Robin spends Valentine's day with her coworkers, Barney takes advantage of single women, and Lily struggles with facing the holiday without Marshall.
This episode provides examples of:
- Color Motif: Robin and her two coworkers agree to use purple to protest against Valentine’s Day. Nora, to indirectly protest their protest, wears yellow deliberately, since those two are opposite colors.
- Girlfriend in Canada: Discussed by Barney, emphatically played straight by Robin's friend Bev.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Invoked by Robin and her friends from work, who wear purple on Valentine's Day out of protest.Bev: I use color to express emotion; purple is for pride. [nervously] It was a stupid idea...
- Second Place Is for Losers: Barney uses this to play on a girl's insecurities.
- Shout-Out: Marshall and Lily's Valentine's Day tradition is watching Predator together. Barney also pursues women like the eponymous creature which includes heat vision.
- Robin's friends get picked up by a couple of guys she describes as "white Urkels".
- Barney drives a point home by saying "I'm Huey Lewis, and you just heard the news."
- Valentine's Day Vitriol: Robin and some of her co-workers decide to protest against the idea that they have to spend Valentine's Day with someone when they are single by hanging out as single women at McLaren's pub. One of Robin's co-workers, Nora, reveals to Barney that she actually enjoys Valentine's Day.
