Lily moves in with Marshall and Ted, and when Ted suspects he's being edged out of the apartment, he and Marshall decide to settle it like men.
Lily decides to show Robin her own apartment in Brooklyn, the latter confused as of why she still keeps her own place despite technically living with Ted and Marshall for the last three months. Lily asserts that it is an "independence thing," and she'll only think about moving out when she and Marshall get married. However, they soon discover that her apartment has been turned into a Chinese restaurant called "Madame Chew's House of Dumplings", using all her furniture and possessions as their decor. Lily learns from the waitress that her old landlady died, and without a lease
Without a place of her own, Ted offers Lily to permanently room in with them, since she practically lives there anyway. Barney warns Ted that the arrangement he put himself into will slowly force him out of his own apartment, especially when Marshall and Lily eventually marry and start a family of their own. True enough, Ted realizes it when his old percolator coffee pot, "Shocky” (featured in the episode's cold open), was thrown away and replaced by Lily's own filter coffee maker, later on reinforced when Marshall decides to take off the swords hanging on the wall to hang Lily's painting there.
Meanwhile Barney shares with the gang that he has invented a "Lemon Law" of sorts for dating, in which anyone can Robin calls him out for trying to get rid of women without even giving them the chance to
In a bid to re-establish his control over the Apartment, Ted orders a large Phone Booth to annoy Marshall to great effect, who then decides he's had enough and takes down the swords to hang up Lily's painting. Ted tries to stop him, and their (amusingly polite) quarrel becomes a full-blown fencing duel using the swords.
Meanwhile, Robin is eating dinner with the nerdy guy at a Star Trek restaurant, which she finds too kitschy for her liking. Barney calls her, trying to give her a last chance to involve the lemon law and bail out of a date they both know won't really work out. Robin refuses out of pride. Her date, however, was savvy enough to point out that she wants out and Barney's phone call may be her "emergency call" excuse. Robin insists that she won't do such thing. Later that evening, however, Marshall calls Robin, informing her that Lily indeed had an accident. Upon telling her date of her circumstances, he insults her in Klingon. Robin has no choice but to leave, much to her relief.
Robin and Barney arrive at the Hospital where Ted and Marshall inform them that Lily is now alright. The doctor comes out, saying that Lily is now patched up and can be discharged but wants to see the two "Knights of the poorly-constructed Round Table"Lily solves the dilemma for them by saying that she does not want the apartment, as it is too "boyish" (with weapons, toys and video games) for her liking. While she's okay with it for the time being, she wants to have her own place with Marshall once they get married, one which is conducive for starting a family.
Having missed dinner, Lily invites the gang to eat out, saying she knows a good place. Later, they eat Chinese dumplings at the restaurant which used to be Lily's old place, where she noticed that they are using her own glassware and playing Marshall's Valentine mixtape he made for her way back in 1996.
This episode provides examples of:
- Arc Symbol: The two swords symbolize Ted and Marshall's friendship.
- Butt-Monkey: This just isn't Lily's episode, given how her apartment got turned into a Chinese restaurant without her knowledge (and with her possessions still in there, no less) and she wound up being unintentionally stabbed.
- Cool Sword: Ted and Marshall make use of them.
- Comically Missing the Point: Barney is cheerful after he gets "Lemon Lawed", taking more pride in having his own fad applied on him rather than the fact that he got dumped by a girl in less than five minutes.
- Determinator: Ted ordered a phone booth to give Marshall and Lily a statement that he's not going to give up the apartment.
- Fighting Your Friend: Ted and Marshall's duel is more or less Played for Laughs.
- Flynning: Justified, as Marshall and Ted aren't really intending to hurt each other with the swords.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- Had Ted not assembled the living room table by using wood glue on one of the legs, it wouldn't have given out from under Marshall, leading to Lily getting stabbed.
- Had Lily's landlord not died (or had Lily spent less than three months away from her apartment), the plot of the episode would've not happened.
- Genre Savvy: The guy Barney set up Robin to date knows exactly what happens to guys like him in other shows/movies.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Lily being accidentally stabbed by Marshall wasn't shown. Instead, it showed Ted reacting in horror when it happened.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Barney gets "Lemon Lawed". He's not upset, however, because it just proves that it has become a thing.
- I Call It "Vera": Ted calls his vintage coffeemaker "Shocky".
- Irony: Pointed out by Lily, who will have problems explaining her kindergarten students not to run with scissors while her fiancé stabbed her with a sword.
- Meaningful Name: Ted's electric percolator coffee pot is named "Shocky" due to the fact that it is so old, it short-circuits (and electrocutes Ted) every time he plugs it in an outlet which shares another load.
- Mixtape of Love: Marshall and Lily are college sweethearts who got engaged in the pilot episode. When they eat dinner at a restaurant that used to be Lily's apartment, Lily's mixtape from Marshall is playing in the background, complete with Marshall's "I love you" message.Marshall: I love this song. I haven't heard this in forever.
Lily: I'm pretty sure this is a mix tape you made me in sophomore year.
Marshall: [on tape] I love you, Lily. Happy Valentine's Day 1998. - My God, What Have I Done?: Marshall is horrified after accidentally stabbing Lily.
- Nerds Speak Klingon: Robin goes on date with a nerdy guy to prove a point to Barney. After it starts to go bad, she gets a phone call about Lily being in hospital. The nerd believes that it is a fake call to get her out of the date and insults her in Klingon.
- Shout-Out:
- The guy Robin dated is a Star Trek fan and took her to a Star Trek-themed diner.
- Lily had Ted and Marshall referred to as the "knights of the poorly constructed round table" after the accident.
- Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping" is playing at the end of the episode.
- This Is Going to Be Huge: Barney insists that the "Lemon Law" is "gonna be a thing!"
- Warrior Therapist: Ted keeps ranting about why he should keep the apartment while he and Marshall are in a duel. Marshall, on the other hand, gave Ted a rational and non-vile "The Reason You Suck" Speech.Marshall: Ted, if you wanted to be married by now you would be. But you're not, and you know why? Because you're irrationally picky, you're easily distracted and you're utterly anhedonic.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ted, Marshall and Robin are all visibly not pleased with Barney's Lack of Empathy when he is more concerned about bragging about the "lemon law" becoming a thing than assuming that Lily is OK after getting (accidentally) stabbed.Barney: What? You said she was fine!
