In the Living Room, Lily stresses about how the party is going despite Marshall’s reassurance until his boss Garrison Cootes informs him that they need to get back to work. Lily suggests that Cootes has some vegan spring rolls and he departs for the dining room, only to return and confront Ted about the supply of vegan food having already been eaten. Cootes, being a vegan, is angry because he is under the impression that Ted has eaten the spring rolls and nearly come to blows when Lily steps in Cootes of other possible food options. Cootes departs for the dining room. Meanwhile, a distraught Barney confides in Robin about an issue that is unknown to the audience. Marshall enters with a block of gouda cheese, which Lily quickly destroys. Moments later, a man in a beekeeper outfit runs through the house on fire.

In the Dining Room, Barney has eaten all the spring rolls as he converses with a woman he deems is crazy until he sees how attractive she is and seduces her. She tells Barney to meet her in the upstairs guest bedroom to engage in sex. After she departs, Cootes arrives and Barney blames Ted for for the missing spring rolls, enraging Cootes. Having witnessed the conversation between Barney and the woman, Lily demands Barney that talk to her privately in the kitchen. Marshall asks Robin for help in confronting Cootes, during which Robin struggles to prove she can maintain her composure over small issues that normally enrage her. Soon afterward, Lily and Barney both leave the kitchen upset and enter the living room. Cootes re-enters the dining room, where Marshall asks to speak with him privately in the kitchen. Again, the scene ends with a man in a beekeeper outfit running through the house on fire.

In the Kitchen, Ted and Robin continue their argument over Robin’s tendency to start arguments with strangers at the slightest provocation and Ted’s tendency to run from confrontation, explaining why Ted continued to argue with Cootes in the living room. Unable to come to a resolution, they eventually disperse into the party to engage in the conversations shown in the previous scenes. Lily and Barney enter the kitchen where Lily informs him of the attractive woman, her neighbor Geraldine, and her history involving previous lovers. Lilly states specifically that the last man to have slept with Geraldine and not call afterward was hunted down and had a “certain part of his anatomy removed”. As she warns him again not to have sex with Geraldine, the gouda cheese that Marshall serves falls on the floor and Lily and Barney are alarmed to see mice on the cheese. Lily flees in alarm, followed by Barney soon afterward.

Marshall and Cootes enter the kitchen, where Marshall reveals that long hours at the office have resulted in neglecting his pregnant wife and he requests a night off to relax with family and friends. When Cootes refuses because Mother Earth doesn’t get a night off, Marshall quits out of desperation, telling Cootes he needs to relax and find a hobby, before going to serve the cheese. Realizing Marshall may have been right, Cootes decides to don the beekeeper’s outfit in an attempt to follow his advice and take up a hobby. Unaware that Mickey followed Barney’s apocryphal advice to douse the suit in kerosene to repel the bees, Cootes opens the basement door and hears the timer for Ted and Robin’s dish going off. When he opens the oven, Cootes bursts into flames and runs from the house, leaping into the snow-covered front yard and extinguishing the blaze. Exhilarated at the feeling of being alive, he tells Marshall that they’ll take the night off and he hopes to see Marshall on Monday. When Marshall attempts to re-enter the house, he realizes that Cootes has allowed the bees to escape their basement enclosure.

Meanwhile, Barney and Geraldine have been upstairs having sex, oblivious to the action occurring in the rest of the house. Barney tries to sneak out when she begins describing their future. He sees the escaped bees in the hallway and hesitates over his escape. After Geraldine continues ranting about their relationship, Barney slinks off into the hallway, screaming at the insect stings.

“The Burning Beekeeper” is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 151st episode overall. It aired on 6 February 2012.

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Meanwhile, Barney and Ted are waiting in the line to enter McLarens Bar and they find Doug there. Due to the high pricing they don’t enter the bar and they open a bar called ‘Puzzles’ in Ted’s apartment. Robin is spending new year’s eve with Kevin, when she receives a phone call from Sandy Rivers, who is drunk, and asks her to get to the broadcasting site of his New Year’s Eve show.

Meanwhile, Marshall keeps interrupting Lily by telling another story from Enigmas of the Mystical. Ted and Barney are having trouble managing their new ‘bar’ and are forced to continue to raise prices due to mishaps taking place.

Later, Marshall apologizes and explains he acted that way because his Dad made him believe in the magical. Lily feels upset that her Dad just told her not to believe in anything but herself. Robin calls Kevin and tells him that she has lost Sandy Rivers, who is wasted in the bathtub of her own apartment. Kevin asks her to get on air herself, which she does.

Future Ted narrates this as being the turning point in Robin’s career. Near the end, Lily’s dad shows up at her front door with a giant teddy bear. He then reveals he drove all night from Chicago to see Lily and tells her how excited he is for her. A tear struck Lily thanks her father and hugs him.

Meanwhile, many people have gathered where Marshall is tailgating on his father’s grave site, where someone accidentally calls him Marvin, saying Marshall is just like his dad.

“Tailgate” is the thirteenth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 149th episode overall. It aired on January 2, 2012.

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“Tailgate” — After celebrating New Year’s Eve, Marshall visits his father’s graveside to carry on their tradition of tailgating. Meanwhile, Barney and Ted open a bar called “Puzzles,” and Robin is forced to fill in for an inebriated news anchor, on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Monday, Jan. 2 (8:00-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

SERIES REGULARS:

Josh Radnor (Ted)
Jason Segel (Marshall)
Cobie Smulders (Robin)
Neil Patrick Harris (Barney)
Alyson Hannigan (Lily)

RECURRING CAST:

Bob Saget (Narrator)

GUEST CAST:

Bill Faggerbakke (Marvin Sr.)
Chris Elliot (Mickey)
Will Sasso (Doug)
Kal Penn (Kevin)
Alexis Denisof (Sandy Rivers)
Ned Rolsma
Robert Michael Ryan

WRITTEN BY: Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, co-creators and executive producers

DIRECTED BY: Pamela Fryman

GENRE: COMEDY

Though Barney is giddy at the prospect of becoming a father, Robin is not and is still firmly against having children of her own. While helping Lily shop at We B Babies, Barney soon shares her feelings when he sees how the life of an old friend, “Insane Duane”, has changed since marrying and having children. Both Robin and Barney are relieved when the doctor informs them that Robin is not pregnant. Robin celebrates not being pregnant until she receives bad news from the doctor telling her that she can’t have children. Robin struggles to find a way to tell her friends, so she lies and says instead that she didn’t make the Canadian pole vaulting team, using it as a metaphor.

Meanwhile, Marshall wants to have better Christmas decorations than rival Richard Holdman, planning an entire display he names the “Symphony of Illumination” for the house on Long Island. He is glad to receive help from a neighborhood teen named Scott. However, Scott leaves him on the roof, steals Marshall’s phone, and throws a party in Marshall’s house. Though Marshall briefly relents, recalling his own antics when he was young, he is outraged when he sees Scott abusing a giant stocking his late grandmother knit for Marshall’s future child. He remains stranded on the roof until Lily arrives, unwittingly paying Scott for his help, and then sees the damage Scott has caused.

The rest of the gang notices Robin has been acting strange lately, and try to figure out why. Though Ted and Lily jokingly guess that Robin hooked up with Barney, they dismiss the idea to Barney’s relief and Ted assumes Robin is homesick for Canada. When Ted offers her plane tickets to his home town in Cleveland, Ohio, Robin dismisses the notion and tells Ted that he should not feel responsible for cheering her up. She goes on for a walk at Central Park, where it’s revealed that the kids Robin is telling the story to are actually in her imagination, and she is actually talking to herself on a park bench. She returns to the apartment where Ted has set up an entire neon light display that says “Merry Christmas Robin” to cheer her up. Future Ted notes that even though Robin never became a “pole vaulter”, she did become a famous journalist, and he also notes that she was never alone.

“Symphony of Illumination” is the twelfth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 148th episode overall. It aired on December 5, 2011. This episode is a continuation of ‘The Rebound Girl’.

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Marshall and Lily drop by the house they inherited from her grandparents, which they are planning to sell. However, after Marshall and Lily return to their apartment, they decide their apartment is no longer as big when they first left and decide to move to their given home in Long Island. Robin, shocked, puts in an effort to persuade them not to, reminding them of a time when Marshall almost purchased an abandoned firehouse and become a Ghostbuster. When they arrive at the house to prepare for Thanksgiving, Robin locks herself in their bathroom and refuses to leave until they change their minds.

When Barney and Ted arrive with the baby, Lily is shocked. She manages to convince Ted (who began to relish the idea) that this wasn’t a good idea. Barney’s brother James and his partner arrive, and the child is revealed to be their daughter Sadie, whom Barney offered to babysit after inviting James’s family to Thanksgiving. James tells Ted he almost did the same thing with a female friend, but once they met their partners, they were glad they didn’t go through with it. Ted informs Barney he no longer wishes to adopt and Barney leaves for a walk. He goes to the bathroom window to talk to Robin, who informs him she’s pregnant.

“The Rebound Girl” is the eleventh episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 147th episode overall. It aired on November 21, 2011.

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Meanwhile, Ted, Lily, and Marshall attend a concert, where Ted insists that he and Marshall consume some marijuana to enjoy the concert. Marshall reluctantly agrees, though he believes that he must become more responsible because he will be a father soon, while Ted fears that life is moving too quickly and they won’t be able to enjoy all the things they wanted to in the past.

While they’re high, Ted and Marshall disperse on a quest for nachos for Lily. Walking around the entire arena twice, also standing in line for the women’s restroom line many times, they become frustrated with one another and set off on their own. They are met by a mysterious guitarist, who guides them back together and presents them with nachos. Though disappointed they’ve missed the concert, Ted and Marshall manage to reconcile the fact that time will go on whether they are ready or not. When Lily comes across them a while later, she informs them that rather being gone for several hours, they were only gone for two minutes. They return to the concert, but decide to leave after ten minutes.

Kevin winds up in the hospital after a drink is thrown in his face; when Robin tries to tell Kevin in the hospital, he tells Robin he loves her and accepts anything she does wrong. Barney, though at first obstructed by the arrival of Nora’s parents, tells her the truth and they break up. Barney plans a romantic evening for Robin and himself, but Robin arrives at the bar with Kevin, having not told him. This leaves Barney heartbroken and he excuses himself, not wanting to stick around. Ted leaves the bar soon after, as he is still high. As Ted gets back to his apartment, he sees Barney picking up rose petals off Robin’s bed and blowing out the flames of candles. Ted walks to his room without saying anything.

“Tick Tick Tick” is the tenth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 146th episode overall. It aired on November 14, 2011.

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While at the bar, Kevin notices a sign out the front of MacLaren’s saying “No boogie boarding”, which leads the gang to tell him the story of what happened to them during Hurricane Irene. Ted had planned to have his friends ride out the hurricane in his house out of the city, but Barney convinces them to stay in his house, much to Ted’s chagrin, saying that the storm is nothing to worry about. Lily and Barney eventually get calls from their parents asking if they are all right, and Robin grows jealous because her father has not called her. When she denies this, Barney fake calls Robin as her dad to prove her jealousy. Ted tells Barney he can’t come to his house, as he found a girl in the hallway and said she could take Barney’s place, causing everyone to fight over who gets to go or stay. Ted finally says that he is going to go by himself. Marshall turns on the TV just in time to call Ted back to hear Mayor Bloomberg’s speech saying that the evacuation time has passed and that everyone must go inside and wait out the storm.

Marshall had no health insurance during that time because of his unemployment. He was seeing death everywhere and refused to go alone anywhere without Lily because he thought he would be attacked by a bear. Lily had complained that he is not giving her enough alone time and that all she wants to do is sit in the bath and read a book. That night, Marshall poured Lily a bath and told her to have a little alone time. Lily said she wanted Marshall to stay and they ended up conceiving their baby boy in Barney’s bathroom.

Meanwhile at the bar, Kevin has pointed out that since Barney had not complained about the Ducky Tie in weeks, there must be an agenda to Barney’s offer of letting Marshall slapping him in return for being allowed to take the tie off. Kevin hypothesizes that he has to impress someone and deduces that Barney is going to meet Nora’s parents, which Barney reveals happens in two days. Lily and Marshall agree that Barney can take off the tie but he must gain an extra 3 slaps to his already existing final slap. Marshall delivers two of the slaps, with two still remaining.

In the end, it is shown that the gang had gone out after the end of the hurricane and played around in the rain, which led to Marshall going boogie boarding and eventually crashing through MacLarens’ front windows, thus the warning sign against boogie boarding. Robin and Barney decide to share a cab home and they reminisce about the moment after Marshall’s accident when they had almost kissed but Robin’s dad had called her. They make fun of what could have happened and eventually end up kissing.

“Disaster Averted” is the ninth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 145th episode overall. It aired on November 7, 2011.

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“Disaster Averted” — The gang reminisces about what happened during Hurricane Irene and Barney tries desperately to get out of wearing the ducky tie, on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Monday, Nov. 7 (8:00-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

SERIES REGULARS:

Josh Radnor (Ted)
Jason Segel (Marshall)
Cobie Smulders (Robin)
Neil Patrick Harris (Barney)
Alyson Hannigan (Lily)

RECURRING CAST

Bob Saget (Narrator)

GUEST CAST:

Kal Penn (Kevin)
James Anthony McCarthy (Man in Fez)
Dusan Brown (Kid)
Bruce Gray (Yuthers)
Teresa Castillo (Maya)

WRITTEN BY: Robia Rashid

DIRECTED BY: Michael Shea

GENRE: COMEDY

In the present, Ted sees the slutty pumpkin costume in the window of a shop, where the owner willingly divulges the identity the woman who rented it in 2001. Ted meets Naomi, the girl who wore the costume; she has also been searching for Ted, and they start dating. Ted immediately realizes they have no chemistry and that he has no feelings for her, but he can’t bring himself to end the relationship so quickly after finally finding her. When Ted decides that he needs to break up with Naomi, he’s stunned to see she’s wearing the slutty pumpkin costume; he says that he loves her and they have sex. They arrive at the Halloween party on the roof wearing the costumes they wore when they first met. After Naomi consumes a Tootsie Roll drink, she confesses that she found their relationship as awkward as Ted did, but felt similarly resistant to ending it (though Ted does not reveal to her how he felt). They break up amicably.

Meanwhile, Lily’s judgment is impaired by the fact that she has “pregnancy brain,” and impulsively decides she wants to live in the suburbs after she and Marshall inherit her grandparents’ house. Though Marshall wants to live in the suburbs, he does not want to take advantage of Lily’s state of mind. Under the pretense of arranging for a real estate broker to assess the house, Lily tries to trick Marshall into giving in due to the wholesomeness of the trick-or-treaters who soon arrive. However, when Lily realizes how her pregnancy brain has affected her ability to make decisions, she agrees to wait until she can think clearly before she and Marshall decide whether they want to move away from the city.

In the meantime, Robin learns from Barney’s father Jerome Whittaker through Facebook that Barney’s paternal grandmother was born in Manitoba, thus making Barney one-quarter Canadian. Barney is horrified and Robin goes out of her way to emphasize Barney’s Canadian heritage to compensate for all the mockery she has endured from Barney over the years. She agrees to stop if Barney wears a Mountie costume for the Halloween party on the roof, but Barney resists and winds up wearing an American-themed boxing outfit instead; however, Robin points out that Barney is not uncomfortable on the cold rooftop in his shirtless costume, due to his Canadian ancestry. When he returns home later, a fantasy sequence ensues in which his Canadian side manifests physically and Barney futilely tries to beat him up; the Canadian version of Barney is unfailingly polite and friendly throughout the attack.

“The Slutty Pumpkin Returns” is the eighth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 144th episode overall. It originally aired on October 31, 2011.

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TED FINALLY MEETS HIS MYSTERY GIRL IN THE SLUTTY PUMPKIN COSTUME

Katie Holmes Guest Stars as Naomi, the Slutty Pumpkin

“The Slutty Pumpkin Returns” — Ted finally meets his mystery girl in the Slutty Pumpkin costume. Meanwhile, Barney learns he is part Canadian, and Lily has pregnancy brain. See a video sneak peek from tonight’s episode:

SERIES REGULARS:
Josh Radnor (Ted)
Jason Segel (Marshall)
Cobie Smulders (Robin)
Neil Patrick Harris (Barney)
Alyson Hannigan (Lily)

RECURRING CAST
Bob Saget (Narrator)

GUEST CAST:
Katie Holmes (Naomi)
Christine Pickles (Rita)
Jack Walsh (Morris)
Anthony Van Epperson (Shop Owner)
Misty Monroe (Waitress)
Marlowe Peyton (Kid)
Dylan Shea (Trick or Treater)

WRITTEN BY: Tami Sagher
DIRECTED BY: Pamela Fryman
GENRE: COMEDY