Purple Giraffe
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"Purple Giraffe" is the second episode in the first season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on September 26, 2005. The episode was written by Carter Bays & Craig Thomas and it was directed by Pamela Fryman.
Plot
After telling Robin (Cobie Smulders) that he loved her, Ted (Josh Radnor) decides to not contact her so his friends will think he is over her. However, he soon falls for her again, and finds out from Marshall (Jason Segel) that Lily (Alyson Hannigan) has officially met Robin, having recognized her from the news, and that Robin told Lily that she was still interested in him, but she thinks that he's not casual. Ted decides to try to be "casual" in his relationship with Robin.
He runs to meet her at a location where she is reporting (where coincidentally a kid is stuck inside a crane machine trying to get a purple giraffe) and informs her that he is throwing a party. He holds it repeatedly over the course of three nights when she says that she is unable to come and she only manages to come when he holds the party for a third successive night.
Robin inadvertently finds out (when Marshall bursts out that Ted should stop waiting for her) that the parties were held for her. Ted covers it up by lying, and saying that he wanted her to meet another guy, which happens to be called Carlos (this happens after a girl mentions, several times, a guy named Carlos, who no one knows). But after a while, as Robin goes up onto the roof, Ted decides that he has to confront and confess his love to her and thus try to win her affections.
On the roof, they decide that they both want different things; Ted reluctantly agrees to just be friends, and they go for a drink. Robin then tells Ted that she will help him find "the one".
Lily, meanwhile, is happy to be engaged and extremely pleased with her engagement ring, resulting in an increased sexual desire that keeps Marshall very busy, especially as he has to submit a 25 page paper for a class in his law school. Marshall appears to get angry when someone at the party uses one of his law books as a coaster, but drinking two beers at the bar with everyone else increases his confidence, making the gang call him 'the kid'. He ends up doing fairly well on the paper (getting a B-), considering that he wrote the entire paper the night before the deadline.
Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), meanwhile, faces relationship troubles of his own. He picks a girl at the party who does not know anyone else (which is the norm in parties in the city) - she just says she works with Carlos (who no one else seems to know) -, and suggests Ted have a one night stand with her. Ted declines and Barney decides to go after her himself. To Barney's annoyance this woman returns to the parties on the subsequent nights and wants to have a relationship. He decides the best way to lose her is to tell her "I think I'm in love with you" like Ted did with Robin.[1] Nevertheless, she appears at the third party on Sunday night as well and he eventually finds that she is with Carlos.
Cultural references
- Marshall calls Ted "Gatsby" referring to the character from Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.
- When talking about the roof, Barney quotes the Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three song The Roof Is On Fire, saying "The roof... the roof... the roof is on fire!", which is the chorus of said song.
- When talking to Robin on the phone, Ted says "Aint no thang but a chicken wang...", a quote from the movie White Men Can't Jump and an Outkast lyric.
Music
- Stephen Lang - "Haven’t We Met (instrumental version)" - In broadcast only. On DVD it is replaced with a jazz piece by John Swihart [2]
References
- ^ "Pilot". How I Met Your Mother. Season 1. Episode 1. 2005-09-19. CBS.
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