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For the catchphrase commonly used by Barney, see Challenge Accepted (catchphrase).
Challenge Accepted
HIMYM episode 6x24 (136)
ChallengeAcceptedPromo1
First aired:
May 16, 2011
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Carter Bays
Craig Thomas

Images (24)

Robin and Barney bond when they stop Ted from getting back together with an ex (until they run into Nora), and Marshall and Lily watch a ticking clock as he fears that he soon will be the victim of food poisoning.


Recap[]

Due to Marshall feeling down, Lily decides to get them both some of their favorite soup from the Blue Bowl, a local soup-ery. But shortly after eating it, Lily gets sick and begins throwing up. Desperate to stop Marshall from eating any, after an attempt to call him, she runs from the school to meet him at the apartment. She stops him just before he takes a bite... of his third bowl.

Marshall has an important business meeting with a prospective employer and has a countdown set to when he'll begin vomiting as well. While at the meeting, he resists vomiting, despite a plethora of disgusting images and stories that the employer tells. Eventually, he gives up and tells the employer he is set to vomit soon and runs out of the room.

Discouraged that he probably blew his chance at his dream job, he comes home and just wants to get some rest before his "countdown" finishes. He awakes in the morning to find out that he hadn't gotten sick at all; only then strikes the fact, Lily is actually pregnant, and had morning sickness.

Ca4

Barney and Robin stops Ted from getting back together with Zoey

Meanwhile, Barney and Ted are arguing about who is going to push the button to demolish the Arcadian. Just then, Ted is made in charge of deciding what bulb to choose for the 50,000 bulbs that are to be used in the new GNB headquarters. Unable to make a decision on what light bulb to use and searching for help desperately, he runs into Zoey who is down on her luck following their breakup. She asks him if he wants to get coffee, and subsequently tells him she wants to get back together. He decides to meet with her and buys her an orchid, like he did before. However, despite arriving half an hour ahead of Barney and Robin, Ted is held up as he wants to give the "perfect orchid" and wastes half an hour searching for it. Barney and Robin stop him before he can meet Zoey and convince him not to do so because it is a bad idea. So he passes the flower to an old lady and asks her to give it to the blonde girl sitting in the cafe but a random blonde receives the flower by mistake.

Ca3

Barney bumps into Nora

When it is time to demolish the Arcadian, Barney gives Ted the button, because he earned it. Ted, Robin, and Barney watch the Arcadian fall to the ground.

Soon after, Barney meets Nora again, and seems to desire reconciliation. Robin looks at the two longingly, implying unresolved feelings for Barney.

Finally, the scene cuts back to the wedding that Ted is the best man at (revealed at the start of the season). He is called by Lily to help the groom, and the groom is revealed to be Barney.

Continuity[]

  • Future Ted once again pretends to conclude the story by telling the kids, "And that's how I met your mother," before revealing that he was kidding, as he did in Belly Full of Turkey.
  • The girls Ted has run back to for trivial reasons include Natalie, last seen in Return of the Shirt, and Karen, last seen in The Front Porch. He also apparently tried to get back together with Robin some time after their break-up, which was shown in Something Blue.
  • Robin and Barney reminisce about how they let themselves go by the end of their relationship, as seen in The Rough Patch.
  • Ted displays his nervous tic of peeling the label of his beer bottle, which was first noted in Big Days.
  • Barney is revealed to be the groom at the wedding where Ted will meet the Mother. Future Ted revealed that he met the Mother at a wedding in Big Days.
  • Barney tells Nora that he thought it was too late for sundresses. Barney discusses his theory about sundresses with Ted in Big Days.
  • When Marshall comes back from his interview, Lily is seen with the Marshpillow from Desperation Day.
  • Lily uses her ability to speak conductor, which she revealed in Subway Wars.
  • When Barney is reassuring Ted about his building, he says "I only have one rule, new is always better"; when Ted points out that Barney always changes his "one rule", Barney says that "new is always better" is the oldest, "which makes it the best." Ted and Barney discuss the rule in Architect of Destruction, and Future Ted also points out that Barney always says "I only have one rule", followed by many different rules, in A Change of Heart.
  • Lily introduces her class to a new pet hamster, Mr. Buttons 2. In A Change of Heart, Barney blackmails Lily by threatening to reveal what happened to Mr. Buttons 1.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

Gallery[]

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:Challenge Accepted images.

Memorable Quotes[]

Lily: Ted can really go on about a bitch.

Barney: New is always better.

Ted: Do you know how many people it takes to replace 50,000 light bulbs?
Barney: Are these people Irish, Polish, blondes... What are we dealing with here?

Barney: That is going to be legend...wait for it... dary adjacent. Legendary adjacent!

Marshall: Lily, this year, this nasty schoolyard bully of a year will not stop punching me in the face. How did we kick off 2011? My dad died. And now after five months of unemployment, I just blew my dream job. The good news is, in a few seconds, I'm gonna start heaving my guts out because that's what life is for me now: just losing what's inside until I'm just empty.

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

  • Ted left his phone in the bar, but later called Lily. This could be explained away by saying he used a public phone, however this was not shown during the episode.
  • When Lily threw up on the class pet cage in school the cage can be seen clean in the next shot.
  • Just before Ted gives the orchid to the old lady, production equipment including the camera can be seen the the car reflection.
  • The flashback of Ted running back to Karen indicates that they dated for another nine months. The phone call takes place in the NY apartment, and Ted only got back together with her after she moved there, which took place in Sorry, Bro. Then he broke up with her because she hated his friends in The Front Porch, the very next episode. This period of time most likely could not have been nine months.
    • A possible explanation of this could simply be that these nine months were not depicted in the series or even mentioned by the characters.
    • This was most likely an oversight on the part of the writers.

Allusions and Outside References[]

  • When Lily throws up in the toilet, Marshall says she sounds like a Velociraptor from the movie Jurassic Park.
  • Zoey asks Ted to meet her at the intersection. Actress Jennifer Morrison got her first film debut in the 1994 film Intersection.

Music[]

  • Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll) - George Harrison makes a return in the wedding scene.

Other Notes[]

  • When shown from a distance, The Arcadian is recognizable as a set from the show, Bones
  • According to Barney's Blog: Boom Goes The Dynamite, the explosion of the Arcadian occurs on Sunday, September 04, 2011.
  • On the Season Six DVD set, a special feature called "What we know about your mother" expands upon the scene featuring a woman who Future Ted says is The Mother before admitting he is joking. After the woman mistakenly receives Ted's flowers, Future Ted states that: "I wouldn't have had much luck with an orchid. I'd have given [The Mother] lilacs; her favorite... which just happened to be the first flower I ever gave her... the very moment we met."
  • During the demolition scene, if you continue the foreman's countdown when it transitions back to Marshall and Lily, she announces that she's pregnant right as the countdown hits zero.

Guests[]

Reception[]

  • This episode premiered to 7.15 million viewers.[1]
  • Donna Bowman at the A.V. Club gave the episode a B.[2]
  • Angel Cohn at Television Without Pity gave the episode a C.[3]
  • Robert Canning at IGN gave the episode a 7 out of 10.[4]
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 8 out of 10. "Lily has a great way of being gentle with Mr. Buttons 2."

References[]

External Links[]


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