World's Greatest Couple

"World's Greatest Couple"

"World's Greatest Couple" is the 5th episode in the second season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on October 16, 2006.

Plot

Ted and Robin go to Lily's new apartment to bring her a housewarming gift, but find that her new place is absolutely horrendous. Her bed, which folds out from the wall, makes contact with the door and wall, while her kitchen and her bathroom (as well as her stove, sink, oven, and refrigerator) are combined. Furthermore, she has a raccoon as a roommate, who eats the housewarming gift Ted and Robin brought over. Neither Ted nor Robin can invite Lily to their place, since Marshall and Ted live together (at this point Marshall and Lily aren't a couple) and Robin has a lot of dogs, which Lily is allergic to. Ted and Robin want Barney to let Lily stay over at his place, which he immediately rejects. However, when the wall falls down in Lily's apartment when she pulls the bed down, Ted gives her the spare key, and when Barney arrives after work, he finds Lily sitting on his couch. After some initial reluctance, he agrees to let Lily stay for two days, as long as she doesn't try to change anything. Barney gets annoyed with Lily when she buys groceries, saying that he would be in a relationship if he wanted a refrigerator full of groceries and fresh coffee in the morning. He then gives Lily a tour of his apartment, full of things that try to scare off relationships, such as a king-size bed with a full-size blanket and one pillow, a toilet seat which will not remain down, and professionally lit bookshelves of porn. When one particular woman is not deterred by any of these things, Barney finds Lily helpful, as she can pretend to be his wife and scare off the woman. Barney then insists that Lily stay, which she will do only if he allows her to give his apartment a slight makeover so that it looks more like a woman lives there. Lily and Barney sleep in the same bed and merely cuddle together, Barney realizes that he and Lily are in a relationship, and he wants out. Lily gets to keep anything she picked out for Barney's apartment and takes it to her own apartment, and lives there instead of living with Barney.

Meanwhile, Marshall finds that it is hard being single after being in a committed relationship for so long. He had originally bought tickets to an Alanis Morissette concert when he and Lily were still together, but was disappointed that he had trouble finding someone to go with him. He decides to hang out with Brad, a friend of his from law school who is also recently single. They go to the concert, brunch, and a Broadway play, insisting to a curious and skeptical Ted and Robin that he and Brad are merely hanging out. They go to dinner and Marshall begins to feel like he and Brad are in a romantic relationship: Brad pays for dinner, helps Marshall with his coat, and invites Marshall to go to a wedding in Vermont with him. Marshall arrives at Brad's apartment to go to the wedding, and sees Brad holding flowers. Marshall tries to break up with Brad, but it turns out that Brad has gotten back together with his girlfriend. Marshall is relieved that he wouldn't have worry about Brad making advances on him, but feels somewhat hurt that Brad used him as a "rebound bro". Later on, there is an awkward situation when Marshall and Ted run into Brad on the street.

Music

• Islands - "Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby"
• ABBA - "Fernando"

Continuity

• Lily mentions that Barney has a room only for suits. In "Girls Versus Suits" this room is shown.
• Lily is also wearing the same butterfly necklace that Robin wore in "I Heart NJ" and "Intervention" and Abby (Britney Spears) wore in "Everything Must Go".
• Brad's girlfriend also appeared in the previous episode.

Barney's blog

Barney talks about how to get rid of a girl.

Cultural references

• In his apartment Barney has a life size Clone Trooper from Star Wars. Lily incorrectly refers to this as a Stormtrooper. In later episodes, the Clone Trooper has actually been replaced with a Stormtrooper.
• Barney has nicknamed his apartment "The Fortress of Barnitude," a play of his name on "The Fortress of Solitude" from Superman.
• Lily hands Barney a copy of Relationships for Dummies.
• Ted says that Marshall and Brad going to the wedding together could be like the film Wedding Crashers.
• Marshall's comment, "We're here. We're hungry. Get used to it, brunch!" is a reference to Queer Nation's slogan, "We're here. We're queer. Get used to it."
• Lily's Lithuanian neighbor is shouting "durna mergina, aš tave numarinsiu kaip dvėsiantį žirgą", which actually means "stupid girl, I will mortify you as the dying horse". The phrase is correct in grammar and spelling, but very unusual in word choice..

External links

• Template:Tv.com
• World's Greatest Couple at IMDb