out to be a drunken lout, and then we're told (but not really shown) that he's not the drunken lout we've seen, but actually a great guy, and then we hardly see him in any way that matters. We meet the mother's roommate, see the mother's ankle, even, but we hear nothing about her after that. Barney and Robin are shoved together after seasons of build up and then ripped apart, act like their relationship and break-up meant nothing, and then have an emotional coming to terms about Barney's inconsiderate behavior, long after the audience vowed to forget the whole terribly mishandled pair. And now we're left with this monkey business. If I weren't covering this show for TWoP, this might be where I stopped watching. I hope that changes. I hope, at the end of the season that I'm hugging this show tight, and promising to never lose faith again. Right now, I'm wishing I'd watched Dancing With the Stars, even though that Kate Gosselin is still on.

I'll hit the crazy big finish, as well as the jokes and quotes in the weecap, so check back tomorrow. In the meantime, come on over to the forums, where, yes, we have no bananas.