Lily is sadder to learn that Barney and Robin aren't a couple more so than Barney or Robin. But after that, Lily catches Barney and Robin making out, the two who confess that they have been in a sexual relationship over the course of the summer, a fact they were hiding since they didn't want to make a big deal out of their undefined relationship. Lily thinks that Barney and Robin need to have the talk to define what they really mean to each other. They refuse since they are quite happy having sex and that's it. When Robin is forced to go on a date with Brad, Barney and Robin almost get to the point of feeling the need to have the talk. When they still can't go through with it, Lily, ultimately with some help from Marshall, comes up with a plan to force them to have the talk. Even if they do have the talk, will they come to any conclusions? Meanwhile Ted is preparing for his first day as a college professor teaching Architecture 101. He is trying to decide what kind of professor he ... Written by Huggo

In 2009, Ted goes on a blind date with a woman named Jen. It isn't until they're at the restaurant about ready to order that they both come to the realization that they are reliving the same blind date they had with each other in 2002. This date is going about as well as that first one did, but as they come to the conclusion that their dating lives have pretty much stalled in that seven years, they decide to relive the remainder of that date from seven years ago to learn why they make such bad first impressions. But as they learn what they did wrong, will those turn into rights for the two of them, or will wrongs always be wrongs? Meanwhile, Barney comes up with a plan to hijack Marshall without either Robin or Lily knowing what's going on. The reason is that Barney has come to the conclusion that Marshall's life is controlled by Lily and in Barney's mind he needs to get out and have some guy's fun. So Barney takes him to a strip club. There, Marshall opens up about how he fantasizes ... Written by Huggo

Robin is still so surprised when she realizes that she and Barney are dating. She reconsiders her relationship with Barney when it seems that he really doesn't want to be in a relationship, and then makes a 180 degree turn being too attentive, which makes Robin believe he's cheating on her. By breaking into Barney's briefcase, Robin and Lily learn that Barney hasn't been cheating on her with another woman but that he has been going to night school. The class: Robin 101. The teacher: Professor Ted Mosby. Ted convinced Barney that he had to be attentive to Robin's needs to keep her, and who better than Ted to teach him what those needs are. Will Robin be flattered or offended? Meanwhile, Marshall says goodbye to his old friend Mabel... or so he thinks. Written by Huggo

Marshall and Lily are excited that Robin and Barney are dating as they now have friends who are a couple with who they can double date. Marshall and Lily don't have such friends because, unknown to them, they, to use Ted's vernacular, suck at being couples friends since they are so intense about making it a good time. Barney and Robin have no idea into what they are entering when they accept Marshall and Lily's invitation to spend a couples night at their place. After what they consider the worst night of their lives on that couples night, Robin and Barney don't have the heart to tell Marshall and Lily. After Robin and Barney eventually dump Marshall and Lily as their double dating friends, they are the ones who end up feeling shunned by the consequences. Meanwhile, Ted is sporting a new look - tweed - to make him look more professorial. He believes it is making him more attractive to the ladies. But when his latest conquest leaves the next morning, Barney believes that that look ... Written by Huggo

Ever since Marshall and Lily got married, Ted feels that his best bro Marshall has turned from being a me to a we. That's why Ted is so excited when Marshall agrees to recreate one of their crazy college road trips to Chicago's Gazola's pizza joint, which is closing. But this trip is not quite what Ted was expecting as Marshall invites Lily. As Lily's presence changes the nature of the road trip, Ted tries to regain what he wanted this trip to be. Meanwhile, Robin may be deported unless she becomes a US citizen. Robin, a patriotic Canadian, isn't sure if she wants to become an American. Barney, who doesn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to be American, helps Robin become his version of American. But when Robin's withdrawal symptoms become too much for her to handle, she falls off the wagon. This experience shows her where she really fits and where her patriotic heart lies. Written by Huggo

Barney believes that Marshall and Lily's relationship is in major trouble solely because Lily makes Marshall wash his dishes immediately instead of letting them sit in the sink. He sees it as a sign that Marshall is panty-whipped, and that he should stand up for himself. Marshall follows Barney's advice which leads to Marshall and Lily having the biggest fight of their lives. Conversely, Barney says that he and Robin never fight, with each having a technique to avoid fights. Ted doesn't believe it as Barney and Robin are the two worst people when it comes to being in a relationship. But because of the noisy neighbors Ted and Robin have - Ted and Robin using the euphemism of playing the bagpipes for what the neighbors are doing - Ted believes he's come up with a way to find out for sure if Barney and Robin are telling the truth. The actions of one of the couples allows the other couple to overcome their short term situation. Written by Huggo

Although Robin and Barney are outwardly happy about their relationship, Ted believes that they in fact are miserable. He believes an old message from Barney via an old porn videotape and the fact of both Robin and Barney letting their appearances go (Barney who is overeating and Robin who is looking like an old woman) are cries for help in wanting and needing to break-up. Marshall and Lily however believe that as with any couple, they are just going through a rough patch, one that they can weather. But when Marshall sees what Ted sees, they go into cahoots with each other to break them up. When their plan goes horrible awry, Lily, the master of orchestrating break-ups without the couple knowing what hit them, feels she has to come and fix the mess Ted and Marshall created. Lily's masterpiece as she considers it involves Robin's old friend Alan Thicke, one of Barney's old girlfriends, a stormtrooper and a bunch of dirty dishes. Will Lily's old magic do the trick? Written by Huggo

In the aftermath of Robin and Barney's break-up, Robin states that she wants to take a break from being in a relationship. Ted and Marshall are certain by this statement that she'll soon find her next long term boyfriend. Barney, on the other hand, is all set to go back to his womanizing ways, and turns to his playbook, where he's written all the scams he's used to pick up women in the past. When he uses the scam he calls 'the Lorenzo Von Matterhorn' to pick up Shelly, a friend of Lily's, who Lily has been saving for Ted for three years, an angered Lily takes her revenge by staging her own elaborate scam to steal Barney's playbook. She vows to post the playbook on the Internet. But curiosity may get the better of Lily, and Marshall, Ted and Robin when Barney starts to stage the scam he calls 'the scuba diver', the scam that was on the last page of the playbook before he tore it out prior to the book being stolen. Written by Huggo

Marshall and Lily are hosting 2009 Thanksgiving at their new apartment for the first time. Because Ted and Robin come through with what Marshall deems the make or break item for Thanksgiving, he shows his ultimate gratitude: he is giving them the fourth of only five slaps to Barney Marshall won in a bet with Barney in 2006. The terms of Marshall's gift: it must be done before sundown so as not to interfere with dinner, Ted and Robin can decide between themselves who gets to deliver the slap, and they will tie Barney down to a chair for the slap. Barney, who has always hated the anticipation of the slap as much as the slap itself, is hoping that time will run out as Ted and Robin discuss then argue over who deserves to deliver the slap more. Thanksgiving may end up being as bad for Lily, whose deadbeat father Mickey Aldrin, who has always disappointed her and from who she has officially been estranged for three years, shows up at their doorstep. Marshall tries to convince Lily to ... Written by Huggo

Ted has always thought that Maggie Wilks, a woman he and Marshall and Lily knew in college, is the perfect woman. He's wanted to date her ever since she moved to New York, but she's always been in a relationship. Even between relationships, it's been a matter of hours before she was with another man in a long term relationship. So when Ted finds out, with the help of Maggie's cooperative neighbor, that Maggie is once again single, Ted rushes over to her apartment before another man swoops in. He gets there in time. As Ted forgot that he has a class to teach for the time that he and Maggie are supposed to go on their first date, he asks Marshall and Lily to keep her away from any men until he returns. That plan goes slightly awry when Marshall, reading through an old letter he found that he wrote to his 30 year old self when he was 15, hits a sudden and early mid-life crisis, to which he and by association Lily have to attend. They leave Maggie in Robin's care. When Robin has to attend... Written by Huggo

Although he vowed to Robin and Marshall that he would never tell them, Ted finally tells his kids that at one time both Robin and Marshall used to smoke. In 2009, they both felt like they had good reason to do so. Marshall, only an occasional smoker, always said that each cigarette was his last. But when his old boss, the meanest man nicknamed Artillery Arthur, became his new boss, he thought he was going to be fired - again. So when Marshall found out that Arthur was a smoker, Marshall used it as a bonding mechanism to keep his job. Robin, at the time anchoring the morning show, had just gotten a new co-anchor named Don Frank. Don was a career morning show host, moving from morning show to morning show across the country. Robin hated Don for what he represented: a person who had given up on his career, stating that they were on a nothing show that nobody watched. Deep down, Robin feared that he was right. So when she managed to get a scheduled on-air interview with then New York City... Written by Huggo

A beautiful woman named Karina starts working as a bartender at MacLaren's. Robin believes Karina's hotness is all circumstantial. Many men are mesmerized by Karina, but none more so than Barney, who has never slept with a bartender. Barney has a plan to woo Karina, but Karina, who has so far treated all the patrons at the bar like her best friend, is immediately turned off by Barney. Marshall learns it's because she previously had a bad experience with a man who worked on Wall Street, so now she immediately is turned off by anyone wearing a suit. Can Barney give up his suit wearing ways to impress Karina, or put aside his suits long enough to sleep with her? Meanwhile, Ted has started dating Cindy, a student at the university. Cindy breaks it off with Ted when she learns that the university has a strict no professor-student dating policy, which means that if they are caught, Cindy could lose her scholarship and Ted could lose his job. But something about Cindy makes Ted feel that he ... Written by Huggo

Robin thinks she's made it into the big time when one of Ted's students recognizes her from her stint on the morning show. Robin revels in the recognition so much so that she even drops by his class just so that more of his students will recognize her, which they do. Ted is later happy to learn that his students don't watch the show for Robin's interviewing prowess, but that her interviews are used for what they call the but-um drinking game. Ted can't help but rub Robin's nose with this information. But Robin thinks she has the last laugh on the matter. Meanwhile, Marshall is continually telling the exploits of his crazy new colleague, Jenkins. What Marshall fails to tell his friends is that Jenkins is a beautiful young woman, which transforms those crazy exploits into sexually provocative acts. Marshall, who was fearing Lily's reaction, is dismayed to learn that Lily isn't jealous when she actually meets Jenkins. After Jenkins kisses Marshall, he wants to use that act to make Lily... Written by Huggo

By the third day, it looks as if Barney's perfect week - sleeping with seven different women on each of the seven days with no rejection - may become a reality. It not only becomes Barney's obsession, but that of Marshall, Lily, Robin and Ted, as those four need something to take their minds off what a bad week they're having. Marshall and Lily have lost yet another couple friends when information about Marshall and Lily's life is made public. Robin has yet to hear from her latest date, which bothers her despite thinking that he was boring. And Ted is having problems with a student in his class who he thought was putting him on. But the four find out that behind Barney's perfect week quest, he too is facing a major problem in his life. Only Lily believes Barney needs to get out from the perfect week quest and deal with his problem head on. Written by Huggo

There's a fine line between love and hate, which is evident for the gang in the lead up to Valentine's Day 2010. Ted uses the analogy of the picture that seen one way looks like a duck (love in most of their minds, except for Marshall), and seen another way looks like a rabbit (hate). To Robin, her co-anchor Don is a rabbit, so she is perturbed when she thinks his invitation to a Valentine's Day party at his place is a date. To Ted, all he can see around him are rabbits. He feels he doesn't have any problem attracting women, but it's choosing the duck with which he has the problem. So he decides for this Valentine's Day, he's going to leave the choosing of his duck to who he sees as the ultimate duck choosers, Marshall and Lily (since they both found each other). And Barney thinks that his self-advertising sign with his phone number shown during the Super Bowl is a certain way that he will have his choice of a duck for Valentine's. His problem may not be finding a duck, but ... Written by Huggo

Ted is in a new relationship with a woman named Tiffany, who he believes could be the one. But after describing his and Tiffany's relationship to the gang, they all believe Ted is on her hook - that she will always just string him along while she dates other people. Ted believes that he is no such thing to her. Similarly, Ted does not believe that a librarian named Henrietta is on his hook, nor does Robin believe that a co-worker named Mike is on her hook. Lily does know however that Scooter, the guy she went to high school with and that crashed her and Marshall's wedding to profess his love to her, is on her hook as she sees him everyday since he works in the cafeteria at her school. She doesn't want him on her hook, but she just can't be that blunt to him, he with his sad puppy dog eyes. Marshall has a plan to help Lily release her hook. And Barney does agree with the others that Ted should break things off with Tiffany, that is until he learns what she does for a living. Written by Huggo

In the aftermath of Robin and Barney's break-up, Robin isn't yet ready to date again, although her new co-anchor Don seems attracted to her and he seems to be a great guy, especially from Marshall's perspective. So when Don calls to ask Robin for a date, she is about to say no until someone intervenes on her behalf. Conversely, Barney has been back to his womanizing ways. However, the latest woman he meets named Anita has been a conundrum as she appears to want to sleep with him, but at the last minute she turns down his sexual advances. Telling the gang this story, Ted realizes that Anita is using a tactic in a new guidebook for single women in how to empower themselves on the dating scene. When Barney finds out that Anita is not only using the strategies in the book but is the book's author, Barney, on Ted's advice, comes up with a plan to circumvent Anita's strategy. Later, the gang minus Barney learn that Barney meeting Anita was not by accident, and learn the reason for the not ... Written by Huggo

It's Lily's 32nd birthday. The only thing she loves more than birthdays is taking a group photo with all her close friends on such special occasions as a permanent memory she can paste in her scrapbook. On this birthday for which Marshall has planned an intimate black tie dinner for the five of them, Ted brings Amanda, a woman he has just started dating. When Amanda is out of earshot, Lily makes it quite clear to Ted that she doesn't want Amanda in the photo. The reason is that Ted has always brought the woman he is dating to such functions, she who is always in the photo. But each of those women have not only become a forgotten nameless memory which has ruined the shot for Lily, but many have become the nameless bitch in the photo in Ted's memory. This discussion leads to an argument between Ted and the rest regarding dating philosophy, and what happens in the aftermath of the inevitable break-up. The photos also bring up the issue that Barney seems never to take a bad photograph, ... Written by Huggo

Marshall no longer has his wallet because he was mugged while walking through Central Park. He changes his story slightly because Lily, now afraid of life in the city, wants to get a gun to protect herself. Robin feels that Marshall's new story is newsworthy and wants to interview him on the morning show. He is reluctant to do so if only because telling the story to the public would make him a laughing stock... or does he have another reason for not wanting to go public? Ted is somewhat perturbed because he feels he being responsible for building the Empire State Building for the largest scale model version of the New York skyline is more newsworthy and doesn't understand why Robin won't ask him to appear on her show. Based on circumstances, Ted thinks he has a plan to get on the show, but the outcome, straight out of a Hollywood movie, may not be what he was envisioning (at least not the Hollywood movie he had in mind). And Barney wants to use Marshall's story to pick up women for ... Written by Huggo

Ted is telling his kids the crisis he endured at the announcement of his mother's second marriage to free thinking Clint, whose every word about Ted's mother is of a sexual nature. Not being able to contain his horror not only in her marrying a man like Clint but her marrying for a second time before Ted even enters into his first marriage, Ted runs off in the middle of the reception. But when he emerges 72 hours later, Ted is a new, happier man. He has circumvented his own non-marriage status by buying a house. Although he considers it his dream house, the gang see a run down uninhabitable rat trap. The home inspector concurs. Lily thinks she has at least a cathartic solution to Ted's problem. But it's Marshall who knows deep down what Ted will do. Meanwhile, Robin and Barney have differing stories about which of the two of them cried at Clint's sexually charged wedding serenade to and about Ted's mom. And Marshall comes up with a new guessing game he calls was I a kid or was I ... Written by Huggo

When Ted and Barney jeopardize Robin's new relationship by professing their love for her, Robin realizes that she is finally over them. Meanwhile, after spending a weekend sleeping in twin beds, Marshall and Lily decide to get twin beds at home. Written by CBS Publicity

Barney feels like the gang is slowly falling apart. Despite not knowing exactly what it is but knowing that they would all have a good time at it, he got five ringside tickets to go see Robots vs. Wrestlers for himself, Ted, Marshall, Lily and Robin, knowing full well that Robin would now decline in her want to establish a relationship with Don away from specifically her two ex-boyfriends. Marissa Heller may be the cause of Ted also drifting away from the group, he who feels unappreciated whenever he tries to bring a little culture into the proceedings. So when the four crash an upscale party, Ted feels like he's met a crowd who he not only likes (including film director Peter Bogdanovich, political columnist Arianna Huffington and New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz), but who allow him to be cultured. But can Ted be cultured all the time? A recent doppelgänger sighting may provide him the answer. Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily wait for a specific sign to let them know ... Written by Huggo

Ted has just started dating a woman named Royce. Like all the other relationships he's ever had, he's waiting to learn what baggage Royce is carrying that will ultimately ruin the relationship. When Ted and Royce go to see a movie called The Wedding Bride, Ted learns that he too carries some baggage, namely that he was once left at the altar. What makes this baggage worse is that the movie, which is now a big hit, was written by Stella's husband, Tony Grafanello, about Ted and Stella's relationship and break-up where the Ted character, named Jed Moseley, is painted as the bad guy and the Tony character the good guy. Perpetually happy Marshall helps Ted understand how to deal with his baggage. Written by Huggo

A couple of weeks after they make the vow to start a family if they see Barney's doppelgänger - the last of the five whose doppelgänger has not been seen - Lily and Marshall see that person in the form of a cabbie. They even telephone Barney to see if it isn't him in yet another scam to meet and sleep with women. They however decide not to tell anyone of their decision. When Marshall learns that the cabbie they saw really was Barney and not his doppelgänger, Marshall has by that time gotten into his mind that he really does want to start a family. As such, will he tell Lily the truth, she who seems to need that sign from the universe to embark on this important step in their lives? Meanwhile, Robin receives what she considers an offer for her dream job, that as a news anchor. The problem is that the job is in Chicago. Leaving her four friends would be difficult enough, but she isn't sure if she wants to leave Don, who she is finally meshing with both professionally and personally. She... Written by Huggo