Directed by Pam Fryman
Written by Chuck Tatham
One Paragraph Synopsis: It's Christmas time, and Robin misses Canada. While she isn't able to get a plane back, Marshall decides to show her one of his favorite little fixer-uppers when he misses home, a little hole in the wall called the Walleye Saloon, a literal tribute to the state. The two bond over their time at the place, until Robin ends up fitting a little TOO well, causing Marshall to reveal how she's actually Canadian. While she ends up getting kicked out, she does find her own Little Canada to head to whenever she's down. As this happens, Ted's sister Heather moves to New York in hopes of working at GNB and Ted co-signing her lease. Ted is reluctant, given Heather's history of unreliability, even though she swears that she's grown up. Ted is especially suspicious when Barney meets her and expects the worst, and almost gets it when the two decide to mess with him, only for Heather to later prove that she's taking this seriously. Ted realizes this, then agrees to co-sign and buy a new briefcase for her as support.
You know, hearing Robin's speech about Canadians blessing the earth with Trivial Pursuit just reminds me of how much I love this show. HIMYM is just always great at finding the right, specific dialogue for its characters, and making it always come out on top.
But what might even be a better moment is the ending punchline of Marshall getting the Canadian bar to sing "Let's Go to the Mall" along with him. The show is already keeping its history tight, and it's just a joy to watch the references to previous episodes come around.
Robin and Marshall are there along with Barney and Lily as characters who work well together, but just given as much time to interact solely as they should. The dynamite duos tend to be relegated by gender, as Lily and Robin have great bonding sessions together, while Ted, Marshall and Barney always work well whenever one or the other are around each other. Evened out, besides Lily and Marshall being the dream couple, Robin is still given ample, useful screentime with Ted and Barney. So little moments like their time in the Walleye Saloon are a nice change of pace.
I do dock points for the episode for the knocks against Ted and Barney's lack of masculinity, but it's still fun to see Robin and Marshall bond over a nice beer, jumbo burger sliders, and fishing simulators. It's a nice relaxer for the two characters, as they share one important detail in common- their homesickness.
Of the core gang, only Lily and Barney are New York natives, so they don't really have much to miss. While Ted does occasionally speak about Ohio, he's far more likely to sing the praises about the greatest city in the world, and thus is similarly out of reach. Marshall's pining for Minnesota isn't always expressed, but recently it has been revealed that he doesn't find New York to be all that it's cracked up to be, so the idea that he misses home is believable. Robin, similarly, hasn't previously expressed too much nostalgia for Canada, but consider how she is easily the furthest away from home than the gang. By comparison, she is bound to be the one to have the most to miss, especially as she has been increasingly opening herself as a person after meeting her friends.
But the other unique facet of Robin's personality is how she was raised to be a boy, at least by society's standards, and thus, it doesn't feel right to her to accept said pining in any other way. This is why spending time with more traditionally masculine men in a traditionally masculine environment, away from the increasingly sanitized New York local, is a good form of catharsis from her. It's not exactly right, but fits her way of thinking quite well.
Really though, I love the concept of there being bars dedicated solely to the concept of keeping the spirit of Minnesota and Canada alive in NYC. The city is big enough to have plenty of people from all over the world stay in it, and any given person can feel homesick at any given time. Bars like the Walleye Saloon and the Hoser Hut can be just what the doctor ordered. I wonder if they have a similar bar for Floridians with Sweet Water constantly on tap and Tom Petty playing frequently.
The feeling of home is brought over to Ted's story, which is more of an shared A-plot than anything. His sister has only briefly been mentioned before, but "Little Minnesota" does a good job of informing the audience of what Heather is like, and why Ted has his doubts. Radnor does a good job of keeping himself passionately alert while she's around, as Erin Cahill (who sadly doesn't seem to have many roles of note to her name) is apt at keeping up with the show's energy, as she has solid timing on top of the ability to keep a serious performance down.
Their story works well, even if it is a tad predictable at parts. The episode seemed to be leading towards a positive reveal for Heather as far back as the latter part of the first act, which it delivers in modest fashion. This isn't a negative point though, as Heather does a good job of maintaining a nice appearance throughout, never stepping out of line or doing anything outlandish. This makes the resolution deserved and welcome, although I should point out that it almost feels like a cheat that Heather never shows up in the series after this episode. Maybe she does so well at GNB that she doesn't need to rely on Ted afterwords.
While Robin and Marshall get plenty of screentime in their storyline, the other three characters have enough of their own here. As mentioned before, Ted does a good job of playing the skeptical big brother, something he does seem to have a justified cause for, even if it turns out to be unnecessary by the end. I still give Ted the benefit of the doubt though, since I'd be suspicious of anyone who pawned my stuff in for Nine Inch Nails tickets. In Spain. While Ted might seem a little too mean when he declines the opportunity to co-sign Heather's lease, it's not without reason, as she does need more time to prove herself to be reliable enough to do so for.
Barney can prove to be just the obstacle that can make or break such a decision, though. And while Barney does seem to want to bang Heather at first, he somehow changes sides with her quickly, and helps her out. Their plan to trick Lily and Ted into thinking that they're cavorting is well-timed, as only Barney can pull off. There is still a case of him giving off mixed signals during the group's earlier dinner sequence, with him politely whispering to Heather whenever Ted replies to her. "Now he's just stating a fact", indeed.
And Lily has some fun with her inability to keep secrets, a cute reminder of her big mouth. She means well, but it is evident that it's just a little too difficult for her to. The characters don't seem to hold this against her too much though, and simply accept Lily's loose lips as an irreplaceable part of her person. At least she blabs for good, after all.
"Little Minnesota" has its problematic lines and an eventual case of the missing sibling holding it back, but it's still a damn fine episode regardless. Both stories hold well, which is given benefit from equal time and effort put into them. This is the show I love, for better or worse, and I'm glad to still be writing for it.
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