Air Date: September 25, 2006
Barney helps Marshall get back into the singles' scene. Lily is back in town and Ted and Robin try to learn the truth about how she feels about the breakup.
The episode provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Thanks to The Reveal at the end of the season that Barney is deliberately stealing these women from Marshall so that he can eventually get back together with Lily, it's unknown how many of those women actually slept with Barney. It also explains their looks; Barney is steering Marshall toward women who aren't like Lily to keep him from getting attached to someone new.
- Angrish: Ted, upon hearing that Lily's back in town and happy.
- Bittersweet Ending: Marshall and Lily did not get back together as a couple, but at least they were able to patch things up a little as friends.
- Chekhov's Gun/Continuity Nod: The 1939 penny Ted finds in the subway gets a mayor role in the episode "Lucky Penny".
- Deadpan Snarker: Robin's response when Ted's upset that Lily's apparently happy.Robin: You never chose sides. I respect that.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted. Marshall doesn't take back Lily. He does, however, welcome her back into the friend group.
- Epic Fail: Whatever Lily drew during her art class, it was so bad that her art teacher declared her a lost cause and threw her out of his class.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Three (or four since one is a dirty-blonde) of the five women that Marshall tried to hook-up with are blondes.
- Fake Twin Gambit: As an act of revenge by Marshall against Barney, Lily, under Marshall's instructions, barges into McLaren's and accuses Barney of giving her chlamydia and splashes water in his face. She does the same while posing as her alleged twin sister scaring away the girls Barney was trying to hook up with.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Barney takes newly single Marshall to bars, including one called The Scorpion and the Toad. But every time Marshall gets a girl interested, Barney charms her away and goes home with her instead.
- Foreshadowing: When Ted and Robin made their bet on who was right about Lily, Robin claims that she believes her because, as a woman, she can tell her story is true. In later seasons, it's shown that Robin doesn't have any more female friends because of her lack of empathy with other women.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X":Barney: If things had gone your way, you'd gone out a couple of times, I think she definitely would have had sex with you.
Marshall: There's no "would" in sex. [Beat, both chuckle] - If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Averted. Ted doesn't threaten Lily about dumping Marshall, but simply tells her not to do it again if she wants to be with him.
- Male Gaze: The episode begins with Marshall checking out Robin's ass.
- Metaphorically True: Lily tells Robin about her summer in San Francisco: Her teacher praising her and how she met many interesting people at the bus. Once she reveals her summer was really bad, we see it one more time: The teacher insults her work with the exact same words but a different tone, and the three people Lily met were really a guy with multiple personalities.
- The Place: The Scorpion And The Toad is the name of the bar that Barney took Marshall to meet his/their third prospect.
- Punctuation Changes the Meaning: Lily reports two versions of the opinion her art teacher gave her piece. The first, which gave a false impression, was, "Oh, my god. This is your best work. In all my years of teaching, I've never seen anything so... Needless to say, this is art! I can't teach you anything." The second, corrected version was "Oh, my god. This is your best work? In all my years of teaching, I've never seen anything so needless. To say this is... art... I can't teach you anything."
- Rule of Three: After Lily, Ted and Robin had a round of Tequila shots, they go to a diner to have their respective Hideous Hangover Cures. Lily asks for a greasy tuna sandwich and a shake, Ted asks for gravy over anything, and Robin is still drunk from last night.
- Serious Business: Downplayed, but at one point Lily mentions in passing that San Francisco has the worst pizza. Pizza is serious business in New York.
- Side Bet: Ted and Robin made a bet on whether Lily was really happy or faking it. Ted wins.
- Split Personality: The three interesting people Lily met in San Francisco were really a crazy guy in the bus.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Barney keeps stealing all Marshall's pick ups with his magic tricks.
- Stepford Smiler: Lily has been faking her stories about a happy summer in San Francisco. Internally she really was roaring to know about Marshall while she babbled non-stop.
- Three-Way Sex/Twin Threesome Fantasy: Barney plans to do it with twins! But Lily spoils it on behalf of Marshall (who is originally one of the twin's date before Barney steals the show).
- Viewers Are Geniuses: The title refers to a parable in which a toad helps a scorpion cross a river. The scorpion promises not to sting the cautious toad, but does so anyway and both die. The scorpion says, essentially, "Hey, dude, I'm a scorpion, it's my jam." Barney is totes the scorpion. And kind of the toad. The metaphor isn't perfect.
