Recap / How I Met Your Mother S 8 E 01 Farhampton

Air Date: September 24, 2012

Robin’s anxiety on her wedding day to Barney prompts Ted to recount the time he insisted on leaving Victoria’s jilted fiancé a note before they drove off into the sunset together.

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The episode provides examples of:

• Arc Symbol: The Mother's yellow umbrella returns.
• Beyond the Impossible: As per usual with Barney's magic tricks. He somehow managed to take off Quinn's bra without her noticing.
• Black Comedy: You have to speak German to get it, and Thomas Lennon speaks really fast and Ted kind of cuts him off (and apparently his accent is fun for native speakers), but Kinda Klose Klaus From Her Klass is so lonely. So lonely. (see Gratuitous German below)
• Book Ends: The episode opens with Ted waiting for the train and closes with The Mother arriving to the station.
• The Bus Came Back: It's revealed that at some unknown date, Robin and Nick (who appeared in season 6) started their relationship.
• Call-Back: As the first episode of the eighth season, Barney gives a very quick summary of everything that has happened in the series in less than a minute.
• Character Filibuster: After telling the old lady he didn't feel like telling what happened, Ted starts the long story of the wedding weekend.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The episode opens with Ted reading his favorite book, Love in the Time of Cholera.
  • Victoria notices Ted's calligraphy.
• Everyone Has Standards: Ted's willing to drive off with Victoria, but he demands she leave a note.
• Feet-First Introduction: The only thing revealed about the mother other than when and where she and Ted will meet is that she has nice stems.
• Flashforward: The episode opens with Ted at the Farhampton station telling an older woman about how everything went down during Barney and Robin's wedding.
• Foregone Conclusion: Ted, Barney and Robin's relationships are doomed, since it's blatantly shown that Victoria is not The Mother and Robin is the bride on Barney's wedding.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Klaus tells Ted that one knows "The One" from the first moment, which will happen to him and The Mother eventually.
    • Subverted with Victoria, because Ted did have that magic moment... but she's not The Mother.
  • Barney wants to have a bear in a tux as his ringbearer. A year later...
  • Also this exchange between Barney and Robin.
    Robin: Barney, think this through. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life with Quinn and...
    Barney: God, you have a point!
    Robin: I haven't even gotten to it yet.
• Gratuitous German: Provided by Klaus.
  • Lebenslangersschicksalsschatz - Lifelong treasure of destiny. (For Ted, The Mother)
  • Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand - Thing that's almost what you want but not quite. (For Ted, Robin)
  • Schlauchmachendejungen - Hose that makes the boy. (penis) (For Ted, his penis)
  • Sie sprechen deutsch? Das ist wunderbar! Ich habe keine Freunde, die deutsch sprechen in Amerika, das macht mich so einsam. So einsam. - You speak German? That's wonderful! I have no friends in America who speak German; that makes me so lonely. So lonely.
• Love at First Sight: Discussed by Ted and Klaus towards the end of the episode.
  Klaus: "Lebenslangersschicksalsschatz is not something that develops over time, it is something that happens instantaneously. Its causes consume you like the water in a river after a storm, filling you, and emptying you all at once. You feel it throughout your body. In your hands, in your heart, in your stomach, in your skin, of course you feel it in your schlauchmachendejungen. If you have to think about it, you have not had it. Everybody will find this eventually. You just never know when or where."
• Mistaken for Gay: Klaus thinks he sent a wrong vibe to Ted when he goes to the Farhampton station to ask him why he fled the wedding.
• Motor Mouth: Barney tells everything that has happened in seven years in less than one minute, even having time to mention how Ted got a butterfly tramp stamp and that he won his watch at The Price is Right.
• Musical Spoiler: The title of the song during the lead up to Ted and the mother's meeting is "The Funeral". Now watch the Grand Finale...
• Nested Story: Future Ted is telling the story of how he told a random woman the story of Barney's and Robin's wedding. This will be the next two seasons.
• The Place: Farhampton is the train station where Ted and the mother will ultimately meet.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Lampshaded by Victoria about Ted's calligraphy hobby:
  Victoria: Well, you can't write it. One look, it's gonna be obvious it's a guy's handwrit- (Takes a look and Beat) Oh, no. We're good.
• The Reveal:
  • The episode opens with the revelation that Robin is the bride at the future wedding.
  • We learn that Victoria not The Mother, because Ted meets The Mother at the train station in Farhampton after Barney and Robin get married.
• Romantic False Lead: The episode gives us three:
  • Victoria runs away from her wedding to be with Ted. We know they're not going to last.
  • Barney and Quinn just got engaged that day.
  • Robin reveals she is dating Nick in the same episode we see she is Barney's bride.
• Romantic Rain: Invoked. There's a downpour at Farhampton right before Ted and the mother meet.
• Runaway Bride:
  • The episode continues the events of season 7 finale, when Victoria fled her own wedding. Later it's revealed Klaus also fled that same night.
  • In the Flashforward, Robin gets cold feet before her own wedding.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Justified, since both Marshall and Lily have been sleep deprived since Marvin was born, so they could not retain any information longer than two seconds.
• Unreliable Narrator: Barney got a few facts wrong in the minute-story (like Robin moving to Brazil instead of Argentina, Ted got hit by the bus instead of him and he cheated on Nora without mentioning Robin also cheated on Kevin). It could even be a blooper or Barney not wanting to reveal the real facts to Quinn. Of course, it's quite possible that this is how Barney remembers these events.
• Visual Pun: From Marshall and Lily's perspective, they see everything underwater, since they're having the memory span of a goldfish because of the lack of sleep.