In the 100th episode spectacular, Ted begins dating the roommate of the future mother while Barney tries to score with a bartender who makes him chose between her and his suits.
This episode provides examples of:
- Arc Symbol: The Yellow Umbrella makes its return.
- As Himself: Tim Gunn.
- Call-Back:
- Ted and Cindy start getting involved the moment she revealed that she was part of the class where he wrongfully attended at the season premiere.
- The yellow umbrella marks its return.
- Barney's long list of hookups includes a Supreme Court justice. The Bracket showed Ruth Bader Ginsberg as a past hookup in his fast-forward flashbacks.
- The Cast Show Off: Neil Patrick Harris showcased his Broadway talent via "Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit". Jason Segel, Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders (also Alyson Hannigan, though she's obviously not musically trained like the rest) even got to sing parts in it.
- Color Motif: The show establishes The Mother's fixation with the colors purple and yellow. The show even teased Cindy as her by dressing her in those colors.
- Compliment Backfire: Lily tries to tell Marshall that she won’t get jealous if he openly admits that Karina the bartender is hot, but keeps getting annoyed by his lack of interest in other women than Lily. This ends in Lily describing how sexy she finds Karina, getting Marshall jealous instead.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Karina hates Barney because her past three boyfriends were Jerkass sharp-dressed men. It takes Barney suiting down for her to warm up to him.
- Dude Magnet: Karina the bartender causes MacLaren's to overflow with male patrons. Also, Cindy claims the Mother is one. She tells Ted that "guys are always falling in love with her", but she may be exaggerating since (as revealed in "How Your Mother Met Me") she had a crush on her and hadn't come to terms with her sexuality yet.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Robin (out of jealousy) claims that Karina the bartender is only grabbing everyone's attention just because of the novelty of having a woman behind the bar, and she proves it by going herself behind the bar, smiling, winking, and playing with the bottles. Before Carl kicks Robin out, Lily is visibly turned on and Marshall is also jealous of Robin.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Lily thinks Karina the bartender is hot. She also gets Distracted by the Sexy when Robin poses as a bartender.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The bartender's name is not stated in the show, though
Word of God and The Other Wiki says it's Karina. - Everyone Loves Blondes: Karina the bartender.
- Going Cold Turkey: Played with. Since Barney stopped wearing suits so he could nail the new Bartender, Future!Ted notes that Barney started to develop this towards any kind of suits, like sniffing Marshall's work suit or even sneaking to the bathroom stalls just to wear a suit for a moment
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Cindy, as part of being a Romantic False Lead.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Robin gets jealous of the attention Karina the bartender is having. Also, Cindy to The Mother.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Barney believes that his suit "gave its life" so he can have sex with Karina the bartender.
- Hypocritical Humor: Ted rescues Cindy from the frat guys by confiscating their alcohol (save the hard lemonade). In the very next scene, both Ted and Cindy are drinking the booze in a classroom.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Karina uses her sex appeal to sweet talk to the patrons and get huge tips from them.
- Imagine Spot: The very last scene shows Barney's "Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit" music number.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Invoked twice with Barney referencing Karina.Barney: "But for those, I mean for that, I mean for her, I will stop wearing [Wait-for-It] suits!"Barney: "I will not rest until those, I mean that, I mean she... is mine!"
- Leg Focus: Karina the bartender as noted by Lily.Lily: Her legs go for miles!
- Mundane Made Awesome: Barney's Imagine Spot turns suits into ... magic.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Both Marshall and Ted are not fascinated with Karina the bartender. Later, Carl was not pleased like the other male customers when Robin posed as a bartender.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Ted and Cindy meet when a dumb frat guy keeps trying to hit on her, and both nickname him “Boomer”.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Barney suited down just so he can bed Karina.
- Remember the New Guy?: Cindy says she was part of the Econ 305 class that Ted wrongfully attended, but she's nowhere to be seen at the season premiere. The classroom used theater seating and could easily hold a couple of hundred people, but Cindy was not among the few students focused on.
- Romantic False Lead: For the first five minutes, Future!Ted makes it appear that Cindy is The Mother. She was even associated in the same Color Motif as her (purple clothes and having yellow stuff, and having been in Ted's fuck-up Econ/Architecture class).
- Sharp-Dressed Man: A song is even made (via Imagine Spot) about being one at the end.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Lily keeps asking Marshall if he's attracted to Karina the bartender, which he then keeps insisting that Lily is the most/only attractive woman in his eyes.
- Statuesque Stunner: Karina the bartender stands 5'11.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Cindy is an Economic student and was part of the class where Ted wrongfully attended at the season premiere. This becomes the main conflict of the episode.
- Tempting Fate: Ted to Cindy.Ted: "I promise. I will never fall in love with your roommate."Future!Ted: "Oops."
- The Unreveal: The Mother remains anonymous at the end of the episode.
- Versus Title: Obviously.
