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ā€œFirst Time In New Yorkā€
HIMYM episode 2x12 (34)
First time in NewYork Empire State
First aired:
January 8, 2007
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Gloria Calderon Kellet
Barney's Blog

Images (22)

Robin tries to talk her younger sister, who is visiting NYC, not to lose her virginity. The gang all recount tales of their own first times.


Recap[]

Robin realizes that she's in love with Ted, but she can't bring herself to say it, instead blurting out "falafel." While recounting the story to Lily, Robin admits that she's never said "I love you" to a man before as none of her past relationships have progressed that far.

Robin's sister Katie is coming to visit New York for the first time, and Ted suggests that he and Robin take her to the Empire State Building. When Katie arrives, Robin is surprised to see that she is with her boyfriend Kyle who is in town visiting his cousin. Kyle acts very immature and goes around pointing out how hot he thinks other women are. Katie tells Robin she's planning on having sex with Kyle and Robin recruits everyone else to help her convince Katie not to.

The gang takes Katie to the Empire State Building, which they use as a thinly-veiled metaphor for waiting for sex. Katie gets annoyed and accuses Robin of being a hypocrite. She says that she read Robin's diary and knows Robin lost her virginity when she was 16. Besides, she's been with Kyle for two months and they've already done everything else. Frustrated, Katie stalks off to smoke.

Everyone reflects on the first time they had sex. Barney tells them a story that turns out to be the plot of Dirty Dancing. Lily and Marshall did it in college; they wanted to wait and make it special, but did it in his dorm room with Ted in the top bunk. In the middle of sex, Robin's boyfriend admitted that he was gay. Robin says that they only "barely" had sex, and when Lily says it doesn't count, Marshall realizes that she went halfway with her high school boyfriend, Scooter. Lily doesn't understand why Marshall is mad at her, because she didn't really have sex with Scooter. She compares it to being in the Empire State building; they're in the lobby right now, and nobody buys tickets to get to the lobby. It doesn't count if you don't get to the top.

Katie comes back and says she doesn't want to see the Empire State Building anymore and she's going to see Kyle. Robin says that Katie only has one chance to lose her virginity and that she should do it with someone special, not Kyle. Katie points out that Robin has done it with "a hundred" guys and she couldn't have been in love with them all. Robin insists that she had some kind of feeling for all of them, and Katie puts her on the spot by asking her if she loves Ted. Ted pulls Robin aside and tells her that it's no big deal. Robin says that she just doesn't want to do it too soon. Ted asks, "Like I did?" Robin calls him an "I love you slut" and he calls her an "I love you prude." Ted then takes his "I love you" back.

Future Ted tries to convince his kids that when Katie slept with Kyle, she got pregnant with quintuplets, moved into a trailer park, and died an alcoholic. But in reality, Katie doesn't sleep with Kyle. Robin says that Katie admits it was because Ted told Katie about his first time, in which he told the girl, Molly, he loved her when he didn't and he never saw her again. He told her that all 17 year old boys just want sex and will say anything to get it, even the nice ones. Katie tells Kyle she wants to wait and he dumps her. Robin tells Ted that the story doesn't sound like him, and he admits that it happened the other way around (the girl didn't mean it when she said she loved him). Robin then tells Ted that she loves him and they kiss.

At the end of the episode, the group takes Katie back to the Empire State Building, and Marshall says that the last trip didn't count because they didn't get out of the lobby. Lily points out that, by that logic, he is the only one she's had sex with. Later that day, after Katie has left, they go to the bar and egg Barney to tell them the real story of his first time. He tries unsuccessfully to describe sex scenes from various movies (namely Fast Times at Ridgemont HighRisky Business, and WarGames) before admitting that he was 23 and it was with his mother's 45 year old friend Rhonda. Realizing how much this embarrasses Barney, the group decides to pretend they never heard the real story.

Continuity[]

  • Ted mentions being awake in the top bunk while Marshall and Lily had sex for the first time in the Pilot.
  • Ted mentioning that he told Robin he loved her too soon is a reference to him telling her that he loved her on their first date in the Pilot.
  • Barney talks about hooking up with a girl and leaving while she is in the shower, which he does in Ted Mosby: Architect.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

  • Barney again leaves while the girl is in the shower in Dowisetrepla, albeit with more lasting consequences.
  • While explaining his Freeway Theory, Barney incorrectly predicts that Ted and Robin will take the "7 months' exit", while they don't break up until their first anniversary, as seen in Something Blue.
  • Robin demonstrates the accuracy of her observation to Barney, "So, every girl you have sex with feels the immediate need to shower? Actually, yeah, I get that." in The Goat.
  • Barney runs into Rhonda again in The Yips, where she repeatedly calls him Barry (both in the present and in the flashback to when they slept together) and smokes menthol cigarettes, as Barney mentions here.
  • In Do I Know You?, Ted tells Stella that he lost his virginity in his junior year of high school to Molly McKenzie.
  • Ted's love for the Empire State Building is referenced again in Mosbius DesignsZoo or False, and Last Time in New York.
  • Ted tries to interest others in his "architecture fun facts" again in Subway Wars and Natural History, and is met with the same disinterest the gang displays in his "Empire State Building fun facts" here.
  • Katie attends Robin's wedding in Vesuvius.
  • Barney saying that his theory that "Relationships are like a freeway" trumps his theory that "Relationships are like a traveling circus" from a month prior matches his "New is Always Better" philosophy which is first mentioned in Architect of Destruction.

Gallery[]

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:First Time In New York images.

Memorable Quotes[]

Robin: I don't want to take an exit but at the same time, I'm not ready to get into the carpool lane.

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

  • Ted climbs out of Molly's bed wearing pants. The following scene shows him putting them on again.
  • As Molly climbs out of bed, she is wearing pants. However in the next scene, when talking to Ted about her cousin's fireworks, she is putting on pants.
  • When Barney tells the group about his true first time, he states that his comforter smelt like menthol cigarettes, when in fact his first time was at her house.
    • It's possible he took the smell home with him.
  • As stated in Legendaddyā€‹, Marshall is unable to wink. But Marshall winks in this episode, after telling Katie to stay away from drugs (with the exception of pot).

Allusions and Outside References[]

Music[]

Other Notes[]

  • The image of Dave Matthews Band's album Before These Crowded Streets is hanging on the wall of the Empire State Building.
  • This episode was supposed to air on New Year's Day, but it got postponed for a week due to a period of Mourning and Funeral Service for the Former President of The United States, Gerald Ford (he served as President from 1974 to 1977).
  • Ted stops a suicidal man who planned on going up to the top of the building to jump. In 1947 a seven-foot fence was built around the 86th floor terrace to try to prevent suicides from taking place.

Guests[]

Reception[]

  • Staci Krause of IGN gave the episode 8.7 out of 10. [1]
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 9 out of 10 stars. "What's up with Ted's 'Empire State Building Fun Facts'? ... Everyone tells their 'first time' story."

References[]

See also[]

External Links[]


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