How I Met Your Mother kicked off the new year with its 100th episode and not surprisingly, it didn't disappoint. A lot of elements made the milestone episode, entitled "Girls vs. Suits," a success, including several guest stars and a big musical number. But what really made it special was how the series took a different direction and focused on two straight stories without any time-shifting.

Just like the show's big feat, Ted got the closest he's ever gotten to meeting the future mother of his children when he met an attractive college student named Cindy in the form of Rachel Bilson. And as Ted went out with Cindy, Future Ted revealed a couple of things about his wife: She plays the bass in a band, likes to paint robots playing sports, makes breakfast food sing, likes The Unicorns and men always fall for her. No wonder her roommate Cindy, who describes her as a whore and a dominatrix, is so jealous of her!

At this point, though, the identity of Ted's future wife remains a big mystery but least we got a glimpse of her ankle disappearing into a bedroom when she crossed the hall.

Barney, on the other hand, was on to his next conquest: MacLaren's hot new bartender in the form of Stacy Keibler's Karina. Evidently, it's the only thing missing on his list of the job descriptions of women he's slept with--- which includes lawyers, doctors, professional equestrians, amateur equestrians, poets, a butcher, a baker and a candle-stick maker, just to name a few. The only problem: She hates men who wear suits! Barney took this as a challenge though choosing between her and his beloved suits was not an easy task. Clearly, Barney's got a lot of love for his suits and his musical number, "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit," showed just how much.



Stray observations:

• Nothing much was going on for Lily but I've got to admit that hearing her marvel about the smoking hot female bartender was fun to watch.  

• I also enjoyed seeing Tim Gunn as he made a reference to his infamous Project Runway line.

(Image courtesy of CBS)