Was somehow expecting someone else to start this thread, but apparently nobody did, so I am.
I loved this week’s episode. A bit of a movement to slightly more familiar twentysomething sitcom ground, but it was handled well. Don’t think I saw the setup episode where they got to the reception and Robin had to go, but it stood up well without it.
The new girl, Victoria, looks promising. Very pretty (Kimberley Williams’ little sister,) and her character so far is neurotic in that sitcom-endearing way that is hard to really pull off. She’s supposed to appear in at least 3 more episodes during the february sweeps… personally, I kinda hope she sticks around longer than that but we’ll have to see.
As usual, the show handles nested timeframes pretty well. Very little in the future-frame this time, just one line of voiceover IIRC, but the flashbacks to the ‘perfect night’ from the day after were handled very well, with little details being brought to mind by appropriate events, and all of the flashes back and forth getting dizzying in a good way leading up to that climactic moment… “She made the cake!!” Which just kind of fit as a karmic sign on at least two levels considering the remarks that had been made about the cake later, and that Marshall had even used the cake as an example of why Ted should go looking for the girl.
(As a side note, if Ted hadn’t gone looking for her, but Marshall had gone looking for the cake on his own, I wonder how things might have worked out. 
)
And, of course, there’s the question… is Victoria ‘the one’?? It seems like she has a better shot than anyone else we’ve seen so far… and she kind of has to make an appearance soon, since it doesn’t really make that much sense for Ted to be telling his poor kids all kinds of stories about the year BEFORE he met their mother. 
Is Robin still a contender? I’m not sure… the fact that he referred to her at one point in the future as ‘your Aunt Robin’ would seems to say no.
In a way, the future-frame aspect of this show reminds me a lot of last year’s “Jack and Bobby,” though hopefully it lasts longer… the main action is in the present, but we’re given little glimpses of what is to come, centering around a few key mysteries that the writers try and keep shrouded for as long as freakin’ possible. 
Here, of course, the central mystery is exactly who mom is and when she appears.
How long can they get away with not telling us? Will the show still be as interesting once we know? I don’t know the answers to those questions.
CK signing off for now.