The Front Porch

"The Front Porch"
How I Met Your Mother episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 17
Directed by	Rob Greenberg
Written by	Chris Harris
Original air date	March 16, 2009
Guest stars
Laura Prepon (Karen)
Season 4 episodes
"Do I Know You? "The Best Burger in New York" "I Heart NJ" "Intervention" "Shelter Island" "Happily Ever After" "Not a Father's Day" "Woooo!" "The Naked Man" "The Fight" "Little Minnesota" "Benefits" "Three Days of Snow" "The Possimpible" "The Stinsons" "Sorry, Bro" "The Front Porch" "Old King Clancy" "Murtaugh" "Mosbius Designs" "The Three Days Rule" "Right Place, Right Time" "As Fast as She Can" "The Leap"

"The Front Porch" is the 17th episode in the fourth season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 81st overall. It originally aired on March 16, 2009.

Plot

Robin asks her friends if they would watch her talk show, which airs at 4:00 a.m., and the group reluctantly agrees to stay up and watch. When Ted turns up, he informs them that Karen (Laura Prepon) has broken up with him, after finding Robin's earring in Ted's bed. However, as everyone prepares to watch Robin's show, Ted discovers the matching earring of Robin's on Marshall's dresser and mutes the television to confront Marshall, believing him to have sabotaged his relationship with Karen.

As extreme events occur on Robin's show (she starts crying while showing a picture of the gang, she saves the host of the cooking segment when he catches fire, she resuscitates the weatherman after he's had a heart attack and finally she delivers a baby live on camera), still muted, Lily confesses that she has been breaking Ted up with girls who she didn't see passing the "Front Porch Test" — an indication of how they would all live together once they were old. A scene is shown of Marshall, Lily and Ted in the far future playing bridge (though clearly, none of them know how to play).

Robin returns from the show to learn the truth behind her break-up with Ted, which Lily insists she did not want to happen. Ted heads into the bar the next day to find Karen waiting, having had the situation explained to her by Lily. Karen hands Ted a letter from Lily, which contains an apology, and lets Ted know that Lily has prepared a fine dinner in Ted's apartment for him and Karen. Ted breaks up with Karen anyway after she says Ted cannot ever see Lily again and he imagines what the future would be like without her and Marshall. Returning to the apartment, Ted asks Robin to be his "plus one" and they enjoy the meal Lily prepared. They wonder whether or not they would still be together if not for Lily's intervention. Ted then makes a mock proposal to Robin, asking her to be his "backup wife". She accepts.

Meanwhile, Marshall wears a nightshirt to the pyjama party to watch Robin's show, while Barney wears a silk suit. Barney insists his clothing choice is superior, citing the possibility of attractive women coming to his home at night and seeing how good he looks, but then admits how unlikely that is and uncomfortable the "suitjamas" are. Marshall convinces Barney to try a nightshirt instead. Barney and Marshall delight in their nightshirts, having a dream about flying together in them. Barney starts wearing nightshirts to sleep. A week later, an attractive woman shows up at his apartment at night — but, upon seeing his nightshirt, she decides to leave, much to Barney's chagrin.

Continuity

• The photo Robin shows on her show of the gang is the photo that Ted claimed to be taken one year after "Intervention" (an episode from earlier in the fourth season) of them drinking the $2500 scotch. This is chronologically inconsistent, as Ted's next birthday has not happened yet.
• In the first "Front Porch" scene, when the characters are seen playing bridge, Marshall throws down his cards, yelling "Bridge!". Marshall enjoys yelling out the name of the game upon winning, regardless of whether it is appropriate to do so, such as when he yelled "Poker!" in "Game Night".
• In the "Front Porch" scenario where Robin and Ted are unhappily married, Robin wins the game of Bridge they are playing, leading Marshall to remark that he does not like the scenario one bit. Marshall is an expert in games and rarely loses. This also reiterates Marshall being something of a sore loser as previously seen in Little Minnesota.
• In Lily's letter, Marshall wrote that he had to read this letter, a reference to the episode "We're Not from Here".
• Lily has deliberately broken up Ted's relationships seven times.
• Lily's painting from the episode "The Duel" is sitting above the fireplace in Lily and Marshall's apartment.
• The episode features footage from the restaurant scene in "Something Blue", where Lily helped in creating Ted and Robin's dialogue.
• Ted and Robin make a deal that they would get married when they're still single by the age of 40. Barney attempts to cut the same deal with Robin in "The Rough Patch", but she reminds him of her previous deal with Ted. The pact is brought up at again at Punchy's wedding in the season 7 opener, "The Best Man."

Barney's blog

Barney reassesses what he considers acceptable nightwear, noting the freedom and luxury of a nightshirt.

Cultural references

• Barney starts to make fun of Marshall wearing a nightshirt by naming him after the characters in nightshirt from famous movies:
  • "So, flying to Neverland with Peter and Tink, was that amazing?", referring to the children flying to Neverland in Peter Pan;
  • "Was it nice to finally get out of that crowded bed and take Charlie to the chocolate factory?", referring to Charlie's Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory;
  • "Um, something about Scrooge!" referring to the character of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol;
  • "And if Clarence the angel says it's true, it must be true," referring to the second-class angel Clarence Odbody in It's a Wonderful Life.
• When Marshall is seen flying in his nightshirt, and later when he is joined by Barney, this a reference to The Big Lebowski, in which Jeff Bridges' character had a similar experience. As with the film, Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me" plays in the background.
• The scene where Ted is interrogating Lily about his breakup with Robin is a reference to A Few Good Men, with Ted playing the Tom Cruise role and Lily filling in for Jack Nicholson.
• Star Wars is referenced in flashback when Lily pretends to be Ted's girlfriend and disguises herself as Darth Vader during the premier of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Lily shows her ignorance of Star Wars when she says, "Live long and prosper," a line from the character Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series. Ted and Marshall are standing in line dressed as Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca, respectively, and Marshall even imitates Chewie's bear-like cry in sympathy when Ted gets dumped.
• Lily breaks up Ted and his girlfriend by putting a Creed CD on her dresser. This episode aired about a month after Creed's reunion.

Critical response

Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode with a grade A.

Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 8.9 out of 10.

Cindy McLennan of Television Without Pity rated the episode with a grade A+.

External links

• The Front Porch at the Internet Movie Database
• The Front Porch at TV.com