History Recap / HowIMetYourMotherS1E08TheDuel

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 "Sparky" (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.

* ButtMonkey: This isn't Lily's episode, given how her apartment got turned into a Chinese restaurant without her know (and with possessions still there, no less) and she wound up being unintentionally stabbed.

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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 due 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.

* ICallItVera: Ted calls his vintage coffee-maker "Shocky".
* {{Irony}}: Pointed out by Lily, who will have problems explaining her kindergarten students not to run with scissors while her fiance ''stabbed her with a sword''.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: 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.

** Lily had Ted and Marshall referred to as the "[[KingArthur knights of the poorly constructed round table]]" after the accident.

* PhoneBooth: Ted ordered one to give Marshall and Lily a statement that he's not going to give up the apartment.

* ForWantOfANail: 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.
** Similarly, 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.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Marshall after accidentally stabbing Lily.

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 GenreSavvy 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 due 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.

* Flynning: Justified, as Marshall and Ted aren't really intending to hurt each other with the swords.

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.

* {{Irony}}: Pointed out by Lily, who will have problems explaining her kids not to run with scissors while her fiance ''stabbed her with a sword''.

* {{Irony}}: Pointed out by Lily, who will have problems explaining her kids not to run with scissors while ''her fiance stabbed her with a sword''.

* ArcSymbol: The two swords symbolizes Ted and Marshall's friendship.
* CoolSword: Ted and Marshall makes use of them.
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Barney is cheerful after he was "Lemon Lawed", taking more pride on having his own fad applied on him rather than the fact that he got dumped by a girl in less than five minutes.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Barney gets "lemon law"ed. He's not upset, however, because it just proves that it ''has'' become a thing.

** Music/{{Chumbawamba}}'s "I get knocked down..." is playing at the end of the episode.

-->'''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 unhedonic.
* WhatTheHellHero: Ted, Marshall and Robin are all visibly not pleased with Barney's LackOfEmpathy when he is more concerned about bragging about the "lemon law" becoming a thing than assuming that Lily is OK after getting (accidentally) stabbed.

-->'''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 unhedonic.

* {{Irony}}: Pointed out by Lily, who will have problems explaining her kids not to run with scisors while ''her fiance stabbed her with a sword''.

-->'''Marsha:''' 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 unhedonic.

* ThisIsGoingToBeHuge: Barney insists that the "Lemon Law" is "gonna be a thing!"

!!This episode provides examples of: