The gang becomes addicted to smoking and desperately tries to quit while Robin deals with her new co-anchor, Don Frank, who doesn't take his job seriously.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: When Arthur suffers a heart attack from smoking and asks Marshall to call an ambulance, he mistakenly addresses him as "Michael". Marshall corrects him as he does.
- Big "WHAT?!": The episode's Running Gag is that every time Future Ted reveals that somebody in the gang used to smoke, his kids react with a "WHAT?!"
- Black Comedy: Marshall and Barney have a former coworker, What's-His-Face... who killed himself. Now he's Where's-His-Face.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Arthur has little memory of Marshall and how he left in "The Chain of Screaming" as he has experienced the same treatment from 95% of his employees and his entire family.
- Call-Back: Marshall's new boss is Artillery Arthur, Marshall's asshole former boss.
- Call-Forward: Ted describes each character's real last cigarette ever: Lily's was when she started trying to get pregnant; Marshall's was when his son, Marvin, was born; Robin and Ted's were both in June 2013, shortly after Barney and Robin's wedding and after Ted started dating Tracy; and Barney's was in March 2017, the last one to quit and the only one seemingly without any significance, though it was some time after his and Robin's divorce. note
- Canon Discontinuity: This episode establishes that Future Ted's kids don't know the gang all used to smoke. Many of them have been shown smoking in the past.
- Compressed Vice: The cast are established here as addicted to cigarettes despite most of them not smoking frequently in the series before. Justified, as Ted explains they didn't want his kids to know they used to smoke and they explain they've tried to quit several times before.
- Contrived Coincidence: It's pretty coincidental that everyone in the gang is apparently a habitual smoker. It better matches the show's creators, who are from an earlier generation than the character's they're writing, as smoking used to be much more common.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Arthur has vicious screaming matches with 95% of his employees and everyone in his family, but he loves his dog.
- I'll Be in My Bunk: Marshall's teenage self retreats to his tent after Marshall gives him a picture of Lily.
- Left Field Description: Whenever Future Ted casually mentions that a character used to smoke, it comes as a complete surprise to his kids - and to the audience, since the characters have rarely been shown smoking up until then (unless you count "eating sandwiches" and cigars).
- Mathematician's Answer: Barney smokes only in limited circumstances, including pre-coital. He's always pre-coital.
- Pants-Free: Don shows up on his first day of hosting Come On and Get Up, New York not wearing pants. Since he'll be sitting in front of a desk the entire time, he feels like there's no use in wearing them.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Don is a years-long veteran of more than three dozen morning shows. He's given up on being a successful journalist, doesn't even bother wearing pants any more, and does his best to discourage Robin from trying to get ahead.Don: But the second you get used to it they find someone who "isn't going through a bitter divorce" and "doesn't reek of gin".
- Smoking Is Not Cool: This episode reveals that all five main characters are former smokers, but Ted kept this from his children out of embarrassment. The episode shows how smoking negatively affects them all: Lily's throat gets so bad she sounds like Harvey Fierstein, Ted struggles to climb a few flights of stairs, Barney burns a hole in his beloved tie, and Marshall's boss (with whom he started smoking to impress) has a heart attack. They all try to quit, suffering drastic withdrawal, and the episode ends with Ted explaining how they all quit eventually, with Ted's last cigarette being two weeks after he started dating his future wife.
- Smoky Voice: Lily gets a smoker's cough and is voiced by Harvey Fiersteinnote for the entire episode.
