“False Positive”
←	HIMYM episode 6x12 (124)	→
First aired: December 13, 2010
Director: Pamela Fryman
Writer: Craig Gerard Matthew Zinman
Barney's Blog
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Marshall and Lily's false positive has a profound effect on the whole gang. Robin gets a new job, Barney discovers the joy of giving and Ted begins his duties as best man for his friend Punchy's wedding.

Contents 1 Recap 2 Continuity 3 Gallery 4 Memorable Quotes 5 Notes and Trivia 5.1 Goofs and Errors 5.2 Allusions and Outside References 5.3 Music 5.4 Other Notes 6 Guests 7 Podcast 8 Reception 9 References 10 External Links 11 Comments

RecapEdit

Lily and Marshall, after trying and failing for 2 months to get pregnant, finally manage to get a positive pregnancy test result. They immediately tell the rest of the gang, who are just as ecstatic as they are. Unfortunately, this doesn't last for long, their doctor soon tells them they're not really pregnant. Over the next three days the gang thought Lily was pregnant, each member of the gang re-examine their own lives and react in their own weird way.

On the first night, before Marshall and Lily arrive at Ted's apartment to share the news, Ted is on the phone with Punchy, planning the floral arrangements for the wedding. Robin, overhearing their conversation, tells Ted he's ignoring his main job as Best Man; to stop Punchy from freaking out about the wedding. Ted defends himself by reminding her he was Marshall's Best Man, but Robin retaliates by recounting how he allowed Marshall to shave his head.

Ted ignores her and watches TV, realizing that Robin has recorded seven episodes of Million Dollar Coin Toss. Robin reveals she's going to be the new coin flipping girl on the show, or the "coin flipping bimbo" as Ted calls it, going against her previous plans to be a serious journalist at World Wide News and turning down a research job from them.

Barney enters, and then later Marshall and Lily arrive, sharing the news that they're pregnant. As the gang is congratulating them, Robin begins to reflect on her own life, and decides to take the World Wide News job to be a respected journalist. So the next night, when Marshall, Ted and Lily are celebrating Lily's pregnancy at MacLaren's, Robin arrives telling them she's the new WWN associate researcher.

However on the third day, when calling Alex Trebek to turn down the coin flip girl job, she gets a message from Lily saying she's not pregnant, and decides to forget about her journalist dream and take the easy coin flip job. Later that night, when the gang decided to see a movie together, Robin finds Ted outside the theater and tells him her decision to take the coin flip job.

While this was going on, Barney was having his own dilemma. Flashback to the first night, when Barney enters Ted's Apartment, he shows Ted and Robin his huge Christmas bonus check and his plans to buy a diamond suit with the money. Ted suggests giving some of the money to charity, but Barney scoffs the notion. When Marshall and Lily enter and share their news, Barney reflects on what he's doing with his life, and doesn't feel awesome.

On the second night, when the rest of the gang is in MacLaren's celebrating, Barney enters and announces "Barney's Favorite Things", to give away a bunch of free things to people at MacLaren's in an Oprah-esque manner.

Deciding he wants to do more giving, he visits Sam Gibbs at a Long Island church where he works as a minister. Sam tells him about a charity the church runs, and Barney decides to help out by writing a check donation. However, when Lily messages him telling him she's not pregnant, Barney loses his giving spirit and turns the $10,000 check into $100.00 (with a sneaky decimal point), and arrives to the movies that night wearing his diamond suit.

Meanwhile, while Robin was deciding on her new career and Barney was becoming charitable, Marshall and Lily, were freaking out about having a child, and try and do everything they have to do to prepare for the baby in one night. So when, on the third night, they learn they're not pregnant, they're happy.

When they arrive at the movies to tell the gang, Ted asks why they're not devastated. They tell him they're relieved, and decide they might get a dog instead of having a baby. Ted throws his movie snack on the floor, and starts shouting at Marshall and Lily, because after all their talk about having kids, all it took was one little freak out for them to give up their desire for children, and tells them to go home and keep trying.

Ted then turns on Barney, shouting at him for wasting his money on such a stupid suit and tells him to return the suit and donate the money, by calling to the "criminals of New York" about Barney's suit causing Barney to flee. Now alone, Ted tells Robin she didn't move to New York City to give up her dreams, and forces her to call and accept WWN's research job. As Robin walks off, Punchy calls Ted and tells him he can't get married. Ted tells him he can, because he loves her, and a convinced Punchy thanks him.

Following Ted's shouting, Marshall and Lily realize they were being ridiculous, and continue trying to have a baby. Barney sells the suit and donates the money (plus dozens of suits) to Sam Gibbs's church's charity program. Robin takes the new associate research job at WWN, and later at Ted's apartment thanks him for being there to put them all back on the right track, and asks if Ted will be her best man if she ever gets married.

In the ending scene, Barney tries a Christmas message-style play on a girl called Noelle at the bar, but she turns him down.

ContinuityEdit

• Robin recounts Ted's experience being Marshall's best man during Something Borrowed, and footage of Marshall shaving his head in that episode is repeated.
• Ted previously accepted the invitation to be best man at Punchy's wedding in Glitter.
• Regis Philbin was previously the host of Million Dollar Heads or Tails in The Best Burger in New York.
• Marshall and Lily share another telepathic conversation.
• Barney previously thought Sam Gibbs was his father in Cleaning House, explaining his odd reaction when calling Sam (a minister) "Father" and hearing Sam call him "son".
• Marshall paints the nursery blue, a traditional baby boy color, and Lily asks "What if we have a girl?" Marshall's desire for their baby to be a boy, and Lily's desire for their baby to be a girl has been well established in the past, most notably in Baby Talk. The color of the nursery is addressed in Mystery vs. History.
• Robin previously sacrificed her journalistic dreams when applying as a lottery number girl in The Possimpible.
• Barney shows off the diamond suit in the magazine, "Platinum Skymall". Barney revealed his fascination with the Skymall catalog in The Goat.
• Robin claims that she would love to have Ted on hand to calm her down if she was getting married and was freaking out. This may be the reason Robin is asking to see Ted just moments before her future wedding to Barney.

GalleryEdit

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

Memorable QuotesEdit

Barney:

I never seen that woman before in my life, sorry force of habit.

—Barney upon hear about Marshall and Lily are pregnant

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Barney:

There's no greater gift than the gift of booty. This holiday season, why not bang someone in need.

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Ted:	Robin, you better check yourself before you Trebek yourself.

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Notes and TriviaEdit

Goofs and ErrorsEdit

• Once again, it is forgotten that Lily was meant to be allergic to dogs in World's Greatest Couple, when Marshall suggests they get a dog. That also had been proven false in other episodes, including Unfinished, The Scorpion and the Toad and Where Were We? where Lily is seen with dogs.

Allusions and Outside ReferencesEdit

• Robin says one of the coin toss girls went on to star in the reality television shows Bachelor, The Biggest Loser, and Celebrity Rehab.
• Barney sings "O Horny Night" in the tune of O Holy Night.
• Ted guesses Barney's second favorite word starting with the letters "BON" as the musician Bon Jovi. Barney included Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name as part of his Get Psyched Mix.
• Ted and Marshall receive gift certificates from GNB for Costa Coffee, a real life coffee chain. Marshall, Ted and Barney previously hung out at a Costa Coffee in Swarley, and Marshall met Chloe working there.
• "Barney's Favorite Things" is a reference to Oprah Winfrey and how she gives away surprise gifts to the audience on her show.
• Barney compares himself to Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, the founders of the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world (the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).
• Barney's "DiBiase" suit is an homage to professional wrestler Ted DiBiase, who wore a gold-studded suit and diamond-encrusted belt.
• Barney's suggestion to cut a hole in the gingerbread house and let someone reach in is similar to the Saturday Night Live sketch Dick in a Box.

MusicEdit

• Xmas is Here Again - My Morning Jacket
• A Perfect Christmas - Vasco & Jerry Abbott

Other NotesEdit

• When Barney receives Lily's text message, he has two other messages from the numbers 11113000 and +1 (310) 850.

GuestsEdit

• Ben Vereen - Sam Gibbs
• Chris Romanski - Punchy
• Alex Trebek - Himself
• Artemis Pebdani - Anna
• Paul Schackman - Dr. Mitchell Friedman
• Melissa Molinaro - Noelle
• Jean Villepique - Nanny
• Benton Jennings - Jordan

PodcastEdit

How I Met Your Mother - 'False Positive'(15:08)
45 views

Featuring an interview with Craig Gerard and Matthew Zinman.

ReceptionEdit

This episode premiered to 9.701 million viewers.^[1]
Donna Bowman at the A.V. Club gave the episode an A-.^[2] She felt that "The rapid-fire, quick-transition, flashback-and-forward style that the show developed in its earliest days has returned of late, much to our delight. But episodes like tonight’s “False Positive” show that the results go beyond big laughs from the pile of juxtapositions created by the style. By increasing the sheer volume of ideas in the half hour, by whipping us back and forth from character to character and time frame to time frame, it buries key moments and scenes in such a way that they can be unearthed later, at just the right moment for maximum resonance."
DeAnn Walker at Television Without Pity gave the episode an A.^[3]
Robert Canning at IGN gave the episode a 9.5 out of 10.^[4] He felt "The episode was set up perfectly to allow for jumping back and forth between stories and timelines without feeling forced or gimmicky. How I Met Your Mother is famous for this style of storytelling and it was delivered with perfection on Monday night. The cutting forward and backward never became confusing or convoluted and gave "False Positive" great comedic momentum. ... False Positive was a fantastic, funny episode that stayed true to the characters and tone of this series."

ReferencesEdit

External LinksEdit

• False Positive at the English Wikipedia
• False Positive at CBS Press Express
• False Positive at the Internet Movie Database
• False Positive at TV.com

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