We go back to HIMYM and Neil Patrick Harris once again for one of my favorite TV moments.
Before actually meeting his estranged father, Barney was told tall tales about his father and why he was missing in his life. In fact, Barney’s mother told him that his father was Bob Barker. So he finally does meet his father, Jerome, played by the one and only John Lithgow. Barney agrees to go to Jerome’s house for dinner with his family. That’s when Barney is introduced to Jerome’s son, JJ. Barney, too busy bashing on his lame dad’s lame family, can’t see what’s right in front of him.
“JJ stands for Jerome Junior…”
We’ve all been there. We’ve all experienced that moment when you get hit with some soul crushing news. The blood rushes out of your face, flooding to the void that is now growing in your chest. The strength and vigor is gone from your voice. Barney has no recourse but to meekly excuse himself from the dinner table and retreat. How could you blame him? JJ is the living embodiment of the childhood that Barney was deprived of. JJ is the do-over for Jerome’s mistakes the first time he became a father. There’s no way Barney can continue sitting across the table from JJ.
In a desperate attempt to salvage some part of a normal childhood, Barney grabs at the basketball hoop. Jerome comes out to see his son standing on the car, clawing at the hoop.
I teared up when I first saw this. All father and son relationships have some level of tension within them. After all, fathers are the bones on which sons sharpen their teeth. Most come out stronger from the friction. Some do not. And though my relationship with my own father is nothing like this, I can truly feel the pain in Barney’s voice.
“Because if you were gonna be some lame suburban dad, why couldn’t you have been that for me?”
There’s no excuse for Jerome. He knows he messed up. He knows he’s forever scarred Barney. All he can do is apologize and try to make amends from that day on. Barney continues fruitlessly pulling at the hoop. He never had that father figure to teach him how to use tools. In an exaggerated-for-TV moment, Jerome teaches Barney how to use a screwdriver correctly. No, hammering away with the screwdriver is not the right way to use it.
“Righty tighty. Lefty loosy.”
It’s a small step in the right direction. Jerome says he’ll wait patiently for Barney, ever the ready to work on their fractured relationship. Barney, with blood leaving his face once again, looks blankly at his father before walking away, quietly mumbling goodbye.
Just beautiful acting from NPH and Lithgow.
mruvula 