In truth, it was a smart move, not nice, but what the gay brothers did to the Americas was in the realm of gamesmanship rather than villainy.

But those brothers are just so annoying, aren't they?

For too long, the Lorenzos of this world have suffered the stain inflicted on our regal name by Lorenzo "Hot or Not" Llamas. Thank you, Barney Stinson, for restoring pride and dignity to our name.

Because, as Monday night's episode of "How I Met Your Mother" shows us, nothing seals the deal on a one-night stand faster than masquerading as Lorenzo Von Matterhorn, reclusive billionaire and failed recipient of male reduction surgery.

After six episodes setting up the Barney-Robin romance, Monday's night's episode of "How I Met Your Mother" quietly dissolves the relationship. The reason? Apparently these two alpha dogs bring too much awesomeness to the table, so much that they're tired of canceling out each other's awesomeness.

As far as viable reasons to break up go, that argument ranks below more vital issues such as whether the Storm Troopers in Star Wars are robots or diaper-wearing soldiers, but hey, at least we get to see Neil Patrick Harris in a fat suit.

There is nothing metaphorical about Barney and Robin's ill-fated compatibility. As they fall into a rut, Barney's relationship gut morphs into a triple-chinned addiction to buffalo wings that leads him to choose pizza over sex. And we know that the relationship is taking a toll on Robin because of the greasy hair and her even paler, haggard appearance.

Most times, you could call the Race fun or crazy or exhausting or wacky.

But last night the Race was cruel.

Because that flag-in-the-hay-bale challenge is the kind of punishment they give to kids sent to prison camps.

Faithful viewers of "How I Met Your Mother" know that Barney Stinson loves the word "awesome" and everything it represents. Neil Patrick
Harris' suave man about town craves nothing more than to be awesome at whatever he pursues, whether it's laser tag, suiting up for a one-night stand or whatever the heck he does for Goliath National Bank in his corner office.

So it's no surprise that he thinks he's awesome now at relationships, boasting that he and Robin have supplanted Marshall and Lily as the best couple. Naturally, this leads to the introduction of another indispensable term in the How I Met Your Mother lexicon: New Relationship Smugness.

Add "upper body strength" to the list of things you might need to win the Race.

We're down to six teams. First, let's take a step back and marvel at
the wonder that is Dubai. The pit stop is a resort, a man-made island
shaped like a palm tree that is eight football fields big. On the one
hand, it's ridiculously over the top. On the other hand, I yearn to go
there.

But apparently it's wrong to shove her in.

Or is it?

We're still in Dubai. The guy with the tall hair, OK, Cheyne (and how precious that it's spelled that way) and his partner Meghan get a healthy lead because last episode they did the fast forward and arrived first.

It's about that time in the Race when the weak teams are falling by the wayside.

And indeed, the last weak team went bye bye last night.

With the Aspergers team, Zev and Justin, out because of the passport debacle, the gay brothers Sam and Dan start out the Race first.

While Monday night's episode leaves unanswered how many billable hours Marshall wastes uploading slide shows of uncomfortably lame double dates, at least Ted proves he can overcome the romance-killing powers of a professor's tweed jacket.

Call it "Revenge of the Sexless Innkeeper," or "The rare 'How I Met Your Mother' episode where the subplot makes up for an otherwise weak storyline."

Well, we already knew from CBS promos that a team was going to lose its passports.

And then subsequent promos even revealed which team it was. So I guess the suspense was finding out what happened after that.

I was definitely bummed.