Robin ends up bonding with the son of her new boyfriends, but worries that their relationship is getting too serious. Ted and Barney compete over who has more "game".
This episode provides examples of:
- Batman Gambit: Barney's plan to win his and Ted's bet. He lies about having slept with Stacy, because he knows this will bother Ted enough to break things off with her and allow him to win, which is exactly what happens.
- Blatant Lies: When Robin asks the gang what her "but" is, they all immediately come up with a list of flaws in their heads, but claim out loud that she doesn't have one.Ted [thinking]: ...but she's afraid of commitment.Lily [thinking]: ...but she's a gun nut.Marshall [thinking]: ...but she didn't like Field of Dreams.
- The Chessmaster: Doubles as a Manipulative Bastard. Barney effortlessly plays Ted throughout the episode, first lying about having slept with Stacy so that Ted would be too squicked out to sleep with her, then by using all of the information Ted gives him about her (since he thinks that Barney is no longer competition) to hook up with her.
- Child Hater: The whole episode centers in Robin being this: her having to get along with her Guy of the Week's kid and eventually warming up to them. Future!Ted then reveals that Robin finally grew out of this by bonding, as she appeared in Ted's kids' drawings.
- Cliché Storm: Invoked, as Robin realizes when she's "breaking up" with her boyfriend's son, she can use all the tired lines on him, because he's too young to have ever heard them.
- Continuity Nod: When pondering about the "but" Marshal mentions not liking Field of Dreams which Ted & Robin got into a huge argument over in a previous episode since she didn't like it.
- Pyrrhic Victory: While Barney sabotages Ted in their contest to sleep with Stacy, he ends up forced to go to her reggae concert to actually win. To add insult to injury, she implies that she will not sleep with him for some time due to trust issues she developed from Ted breaking up with her, which Barney caused in the first place.
- The Sociopath: Ted calls Barney this after Barney explains what he did.
