The Playbook (How I Met Your Mother)

"The Playbook (How I Met Your Mother)"

"The Playbook" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of the CBS situation comedy How I Met Your Mother and 96th episode overall (Season 5, Episode 8). It originally aired November 16, 2009. The Playbook by Barney Stinson and Matt Kuhn was published on October 5, 2010.

Plot

Future Ted explains that the key to dating is self-confidence, which Barney had in spades, but usually that confidence was in a character. In the present, Barney is sitting in MacLaren's in a full scuba suit drinking scotch. Lily pulls aside a woman at the bar, warning her of Barney's intentions. The woman (Claire) sits down with the rest of the gang as they explain the events that lead up to that night.

Barney and Robin were coping with the end of their relationship in their own different ways. Robin said she wanted to throw herself into her career, but Marshall and Ted are convinced she will find the love of her life, citing several friends who gave up on dating to focus on their work, only to be married (or in a civil union) months later. Barney, on the other hand, decided to re-enter the dating scene with a vengeance, using his sacred "Playbook". The book describes a set of con artist scenarios designed to seduce a woman.

Meanwhile, Lily tries to set up Ted with Shelly, a fellow teacher. She had originally tried to get them to meet, but she found Ted and Marshall in the middle of a chicken-finger mouth-stuffing attempt, so she convinced her coworker Ted wasn't there. But Ted is stood up, and after confronting the woman, Lily finds out that she was seduced by an exotic man at MacLaren's bar. Lily realizes it was Barney, and confronts him, infuriated.

Barney describes the play he used, the "Lorenzo von Matterhorn", using fake websites, a smartphone, and an exotic name. As revenge, Lily steals the playbook and threatens to publish it on the internet if Barney does not stop tricking women into sleeping with him, while Barney blames Al-Qaeda for stealing the book. To gain attention of the gang, Barney promptly shows up at the apartment in the aforementioned scuba suit, saying he will be at the bar. The "Scuba Diver" con is not in the playbook, so the gang goes downstairs to find out what it is. Claire, the girl Lily had approached at the beginning of the episode, is also curious to find out what the scuba suit is for, so the gang sits with Barney.

He begins to act cocky, but Barney eventually admits that his final breakup with Robin was hurting him more than he thought, and this was how he coped. Touched, the gang advises Claire to go out with Barney for a cup of coffee. After they leave, the gang gets a text message from Barney and finds the description of the "Scuba Diver" under their table at MacLaren's. It was actually an elaborate con, involving Lily's disgust at the playbook, revealing Barney's tricks to his prey (Claire), Barney's fake breakdown over his breakup, and his friends encouraging the prey to go with Barney.

Finally, a new co-host, Don, arrives at Robin's pre-morning show, and Robin suddenly realizes that Ted and Marshall may have been right.

Music

Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turka" accompanies the sequences from Barney's Playbook.

A piano version of Nino Rota's "What Is a Youth" from the 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet is used for when Barney finally succeeds with "The He's Not Coming" play.

Continuity

• Lily stares at Robin's breasts in the beginning of the episode. In "Robin 101" Lily mentions Robin has "guest starred" in her dreams and, in "Best Prom Ever", Robin fulfills Lily's desire for a lesbian experience by kissing her.
• The advertisement promoting the episode mentions examples from Barney's playbook including the Lesbian and The Time traveller.
• Barney uses a technique called The Ted Mosby where he tells a girl that he was left at the altar, referring to the episode "Shelter Island." Ted tries the technique himself and it works.
• According to Ted and Marshall's predictions throughout the episode, Robin would meet her future husband since she was no longer looking for a relationship. At the end of the episode future Ted notes it is "ironically" the day Robin meets her new co-host, Don.
• Robin is "lawyered by nature" after stating that she would focus on her career, instead of dating, but is given a number of examples, by Ted and Marshall, of people who said they would focus on things other than dating but ended up married (or to-be-married) a while later. Marshall normally uses the term "lawyered", especially on the first seasons, to indicate that an argument has been defeated by clever questioning.
• Marshall and Ted's prediction comes true when Robin goes Lorenzo Von Matterhorn.

Cultural references

• When the Playbook is revealed, Marshall jokes about how prolific an author Barney is - referencing The Bro Code - comparing him to Stephen King.
• Barney describes a play called "Mrs. Stinsfire" where he dresses as a woman, a reference to the Robin Williams film Mrs. Doubtfire.
• Marshall describes a set of people who get married after forgoing the dating scene. A couple wearing Star Trek uniforms is shown. One gay co-worker finds the love of his life, but they are an exception; instead of declaring them married, Marshall describes pending legislation on the floor of the New York State Senate, a reference to the debate over same-sex marriage.
• After Ted guesses the meaning of MILSWANCA (Mothers I'd Like to Sleep With And Never Call Again), an alternative acronym for MILF, correctly, Barney says, "Correct! Circle gets the square," in reference to the game show Hollywood Squares.

Reception

Cultural impact

After the airing of this episode, "Lorenzo Von Matterhorn" (one of Barney's playbook aliases) became the fastest-rising Google search for the day of November 16, 2009. The show created the tie-in websites mentioned in the episode: Balloon Explorers Club, Big Business Journal, Extremities Quarterly. A Wikipedia page for Lorenzo Von Matterhorn was also created October 21, but was deleted when the show revealed it to be a hoax. The site lorenzovononmatterhorn.com also shows a Wikipedia-like page called "Lorenzopedia."

Critical response

Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club graded the episode an "A-" in her review; she cheered the return of the "unredeemed essence" of Barney in the wake of his breakup with Robin.

Brian Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 9.6 out of 10.

Alan Sepinwall wrote that the episode "was very funny" but said that it seemed at times that the writers were overcompensating for newly-single Barney.

External links

• The Playbook at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com
• Big Business Journal Lorenzo Von Matterhorn Website #1.
• Extremities Quarterly Lorenzo Von Matterhorn Website #2.
• Balloon Explorers Club Lorenzo Von Matterhorn Website #3.