- Barney tries to set Ted up on dates so that he can forget about Robin, while also plotting to get Quinn out of her stripping job. Meanwhile, Lily sends Marshall on a getaway so that he will stop stressing over the baby.
- Ted still isn't ready to see Robin. To help Ted get over her, Barney persuades him to try online dating, even down to picking the women Ted should date. But when Ted goes on these dates, he sees only one thing: Robin. He has to figure out if that actually means that he is still in love with her despite needing to get over her. Meanwhile, Barney himself has gotten to the point of being jealous of all the men Quinn meets professionally. As much as he likes certain parts of her being a stripper, he does whatever he can to persuade her to quit and find another job. And although it is still five weeks until Lily's due date, Marshall is treating the time like the baby has already arrived, which is driving Lily crazy and making both a little sleep deprived. Lily has her own plan of getting Marshall back into the here and now.—Huggo
- Lily and Marshall hold their baby shower. Ted and Robin separately miss the shower on purpose to avoid seeing each other. Robin came too early, while Ted came 3 hours late. Robin brought the red stroller and Ted got the blue one. Ted tells Barney that he is not dating anyone and trying to get Robin out of his head. Barney says that Ted needs a palate cleanser. Barney encourages Ted to try online dating and sets him up with three specific women. Over the course of each date, Ted suddenly visualizes Robin sitting in front of him and is determined to get her out of his mind even if his dates found him weird. The first date is with a girl named Robyn (Cristen Irene). Robyn is from Canada and is a scotch and gun lover. On the third date, Ted finds out that his date, Holly (Karissa Vacker), needed someone to get her over a recent breakup, which leads them to sleeping together. Ted goes back to MacLaren's and tries to order a drink but sees Robin as the bartender and as a nearby patron. Both pseudo-Robins encourage him to find Robin and make amends. Robin pulls up in a taxi, and Ted tells her that they need to talk. She tells him that now is not a good time.
Barney's relationship with Quinn is strained as he overreacts whenever he thinks her job is mentioned. At the baby shower Quinn was talking to grandmother Lois (K Callan) about swimming 50 laps a day, and Barney gives Lois a big lecture on how she should be ashamed about judging Quinn about what she does for a living, which borders on prostitution. After two of Quinn's regular customers greet her on the sidewalk, Barney fires a top GNB employee and offers Quinn a job at the bank as an "executive strategy coordinator" - which turns out to be just something to help Quinn earn income without having to strip. Quinn turns down the offer as she has standards and would never work for a bank. Seeing that Barney's trying to dictate her career, Quinn asks for some time to think and leaves Barney, who reinstates the employee.
With the baby's impending birth, Marshall conditions himself for various parenthood situations by using a watermelon as a practice baby. Marshall is really stressed about the baby. Marshall sets up an alarm to go off every 3 hours for the whole night to mimic the erratic sleep patterns of early parenthood. Lily is not happy with what he is doing and gets into an argument with Marshall that she wants some peace and quiet around the house as it is only 5 weeks till the baby arrives. She applies for a two-day parental workshop. Marshall dozes off seeing Lily as the driver but wakes up hours later with Barney behind the wheel. Barney explains that Lily asked him to help trick Marshall into taking a vacation in Atlantic City so Marshall could unwind. At a casino, Barney proposes wearing the Ducky Tie again if they can turn off their phones for one hour and drink 100 tequila shots. Marshall gets so drunk that he needs subtitles to explain what he said, when he speaks.
One hour later, a drunk Marshall madly tosses poker chips around the casino floor while Barney turns his phone back on and sees 17 voice-mails - all coming from Lily, who is now in labor and wants them back in New York immediately. Across the 17 voice-mails, Lily got more and more frantic as she could not get in touch with Marshall.
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