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ā€œThe Stinson Missile Crisisā€
HIMYM episode 7x04 (140)
212px-478ba2f103
First aired:
October 3, 2011
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Kourtney Kang
Barney's Blog

Images (14)

After Robin assaults a woman and is forced to begin court-mandated therapy sessions where she recounts how it all went down. Meanwhile, Ted gets too involved in Lily's pregnancy.


Recap[]

The episode begins with Robin beginning a court-mandated therapy session. She has been court ordered to therapy after assaulting a woman, whose identity is unveiled as the episode proceeds. Robin grows jealous of the attention that Barney gives Nora, reinforcing the fact that Robin still has feelings for Barney. Robin even ends up getting drunk under her desk at World Wide News, binge eating chocolates that Barney had sent Nora. She then succeeds in getting Nora sent to France to cover a G-8 summit, with Robin secretly hoping to use the time she is gone to win Barney back.

She helps Barney pack up all of the items he uses for running plays, and when they go back to MacLaren's, Robin suggests that they dress up really nice and go out on the town one last time. Before Barney can respond, Nora walks in, having returned early. They leave and Robin ends up under the table of their booth, getting drunk. When a 'victim' of Barney's getting-laid schemes shows up at the bar, Robin sends her after Barney and Nora, hoping to break them up.

Meanwhile, Ted gets way too involved with Marshall and Lily's pregnancy, going so far as to say things like "our baby" and wearing "Team Baby" t-shirts. He catches Lily about to sip some wine at MacLaren's, and he stops her, saying pregnant women should not drink. This leads Lily to explain that their doctor, Dr. Sonya, told her she could have "just a little bit." Turns out, though, that the doctor is saying "just a little bit" to everything Lily asks (drinking, Cheetos, etc.). Ted checks it out, and finds that the doctor is wrong on almost everything. Ted lauds the fact that they have always been a trio, but Lily pushes back, saying that Ted never gives them privacy. A flashback shows Ted walking in on Marshall and Lily during sex, not noting a sock on the door handle.

Marshall and Ted find themselves at a birthing class, which Ted had signed the group up for, but Lily stayed home, refusing to participate. Ted reveals that he is afraid of losing his friends, because he feels his life is lagging behind everyone else's, thinking he should've been married and having kids as well. They leave the class and return to Marshall and Lily's apartment. Marshall apologizes to Lily; Marshall says that Dr. Sonya's laid back attitude is not a bad thing and will be ideal when Lily is in the delivery room. A scene from the future shows Dr. Sonya and Lily in the delivery room, with Dr. Sonya shouting at her and Lily shouting "Where the hell is Marshall?!" Future Ted says that that is a crazy story and he will get to it. Marshall also says that Ted is outside and wants to apologize, but finds that Ted has left the building, leaving a sock on the handle of their apartment door.

Robin and Ted talk at their apartment and Robin realizes that she was selfish in trying to break up Barney and Nora. She rushes to the restaurant and attacks the girl to stop her from getting to Barney, with both women getting arrested.

Continuity[]

  • Barney first mentions a website created by him in The Possimpible.
  • Barney continues to wear the ducky tie, due to the results of his and Marshall's bet in Ducky Tieā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹.
  • Barney and Nora have dinner at Cafe L'amour, the restaurant Marshall and Brad eat at in World's Greatest Coupleā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹.
  • One of Barney's "BDS's" (Booty Delivery Systems) involves pretending to be a gay hairdresser, named Jack Fantastic, with a straight twin brother. In The Bracketā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹, the gang discuss a girl whom Barney slept with twice by pretending to have an evil twin.
  • Barney tells of another time he pretends to be an "Attorney at Law" in Happily Ever Afterā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹.
  • The urn Barney throws out contains the ashes of one of his suits, destroyed in Girls Versus Suits.
  • The photo of Barney that "Jack Fantastic" shows to the girls at the salon is the one Robin takes in Say Cheeseā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹.
  • Robin faces legal issues from another assault in Duel Citizenship.
  • In this episode, Robin screamed 'nobody asked you Patrice' for the first time. 
  • Barney previously referred to Robin as a "bro" in Zip, Zip, Zip.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

  • Robin concludes her therapy sessions with Kevin in Field Tripā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹, after which they start dating.
  • The flashforward to the day Marshall and Lily's son was born shows Barney without the ducky tie, foreshadowing that Marshall will allow him to take it off, as seen in Disaster Averted.
  • The circumstances behind Marshall being late to the birth of his son is explained in The Magician's Code - Part Oneā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹.

Gallery[]

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:The Stinson Missile Crisis images.

Memorable Quotes[]

Doctor Sonya: Just a little bit!

Robin: NOBODY ASKED YOU, PATRICE!!

Marshall: It's fascinating how profoundly little I know about vaginas.

Marshall: (pointing at the schematic diagram of a vagina) What does this little guy up there do?
Doctor Sonya: (to Lily) Oh, you poor thing.

Ted: I cropped that Halloween photo. It's just salt and pepper, now, so it looks ridiculous.
Marshall: Ted, I want you back on Team Baby.
Lily: What?
Ted: I knew you'd come around! Guys! I didn't really crop the photo!

Barney: Thanks, Robin. You're the only person I know who would help me do all that. You're a real bro.
Robin: Am I, though? 'Cause I'm really more of a woman. To my femininity.
Barney: Nah, you're more of a bro. You're a dude. You're a man.
Robin: Hey, you are flying solo one more night. How about I put on a smokin' hot dress, you slap a vest over that crime scene of a tie and we paint the town? I mean, when was the last time we got rip-roaring drunk in clothing that highlights our genders?
Kevin: So, your plan was to be out on the town, dressed provocatively, drinking with another woman's man. Robin, this is our first session, and I know this is just one clinical opinion, but you a dawg!
Robin: Yeah, there was just one problem.
Nora: Surprise! I got back early!
Barney: Hey! Hey!
Kevin: Let me guess, you got drunk under your desk again?
Robin: No, Mr. Harvard. I handled things a little differently. (cut to Robin sobbing under a table eating a cake and drinking)

Ted: The truth is, I thought I'd be married by now and going through all this stuff alongside you guys. But even if I meet the girl of my dreams right this second, I'm still one night and nine months away from having a family of my own. And that's assuming the mother of my children is just a huge slut.
Marshall: Don't lose hope, Ted. That slut is out there.
Ted: Thanks, buddy.

Doctor Sonya: Lily, if you don't push, I will shove this baby up your throat and pull it out of your mouth!!

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

  • The closing slideshow calls R5-D4 a "robot", but in Star Wars, all automatons are almost exclusively referred to as "droids."

Allusions and Outside References[]

  • The reality TV show, Survivor, and its host, Jeff Probst, make an appearance sponsoring Dr. Barney's Breast Reduction Consultation. Both Survivor and How I Met Your Mother are aired on CBS.
  • To insist that Team Baby is viable, Ted tries to claim that other trios like Batman and Robin and Alfred, plus Romeo and Juliet and the apothecary worked as well. A display of previous trio pictures at the end of the episode includes Marshall and Lily as C-3PO and R2-D2 and Ted as "the robot Uncle Owen almost bought from the Jawas," referring to R5-D4.
  • The name of the episode is a reference to the Cuban missile crisis.

Music[]

  • When a Man Loves a Woman - Percy Sledge

Other Notes[]

  • Robin is the first person other than Future Ted to be the main narrator of a story. This would be repeated again in Symphony of Illumination. In both episodes Bob Saget only delivers one line.
  • Websites for Linson Breast Lawsuit and Stinson Breast Reduction that were mentioned during the episode were actually created by How I Met Your Mother production: http://www.stinsonbreastreduction.com/ and http://www.linsonbreastlawsuit.com/
  • Kevin, played by Kal Penn, has a Princeton Diploma. This is a reference to a previous TV series he was in, House M.D., where the show takes place at the fictional Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Robin is the one that points this out.
  • Kal Penn's appearance in this episode makes him the third member of the starring cast of the Harold & Kumar series to have appeared on this show. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Barney and John Cho appeared in I'm Not That Guyā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ā€‹ where his character, Jeff, tries to convince Marshall to work for his company.
  • The last scene is a photo montage of Ted, Marshall, and Lily's Halloween costumes. One photo shows them dressed as Dr. Frankenstein, his monster, and a scared villager in 2006. While Marshall and Lily were broken up that fall, this information suggests that the episode they got together, Swarley, while airing the first week of November, actually took place in October.

Guests[]

Podcast[]

How_I_Met_Your_Mother_-_The_Stinson_Missle_Crisis_Podcast

How I Met Your Mother - The Stinson Missle Crisis Podcast

Podcast for the episode

Featuring an interview with Craig Thomas, Kourtney Kang and Tami Sagher.

Reception[]

  • Donna Bowman of the AV Club gave the episode a B[1], whereas Chris O'Hara of TV Fanatic gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars[2].
  • Angel Cohn of Television Without Pity graded the episode at B+, stating that the subplot on Lily and Marshall "dragged down the few funny moments of Barney and Robin scheme-busting"[3].
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 8.5 out of 10 stars. "Another great tell-it-in-reverse story."

References[]

External Links[]


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