| Lily Aldrin | ||
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Portrayed by: | ||
First appearance: | ||
Last appearance: | ||
| Also Known As: Lilypad, Justice Aldrin, Red, Lil, Chewbacca, The Belly, The Slap Bet Commissioner, Lori, The Kraken, Red Head, Ms. Aldrin, Lily Stinson, Mrs. Awesome, Number One Gunna | ||
Home town: Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, | ||
Born: March 22, 1978 | ||
Occupation: | ||
Residence: | ||
Romances: | ||
| Gallery of Lily Aldrin images (595) | ||
- “OK, yes it's a mistake. I know it's a mistake, but there are certain things in life where you know it's a mistake but you don't really know it's a mistake because the only way to really know it's a mistake is to make the mistake and look back and say 'yep, that was a mistake.' So really, the bigger mistake would be to not make the mistake, because then you'd go your whole life not knowing if something is a mistake or not. And dammit, I've made no mistakes! I've done all of this; my life, my relationship, my career, mistake-free. Does any of this make sense to you?”
- ―Lily telling Ted about the opportunities of the art fellowship.
Lily Aldrin (born March 22, 1978) is one of five main characters of How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Alyson Hannigan.
She is the wife of Marshall Eriksen and the best friend of Robin Scherbatsky, as well as one of Ted Mosby's closest friends, having known him and Marshall since college. She currently works as an art consultant to The Captain, having formerly been a kindergarten teacher. She is also an amateur painter. She is virtually incapable of keeping secrets, with a few exceptions. In Challenge Accepted, Lily is found to be pregnant, and in The Magician's Code - Part One she gives birth to a boy named Marvin. During Barney and Robin's wedding weekend it is revealed that Lily became pregnant again. In February 2014 she gives birth to their daughter Daisy Eriksen, where it is also shown that Lily and Marshall spend the year in Rome. In the finale "Last Forever", in a flashforward to 2016, Lily announces that she is pregnant with their third kid.
Character Background
Childhood
Lily was born on March 22, 1978 in New York City and grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In her early life, her father took care of her most of the time. Lily's mother is an extreme feminist, who worked two jobs and refused to buy her an easy bake oven. After entering school, her dad became a stay-at-home dad who was distracted by his newfound dream of creating the next great American board game, therefore constantly neglecting Lily. After a while, she even gave him the You're dead to me look. Young Lily also took ballet and gymnastics (Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap). It's also known that Lily owned a dog named Bean.
Teenage Years
In high school, Lily had a goth-like appearance. In the ninth grade, she accidentally passed gas loudly while in class. She blamed Michael Sasser, the boy seated next to her who was just getting close to becoming one of the cool kids after joining the baseball team. After she blamed him, Michael gained the nickname, "Gasser", and was teased so much that he switched schools. Lily would later consider this to be one of her biggest regrets (Happily Ever After). She became a teenage bad-ass, who terrorised her neighborhood, would drink under-age, and bullied Scooter into starting a relationship (Twelve Horny Women). She was eventually in a committed relationship with Scooter. She technically may have lost her virginity to him, but as Robin puts it "he didn't dive in, but he got in the shallow end". Since the two of them had different plans after high school, she broke up with Scooter at their senior prom.
College
Lily attended Wesleyan University, where she majored in art. During a freshman floor party, she made out with a guy named Colin. She got so drunk that she completely forgot who she hooked up with and referred to Colin as "too much tongue guy". After seeing Marshall Eriksen at orientation, she broke her stereo and went to see if she could find him to fix it. She would later go on to meet Ted Mosby. After Marshall helped her fix her stereo in her dorm room, the two of them started dating. When Lily first turned on the stereo, Good Feeling by The Violent Femmes was playing.
Lily at Wesleyan
The two of them went on to fall in love and lose their virginity to each other, and Good Feeling became 'their song'. She and Marshall also spent their first Valentine's Day together watching the movie, Predator, which became their Valentine's Day tradition.
Lily also developed a loathing hatred for Ted's on-again, off-again girlfriend, Karen. She and Marshall hated Karen because she was constantly cheating on Ted and when she acted sophisticated, she came off as obnoxious. But the biggest reason she hated Karen was because she walked in on her painting a nude portrait of Marshall and Karen lingered and stared at Marshall's penis. Sometime during her college career, Lily did a study abroad program in Paris for a semester.
General Background
Lily in 2020
She is married to Marshall Eriksen and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Lily also has dreams of being an artist. She also has a huge debt problem because of her impulsive buying practices. She is able to hide this from Marshall until they apply for a mortgage. She cannot keep a secret, and is a very caring person and will much of the time do thankless acts for the good of her friends. She is also known to have to pee often, as shown during the episode Duel Citizenship. She met Marshall and Ted in college and almost immediately started dating Marshall. They were together for about nine years and engaged for almost a year when Lily broke up with Marshall to move to San Francisco to concentrate on her art. She was there for a summer and came back to NYC but Marshall was too hurt that they stayed separated for another couple months afterward. They eventually patched things up and got married. They moved into an apartment in Dowisetrepla which they do not know at first stands for Down Wind of the Sewage Treatment Plant. They want children, but for a while are scared so they did not try. Later Lily and Marshall make a bet that once they have seen the doppelganger of every member of their gang they will start trying for a child. By the summer of 2010 they have seen all but Barney's doppelganger when Lily sees what she thinks his doppelganger (it was not). The rest of the gang knew this meant she was ready for a child and let her believe it. She doesn't like the word "moist", and is lactose intolerant. She has a very bad aim.
Personality
Despite her small, cute-like appearance, Lily is far from innocent. She is known to be an extremely sexual person. Throughout the series, Lily and Marshall have been shown announcing to the rest of the gang how proud the two are of their sexual history, which usually ends with them giving each other high-fives. Lily also been shown to be curious about other people's romantic/sex lives, specifically Ted's and Barney's. With Barney, Lily has asked Robin about his sex preferences, specifically if he liked to use toys in the bed.
With Ted, Lily has taken it upon herself to make him break up with women that she didn't approve of since their time in college together, especially if they didn't pass her "Front Porch Test", where she would imagine what the group would look like as elderly people sitting on the front porch of their shared beach house. This attitude makes Lily an outright hypocrite due to Robin having originally not passed the test, which would have meant Lily sabotaging Ted and Robin's relationship and causing more trouble than was worth. Lily defends these obviously immoral actions by stating it's for Ted's own good, showing that Lily has problems recognizing boundaries and does not realize how awful some of her choices can be for anyone else.
She could also be labeled as extremely manipulative in that over the course of the series, if she does not approve of something, she will go out of her way to change it, even if it's nothing to do with her, as she has demonstrated by locking Robin and Barney in the room together in Definitions, where she forced them to have "the talk" whereupon if they didn't, they weren't allowed to come out of the room. Lily's manipulative nature can come across as also being remarkably hypocritical as she tries to make everyone around her into exactly what she wants them to be without regard as to how she could change to better suit the needs of others. She ignores anyone else's feelings in most matters that concern others and follows the logic that just because she wants them to, the people around her will forgive her. A notable example of this is in the episode Milk when she abandons Ted by the side of the road after he fixed her tire, stating that "he was her best friend and just had to forgive her." Her 'Aldrin Justice' system has often proven to be a controlling and aggressive act in itself, for example when she attempted to blackmail Hammond Druthers into being a nicer boss by stealing his baseball, and when he threatened to fire three people an hour until she returned his ball, she completely disregarded that this would lead to Ted being fired and insisted that her methods were warranted.
Her hypocritical selfishness can also be noted in other ways such as in the episode Murtaugh when she was appalled by Marshall's over-excessive teaching of her kindergarten basketball team, saying he was being too harsh. Then, as a response, she resorts to treating Marshall harshly to get him to be nicer, acting exactly like she penalized Marshall for acting to get him to do what she wanted. Another instance of her hypocrisy is shown in the episode Last Cigarette Ever where she criticized Marshall's smoking habits, making him give up his pack of cigarettes only to start smoking them herself right in front of him. Another example would be in the episode The Exploding Meatball Sub when she pretends to be supportive of Marshal's obviously illogical decisions then tricks Ted into driving her to the airport so she can take a flight to Spain, a holiday Marshall had ruined after taking an unpaid job which Lily claimed to be giving her full support on.
Being a kindergarten teacher, Lily has a warped sense of justice. She has a tendency to punish people that she doesn't approve in a similar fashion to how she would punish the children in her class even though they're fully grown adults. Lily is even willing to perform "punishments" that break the law, she stole a pair of pants because the store's sales clerk was rude to Robin.
One of Lily's most notable traits that the entire gang has noticed is that she loves gossip and is almost incapable of keeping a secret. She has shown to reveal secrets within minutes after promising to keep them secret as shown when she told Ted Robin's opinion of him after their first date. The longest secret that she ever kept was her shopping addiction, which was eventually revealed to the rest of the gang in Season 3. Lily has the tendency to turn to shopping whenever she is upset whether the problem has to do with her relationships or even receiving a high credit card bill. Ted also has noticed that when she is upset or feeling guilty she will peel the labels off water bottles. She also has the bad habit of chewing too loudly as shown in Spoiler Alert.
Lily also has the capacity of acting incredibly selfish on several occasions without thought of the opinions or feelings of others. The biggest example of these is when she left Marshall to move to San Francisco, jeopardizing their engagement, wedding and causing Marshall to fall into a financial and emotional pit, all of these consequences caused purely because Lily wanted to see if she could make it as an artist. Another notable example is in the episode Unpause when she calls out Marshall's acceptance of a judgeship over going with her to Italy as being more selfish than anything she has ever done, completely disregarding anything she has done in the past including her break-up with him. Her self-centered idea of how everyone should act according to her and the lengths she is prepared to go to achieve those ends can be easily translated as being selfish and ignorant of the thoughts or desires of others and how they may want to live their own lives, instead invading their lives so as to better suit her yet stating it is all in their best interests when it's really in her own.
Despite of all the selfish and manipulative behaviour,Lily is a really very emotional person and loves the group no matter what. She is the string that has kept the whole group intact. Her emotional behaviour, innovative and cute little punishments, love for the group as a mother makes her a very nice character and a friend who everyone should have in their life.
Career
From the beginning of the series, Lily had been a kindergarten teacher. After coming back from San Francisco, she tried finding a job she was passionate about (life coach, a marine biologist, slam poet, beekeeper) while being a waitress at a Hawaiian restaurant named "Big Wave Luau". She later quits her job as a waitress and Ted offers her a job as an office assistant in his architecture firm. However, when Lily takes Ted's boss's signed baseball for being mean and refused to give it back, Ted fired her. He offered Lily her job back when he became the project manager, but Lily realizes that her real passion is being a kindergarten teacher.
In 2013, Lily confides in Ted, and later Marshall, that she regrets not following a career in art and now it's too late for that. However, she soon gets an offer from The Captain to be his art consultant, which she gladly accepts. A few months later, The Captain tells her that he is moving to Rome for a year and would like her to accompany him as his art consultant. She is reluctant at first and says no to him twice, but later accepts his offer after Marshall convinces her. This offer was in jeopardy at some episodes in season 9 due to conflicts with her husband's judge offer ship. This has been solved during Daisy when Marshall tells her she is giving him his dream by being pregnant again.
Relationships
Romantic Interests
Marshall Eriksen
Lily and Marshall
Marshall and Lily have been a couple since their freshmen year of college. They lost their virginity to each other in college (they originally were going to wait until New Year's Day) while Ted was on the top bunk of the bed. After being together nine years they were engaged. Lily broke off their engagement to go to an art fellowship in San Francisco. Barney then went to her and told her about how terrible Marshall was and told her to come back for him. When she returned and asked Marshall for his forgiveness in season two, he rejected her at first. There was a brief period of time where they couldn't be around each other. When Lily interrupted Marshall's date, they got back together. They then continued their engagement, and pledged to sleep separately for the remainder of their engagement. They couldn't even do that, because of how much they loved each other. Marshall and Lily later got married. Four years later, they decided to try to have a baby, but realized it required too much responsibility and postponed it. In the season 6 finale, they find out that Lily is pregnant, and their son Marvin is born in The Magician's Code Part - One.
- Main article: Lily and Marshall.
Scooter
Lily and Scooter
Scooter (also known as Bill) and Lily were a couple in high school. She broke up with him during their senior prom, and broke his heart.
Scooter is apparently still in love with Lily even though she is married to Marshall, and has him on "the hook" going so far as to work in the canteen at her work. Scooter was also present at their wedding trying to win Lily back, but was escorted out by Brad.
Friendships
Ted Mosby
Lily and Ted
Ted and Lily have been friends since their freshmen year of college. Ted first heard of Lily when Marshall told him how they met, and she met Ted in person when he was on the phone with Karen, begging her to take him back. The three of them became closer when Ted invited Lily into his roommate photo with Marshall.
- Main article: Lily and Ted.
Robin Scherbatsky
Lily and Robin
Lily and Robin are best friends. Their relationship as best friends started when Robin just met Lily and wanted to have Thai food in the flashback confession in Arrivederci, Fiero. They spilled the food in the car and Lily worried that Marshall would be mad at them. They decided to lie and say that a drunk man broke the window and puked inside the car. Since then, they've been best friends.
- Main article: Lily and Robin.
Barney Stinson
Lily and Barney
In Season 2, when Lily couldn't stand to stay in her new apartment anymore, she begged Barney to let her stay at his apartment, which would be the very first time Barney's apartment is shown in the show. Barney starts using Lily, pretending to be his wife, to scare off his one-night-stands - and they start getting closer. They now have a kind of brother-sister relationship. Barney confesses to Lily about his interest in Robin and other information, like Lily knows that Barney wanted to become a violinist when he was young. Lily is however mostly not good at keeping Barney's secrets.
- Main article: Lily and Barney.
Family
- Spouse: Marshall Eriksen (2007-present)
- Mother: Janice Aldrin
- Father: Mickey Aldrin
- Children: Marvin W. Eriksen, Daisy Eriksen, unnamed third child
- Grandfather(s): Morris Aldrin (paternal)
- Grandmother(s): Lois (maternal), Rita Aldrin (paternal)
- Aunt(s): Florence, who helped put together Lily's bachelorette party
- Niece(s): Penny Mosby (honorary), Ellie Stinson (honorary)
- Nephew(s): Luke Mosby (honorary)
- Cousin(s): Margaret, who was about to be confirmed as a nun when she attended Lily's bachelorette party, some of Lily's younger cousins also attended
- In-law(s): see Marshall's family
Notes and Trivia
- Lily is a female name of English origin and literally means "lily". This flower is a symbol of innocence; purity and beauty.
- Lily does not appear at all (physically or by voice) in the season four episodes The Three Days Rule and Right Place, Right Time because of Alyson Hannigan's pregnancy. This makes her the only one of the five main characters that has not been in all of the episodes.
- In Barney's blog (The Slap Stops Here!), Barney states that Lily's full name is Lilith. However, he also says her last name is Eriksen (née Aldrin). Between the fact that Lily's last name is Aldrin and the fact that Barney has been known to improvise his friends' full names when he doesn't know them (How Lily Stole Christmas), it's unclear if Lily actually is short for Lilith. The name Lillith is derived from the Akkadian lilitu and means "of the night". This was literally the name of a demon in ancient Assyrian myths (the complete opposite of a flower of purity and beauty).
- Lily's résumé says that she speaks Italian fluently.[2] However, in The Rehearsal Dinner, she is shown speaking Italian poorly by saying "I am goodbye to a job in Italian. Many sad." in Italian after claiming it was getting better.
- She claims to speak Conductor in Subway Wars but whenever the conductor makes an announcement, the train seems to do the opposite.
- In Dowisetrepla, it is shown that whenever Lily feels guilty, she peels the label of bottles, similar to how Ted peels off the label of beer bottles whenever he is nervous.
- Lily has bisexual tendencies. She repeatedly hints at wanting to have a lesbian experience, and tells Robin that she had a great ass and admits to having romantic dreams about her. It stated that whenever she drink martinis she wants to make out with Robin and she has dreams about her when she's pregnant. (The Rebound Girl)
- In Spoiler Alert it was revealed that Lily chews very loudly, even when she is eating cotton candy.
- While Alyson Hannigan was starring in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, her character stated that she once wrote Doogie Howser, M.D. fan fiction. Doogie Howser was portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson's now costar.
- When the character Lily was pregnant on the show, the actress who plays Lily (Alyson Hannigan) was pregnant in real life.
- In both of Alyson Hannigan's most well known television roles, her characters have been named after plants. Willow (after the tree) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and obviously Lily (the flower) on How I Met Your Mother.
- Eleven years old was portrayed by Piper Mackenzie Harris in Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap.
- Lily is loosely based on Rebecca Alson-Milkman, wife of series writer Craig Thomas who Marshall is based on. Rebecca agreed to have the character based on her if Hannigan played the role.
- It is implied that while living in San Francisco Lily derived sexual pleasure from the vibrations caused by an earthquake, sighing contentedly at the memory. Technically this makes the city her only sexual partner other than Marshall and Scooter.
- She is the only member of the gang who has no siblings.
- Her surname, "Aldrin," is of Swedish origin.
References
- ↑ Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap
- ↑ Her résumé is seen for a brief moment in The Possimpible.
External links
- Lily Aldrin at the English Wikipedia
- Lily Aldrin at the Internet Movie Database
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| Friends & Family | Marshall Eriksen • Ted Mosby • Robin Scherbatsky • Barney Stinson • Scooter • Mickey Aldrin • Janice Aldrin • Rita Aldrin • Morris Aldrin • Grandma Lois • Marvin W. Eriksen • Daisy Eriksen • Unnamed Eriksen Child | |||
| Places | MacLaren's Pub • Lily's Kindergarten • Wesleyan University • Marshall and Lily's apartment • Marshall and Lily's house • The Apartment • Lily's first apartment • Lily's second apartment | |||
| Phrases | Where's the poop? • You sonuvabitch • Thank you, Linus | |||
| Others | Aldrin Justice (punishment) • Intervention banner • The Kennedy Package • Lily's bisexuality • Lily's habit of not keeping secrets • Long term bets • Lily's frequent urination • Marshpillow • You're dead to me look | |||
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| Friends & Family | Lily Aldrin • Ted Mosby • Robin Scherbatsky • Barney Stinson • Marvin Eriksen Sr. • Judy Eriksen • Marvin Eriksen Jr. • Marcus Eriksen • Ashley Eriksen • Martin Eriksen • Marvin W. Eriksen • Daisy Eriksen • Unnamed Eriksen Child | |||
| Places | MacLaren's Pub • The Apartment • Wesleyan University • Goliath National Bank • Marshall and Lily's apartment • Marshall and Lily's house • AltruCell Corporation • Gazzola's • Honeywell & Cootes • Nicholson, Hewitt, and West | |||
| Phrases | Lawyered • I'll Allow It | |||
| Others | Ducky Tie (object) • The Eight Slaps • Ted's best friend • Minnesota Vikings • You Just Got Slapped • Mabel • Tantrum • Marshall versus the Machines • Best Night Ever • Marshall Medley • Intervention banner • Marshgammon • Marshall's puns • The Fish List • The Swords • Long term bets• Five Words • Big Fudge • I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) • Singing habit • Revertigo | |||
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| Friends & Family | Tracy McConnell• Robin Scherbatsky • Marshall Eriksen • Lily Aldrin • Barney Stinson • Alfred Mosby • Virginia Mosby • Heather Mosby • Stacy • Ted's kids • Ted’s Dog | |||
| Places | MacLaren's Pub • The Apartment • Wesleyan University • Gazzola's • Ted's house • Goliath National Bank • New GNB Headquarters • Columbia University • Ted's Architecture Class • Ted's Second apartment • Puzzles | |||
| Phrases | Ridonkulous • Ted Mosby: Architect (phrase) • Right? Right? | |||
| Others | Yellow Umbrella • The Threeway Belt • Blue French Horn • Ted's best friend • Sensory Deprivator 5000 • Naked Lady Noise • Tuxedo Night • Tantrum • TurTurkeyKey • Intervention banner • Doctor X • Red Cowboy Boots • The Swords • Five Words • Mock Salutes • Classic Shmosby • The Mosby Boys • Fun facts • Zitch dog • Crossword • Calligraphy • Property of Ted Mosby | |||
| Future Ted | Future Ted's euphemisms (Eating a Sandwich) • Future Ted's lies • Future Ted's uncertainties • Future Ted's exaggerations | |||
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| Friends & Family | Barney Stinson • Ted Mosby • Lily Aldrin • Marshall Eriksen • • Robin Scherbatsky Sr. • Katie Scherbatsky • Genevieve Scherbatsky • Alan Thicke | |||
| Places | MacLaren's Pub • The Apartment • Robin's apartment • Hoser Hut • Metro News 1 • Come On, Get Up New York! • World Wide News • Canada • The Gun Range | |||
| Phrases | But...umm • Nobody asked you Patrice | |||
| Others | Blue French Horn • Robin Sparkles • Let's Go to the Mall • Sandcastles in the Sand (song) • Space Teens • The Beaver Song • P.S. I Love You (song) • Intervention banner • Truth Voice • Sir Scratchewan • Mock Salutes • The Locket (object) | |||
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| Students | Ted Mosby • Lily Aldrin • Marshall Eriksen • Maggie Wilks • Steve Henry • Pete Durkenson • Matt Blitz • Daryl LaCoutre • Karen | |||
| Faculty | Professor Vinick | |||
| Places | Wesleyan University | |||