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How I Met Everyone Else
HIMYM episode 3x05 (49)
How i met everyone else - marshall introduces lily
First aired:
October 22, 2007
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Gloria Calderon Kellet
Barney's Blog

Images (12)

Ted brings his new girlfriend to meet the group. Barney tries to prove she’s on the wrong side of the line on his Hot/Crazy Scale. In the meantime, the gang tell stories about how they all met.


Recap[]

Everyone sits at the bar when Ted's new girlfriend walks in. Ted introduces her as "Blah Blah" (because Future Ted can't recall her name in recounting this particular story). She tells everyone they met at a French cooking class, but actually they met online. Ted then explains that she's hot. Barney explains she's crazy as well. Ted disagrees, however Barney explains the only hot girls online are crazy, hookers or dudes. Barney explains the Hot/Crazy Scale. A girl has to be above the "Vicky Mendoza"-diagonal, named after a girl Barney has dated.

Lily and Marshall tell their story about how they met. Lily and Marshall were both college freshmen, and Lily asked Marshall to help with her stereo-set. Ted and Marshall then tell the story of how they met. The first day of college, Marshall was "eating a sandwich" (this term is used by Future Ted for smoking weed, because he doesn't want to tell his kids that he and the gang smoked it), then a guy walks by and says: "dude the dean is coming, put out your sandwich." Ted walks in and Marshall mistakes him for being the dean. When Marshall walks in on Ted "eating a sandwich", he realizes Ted isn't the dean.

Barney then explains how he and Ted met. At the bathroom of MacLaren's, Barney makes up a story about his deaf brother, and Ted buys it. Later that night, Barney says he will teach Ted how to live. He states: "Rule 1: lose the goatee, it doesn't go with your suit." Ted says he doesn't have one. "Rule 2: Get a suit." He later on comes back with Audrey, and introduces Ted as his deaf brother Edward. In Barney's version, Ted signs, in American Sign Language, that Audrey should give Barney her number. In the present, Ted reveals what he truly signed; in his version, he tells Audrey to give Barney a fake number. Blah Blah starts to get less stable, and actually turns out to be crazy. She walks off angrily, and Ted runs after her. Ted then tells her a story about how he and Lily made out, and was the direct lead to how she and Marshall met.

The story about how Barney and Marshall met goes as follows: Barney tries to teach Marshall how to live. He encourages Marshall to hit on an amazingly hot girl, who turns out to be Lily (whom Marshall is already dating). Barney says he has no chance, and Marshall goes for it and makes out with Lily. Barney -astonished- wants to know Marshall's secret. It takes a week before he finds out. He's even done Marshall's laundry.

Lily and Ted confess how they really met, and Marshall says they didn't make out with each other, Ted made out with Alexa Leskys, and Lily made out with Colin O'Riley. Ted clearly believes this is incorrect, but chooses to take the out. Blah Blah freaks out over nothing and runs off, exclaiming that next time Ted plays World of Warcraft, he shouldn't even think about chatting with her.

In 2020, at a College Reunion, Ted runs into Alexa Leskys. She tells him they did make out. He excitedly tells Lily that they didn't make out after all, and she is unsurprised, having long ago accepted that Marshall was right about that night. When Ted says that he's not "Too-Much-Tongue Guy", Lily's nickname for the person she made out with, Alexa indicates that actually, it was an accurate assessment of him. Later that night Marshall, Lily and Ted eat a massive "sandwich", laughing while they eat it. Then Ted says, "Where's my wife?"

Continuity[]

  • Several of the "how we met" stories have been shown and referenced previously, specifically Ted and Barney's and Ted and Robin's in the Pilot, Marshall and Lily's in Best Prom Ever, and Ted and Marshall's in Where Were We? The part where Barney tells Ted to shave and get a suit is common to both episodes; this episode omits the part where Barney tells Ted not to even think of getting married until he's 30, and adds their earlier meeting in the bathroom and their interaction with Audrey.​
  • Barney mentions Star Wars the first night he meets Ted and Marshall. He is as big a fan of the franchise as they are.
  • In The Wedding​, when Ted says that Claudia is being crazy, Barney responds that "to be fair, she's also hot", possibly referencing the Hot/Crazy Scale.
  • In Drumroll, PleaseVictoria worries that if she and Ted kiss, Ted might use too much tongue and break the spell of their magical evening, and here it transpires that Alexa Leskys felt he did.
  • In the flashback to Lily's version (and as it turned out the real version) of how she and Ted met, Ted is seen talking on the phone to his girlfriend Karen, mentioned in Arrivederci, Fiero​.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

  • Footage of Marshall and Lily's story of how they met is used again in P.S. I Love You and Knight Vision; the latter episode also satirizes the scene.
  • Ted again uses sign language in Spoiler Alert​​.
  • Ted mentions the Hot/Crazy Scale in The Platinum Rule​​ while listing Barney's dating rules.
  • In Rabbit or Duck​, Lily informs Marshall that Blah Blah has been committed to a mental institution.
  • Future Ted uses "eating a sandwich" as a euphemism for smoking marijuana for the first time. He continues to do this throughout the series, as seen in Blitzgiving​​, A Change of Heart​​, and Tick Tick Tick.
  • In their flashback, Ted and Barney are wearing the same clothing as in the flashback in Symphony of Illumination, implying that the night they met is the last night Barney saw Insane Duane before that episode.
  • The flashback of how Barney and Marshall meet shows that Barney's attraction to Lily's body began that night. The attraction is a recurring plot point, especially in Ducky Tie​​.
  • In Gary Blauman, it is revealed that Blah Blah's real name is Carol.
  • Future Ted's uncertainties would be shown again in The Mermaid Theory and The Goat.

Gallery[]

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:How I Met Everyone Else images.

Memorable Quotes[]

Blah Blah: So, we know how Marshall and Lily met... Robin, how did you and Barney meet?
Robin: No. (laugh)

No, no, no, no. No! No no, no, no. No (laugh), no, no. No.

Barney and I are not together; no. No.
Barney: Really? Sixteen no's. Really?

Ted: I remember I used to be able to eat a whole sandwich by myself, now it's like two bites and I am done.

Barney: Hey Audrey! This is my deaf brother, Edward. (shouting at Ted) Edward! This is Audrey!

Ted: Hey, uh, Barney, that story actually goes a little bit differently.
Edward (Signing/Deaf Ted): He's lying. Just give him a fake number.

flashback to 'the year 2001,' Barney, Ted and Marshall sit at booth.

Barney: Here's your problem, you've only slept with one woman. Those kind of stats are only okay if you're eleven. But tonight, we're getting you a new girl because Marshall Eriksen, from this moment on, I make all your decisions for you.
Marshall: I'm sorry, who are you again?
Ted: This is Barney, I met him the other day. He's kind of a jackass.
Barney: I'm teaching Ted how to live, and lucky you, I have room for one more student. Think of me as Yoda, only instead of being little and green, I wear suits and I'm awesome. I'm your bro. I'm bro-da. And tonight you are gonna use The Force to get the hottest chick in this bar into bed.
Ted: You're gonna use force? 'Cause that sounds wrong, bro-da.
Barney: No, The Force. It's a Star Wars reference.
Ted: So we should make lots of Star Wars references around girls, that's what you're saying?
Marshall: I'm not gonna cheat on my girlfriend.
Barney: Yes, you are, with the hottie that just walked in. Look at her.

Ted and Marshall turn to look at girl Barney's talking about and notices that it's Lily.

Barney: How much hotter is she than your girlfriend?
Marshall: There's no comparison. What do you think, Ted? Go for it?
Ted: Oh, don't do it, man. Think about Lily.
Marshall: You know what, I don't care. I've been with one woman for too long. I need me some strange.
Barney: Yes, yes, pep talk. You can do this, but to be more accurate, you probably can't. You're way out of practice and she is way too hot for you. So, remember, tonight isn't about scoring, it's about believing that you can do it even though you probably can't. Go get 'em, tiger.

Marshall gets up and walks over to bar, Ted moves to other side of booth and sits next to Barney.

Barney: Poor guy's gonna crash and burn.

Marshall walks over and kisses Lily.

Barney: That man is a god.

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

  • During the story where Marshall first tells Ted how he met Lily, they are seen holding Playstation 2 controllers. This moment takes place in 1996, the Playstation 2 was not developed until 2000. (It isn't clear if they were playing Playstation 1 or 2. However, they were using DualShock controllers, which was the standard PS2 controller, but was also available on the PS1. However, the DualShock controller was not available on the Playstation 1 until 1997, so this is still a goof considering the scene took place in 1996).
  • When Barney is explaining the Vicky Mendoza Diagonal, he gets his axes wrong. He implies that her losing ten pounds makes her less crazy (left), stabbing Barney with a fork makes her both more crazy and more hot (up and right), and that the boob job again made her less crazy (left again). In fact, it should actually go up, right, and up again.
  • In Where Were We?, where it is revealed that Marshall thought that Ted was the dean at first, it said that Marshall was on his bed, with his headphones on. But in the flashback, he was trying to impress Ted, who he thought was the dean.
  • When Marshall introduces Lily to Ted, Ted is on the phone with Karen apologizing for a mistake he made the night before (implying his makeout with Lily). However, Lily comes to Ted's dorm the day after, and Marshall mentions her to Ted that night, so Ted would not be able to meet her in person until the following day.
  • In the scene that takes place in the future where Ted, Marshal, and Lily are all "eating a sandwich", Ted says "Where's my wife", and the camera cuts back to him laughing. You can see he is wearing a wedding ring, but in Last Forever - Part Two, it is shown that he didn't get married until later.
    • Ted and Tracy married in 2020, making it plausible that this scene took place shortly after.

Allusions and Outside References[]

  • Near the end of the episode, it is revealed that Ted and Blah Blah met online while playing the game World of Warcraft. Blah Blah is shown to have a masculine character and Ted has a scantily clad female character.
  • During most of the flashback scenes, Ted is seen wearing a Cinderella Night Songs shirt.
  • During the first flashback to their freshman year (1996), Ted and Marshall are shown playing a Sony PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 was released in 2000.
  • During the flashback to Barney and Ted first meeting (2001), "Walk, Idiot, Walk" by The Hives can be heard in the background at the bar. However, that song was not released until 2004.
  • Barney's chart includes a line that expresses the appropriate ratio of a woman's hotness to her craziness. He calls this "The Vicky Mendoza Diagonal," in reference to baseball's Mendoza Line.
  • Barney compares himself to Yoda, a fictional character in the Star Wars universe.

Music[]

Other Notes[]

  • The title is a pun of the series name.

Awards[]

Guests[]

Reception[]

  • Omar G at Television Without Pity gave the episode an A. [2]
  • Donna Bowman of The AV Club rated the episode A. [3]
  • Staci Krause of IGN gave the episode 8.9 out of 10. [4]
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 9.5 out of 10 stars. "...'Someone's been eating a sandwich.' "

References[]

External Links[]


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