This article's lead sectionmay be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(December 2015)
On their wedding day, Barney has a massive hangover. The gang tries to help him get over the hangover by finding the correct ingredients.
Plot
In 2021, Ted and The Mother are in the back of a limo on their way to a New Year's Eve party. Ted pops open some champagne to toast to a great year with his wife, who has just released a new book. The Mother warns Ted to go easy on the champagne, but he tells her he will be fine as he made a vow in the past. Future Ted then recounts the story behind the vow to his children.
At 8 a.m. on Sunday, ten hours before the wedding in 2013, Ted and Robin finally find Barney passed out in front of his room and are unable to wake him. With the wedding pictures set to begin in two hours, the gang decides they must do whatever they can to revive him. Marshall, disgusted at Barney's drunkenness, makes a vow to never get that drunk again. Future Ted reveals that Marshall would break that vow when he was running for the New York Supreme Court in 2020 and thought he was about to lose to his old friend Brad (also a judge), only to make a comeback victory.
Ted reminds the others of Barney's hangover cure, "Stinson's Hangover Fixer Elixir", and they remember that it has cured all of their own worst hangovers. The only problem is that the drink has a secret ingredient that only Barney knows. Ted and Marshall decide to recover all the known ingredients, while Robin and Lily attempt to revive Barney long enough to learn the secret ingredient. Robin and Lily first try to take him outside for fresh air, but this results in accidentally throwing him down the stairs. After several other methods prove unsuccessful, Lily joins in Marshall's vow. Future Ted says that she would also break it on Marvin's first day of college in 2030 when she and Marshall drink to celebrate Marvin leaving home, only to see Marvin later walk into the same bar.
Marshall and Ted, having gathered most of the ingredients, attempt to gather the last one: grease. The chef at the inn states they have no grease, only for Ted to point out that bacon produces grease. The chef says they throw the grease out and will only make more bacon if it all gets eaten before breakfast is over. Ted tries to get Marshall to eat it all, but Marshall refuses and tells Ted to do it. Ted, having never eaten bacon due to his mother's lie that he is allergic, is reluctant to try. After his first bite, however, he begins to hungrily devour it and even wards off Marshall's attempts to eat any. They get the grease from the next batch, which Ted also attempts to eat. Future Ted states that this was the first and last time he ate bacon.
Meanwhile, the girls are still unable to revive Barney and Lily suggests making out with Robin, more out of personal interest than a desire to wake Barney. Robin also joins in Marshall's vow, revealed to be broken a few years later in 2016 while she and Barney are on vacation in Buenos Aires and they wake up in the wrong hotel room with someone else's baby. Their kiss is successful and Barney awakens long enough to tell the gang that the secret ingredient is actually a lie that he made up to make his friends feel better after the worst episodes of their lives. Barney says that he lied to his friends because he loves them and so the gang, realizing that he made a genuine and heartfelt effort to be there for them during some of their weakest moments, decides to lie to him, telling him that they used his "Weekend at Barney's" play to get through the wedding pictures and Robin's father was impressed with Barney's quieter side and requested a high-five. In reality, Robin canceled the photos and her father kicked Barney in the crotch. Finally, Ted joins in on the vow and it is revealed that he did not break it. Instead, on New Year's Day 2022, Ted gives the elixir to The Mother after she got too drunk the night before. She drinks it and greets her children as they run in the room.
The episode ends with Robin talking about how she and Lily actually made out and suggesting that they do it again in front of Ted and Marshall, even though it is clear she wants to do it again for her own pleasure. Lily, however, says she felt it was weird and has no desire to do it again.
Critical reception
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2015)
Bill Kuchman of Popculturology praised the episode for continuing Barney's evolution, saying, "It's amazing how much effort HIMYM has put into that transition over the past few seasons, but they've really succeeded in transforming a one-dimensional (yet very funny) womanizer into a fleshed-out person."[1]
Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode 7.5/10, saying it did little to move the story forward, but it did include a few telling flash-forward sequences.[3]
Related Research Articles
"The Over-Correction" is the tenth episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 170th episode overall.
"The Time Travelers" is the 20th episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 180th episode overall.
"Romeward Bound" is the 21st episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 181st episode overall.
"The Locket" is the first episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 185th episode overall.
"The Broken Code" is the fourth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 188th episode overall.
"Last Time in New York" is the third episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 187th episode overall.
Tracy Mosby is the title character from the CBS television sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The show, narrated by Future Ted, tells the story of how Ted Mosby met his children's mother. Tracy McConnell appears in eight episodes, from "Lucky Penny" to "The Time Travelers", as an unseen character; she was first seen fully in season 8 finale "Something New" and was promoted to a main character in season 9. She is played by Cristin Milioti.
"The Lighthouse" is the eighth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 192nd episode overall.
"Platonish" is the ninth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 193rd episode overall.
"Bedtime Stories" is the eleventh episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 195th episode overall.
"The Rehearsal Dinner" is the twelfth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 196th episode overall.
"Unpause" is the fifteenth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 199th episode overall. This is also the episode where Ted's future children's names are finally revealed; the daughter's name is Penny and the son is Luke.
"Slapsgiving 3:Slappointment in Slapmarra" is the fourteenth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 198th episode overall. The episode's name is a reference to "The Appointment in Samarra", a fable by W. Somerset Maugham based on an ancient Mesopotamian story about the inevitability of death.
"Sunrise" is the seventeenth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 201st episode overall.
"Vesuvius" is the nineteenth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 203rd episode overall. The episode features Ted in 2024, telling the Mother about the day of Robin and Barney's wedding. The final scene prompted some to think that the Mother was dead; this was proven correct in the series finale, "Last Forever".
"Daisy" is the twentieth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 204th episode overall. It was written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, directed by Pamela Fryman, and aired on March 10, 2014.
"Last Forever" is the series finale of the American sitcom television series How I Met Your Mother. The episode, written by series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas and directed by Pamela Fryman, serves as the 23rd and 24th episodes of the ninth season, and the 207th and 208th episodes overall; the episode's two parts are classified as two separate episodes. It originally aired in the United States on CBS on March 31, 2014, and was watched by 13.13 million viewers in the United States.
Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Jason Segel. Series co-creator Craig Thomas explained that he based Marshall and Lily on himself and his wife Rebecca.
"The Poker Game" is the fifth episode of the ninth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 189th episode overall.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
