Last Cigarette Ever
Comments7| “Last Cigarette Ever” | ||
| → | ||
| ||
| First aired: December 14, 2009 | ||
| Director: Pamela Fryman | ||
| Writer: Theresa Mulligan Rosenthal | ||
Marshall restarts smoking to relate with his boss. The rest of the gang join him and then try to stop. Robin has to deal with an unprofessional co-anchor, Don.
Contents |
Recap
Edit
| This page or section uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia's Last Cigarette Ever article. (view authors).
You can contribute to the How I Met Your Mother Wiki by rewriting the copied content. | 
|
Even though Marshall rigorously cleans himself, Lily can still smell the smoke on him, and uses it as an excuse to start smoking again herself (which leads to her voice lowering a few octaves). Finally, Ted and Barney feel left out as their friends smoke outside MacLaren's, and they join in as well. As the week continues, their smoking takes its toll, decreasing Ted's stamina on the stairs, worsening Lily's voice, and giving Marshall's boss, Arthur, a heart attack, and Barney finding a cigarette burn on his tie. They all pledge to stop smoking, though Robin is reluctant at first.
Meanwhile, Robin is joined by a new co-anchor, Don Frank, a legend of the pre-6am television world, having broadcast in 39 media outlets. Impressed at first, Robin is quickly disappointed by Don's lack of professionalism or concern, or even pants. She works even harder to prove that her job means something, even booking Mayor Bloomberg on the show. Don tells her to stop taking her job so seriously, and amidst her retorts, he reveals that the Mayor canceled. As she begins to light up a cigarette on air in defeat, the gang calls from the apartment, pleading for her not to break their pact. She agrees, but when she returns to the apartment, she finds everyone smoking on the roof. Future Ted tells the audience in the voice-over that Robin and Don were dating within three months.
The gang agrees to have "one last cigarette" as the sun rises, but Future Ted reveals it took years for each member of the gang to actually quit, listing events in their lives that lead to the change: Lily quits the day she decides to try to get pregnant; Marshall quits the day his son is born; Robin quits in June 2013; Barney quits in March 2017; and Ted quits two weeks into dating the mother.
ContinuityEdit
- Future Ted's kids are shown to be shocked at knowing that the whole gang smokes, but this fact is well known for some of them:
- Lily and Robin smoked just before Lily and Marshall's wedding in Something Borrowed.
- In Moving Day, Barney reveals to Ted that Robin smokes.
- In Benefits, Barney is seen smoking a cigarette in front of Lily's kindergartens.
- Barney ('Zip, Zip, Zip, The Chain of Screaming, Something Blue), Lily (Arrivederci, Fiero), Ted (Something Blue) and Robin (Zip, Zip, Zip, Arrivederci, Fiero) were also known to smoke cigars.
- Robin and Ted had lighters in Slapsgiving.
- In Life Among the Gorillas, there is a scene in which Lily questions Marshall: "But if those guys try to pressure you to smoke, what do you say?" and Marshall answers: "Only when I'm drunk."
- This is the first time we learn that Marshall and Lily have a son, this is continued with the episode Mystery vs. History.
- This is the first time that the gang has actually seen Robin's news show. They first attempted this in The Front Porch.
- Marshall's new boss, Arthur Hobbs, was his boss before, as seen on The Chain of Screaming. He earned the nickname "Artillery Arthur" for yelling at employees. Marshall yelled loudly at Hobbs and quit the job.
- Don was first mentioned at the end of The Playbook. Future Ted states that Robin will be dating Don within three months, which does happen.
- Mike, the cameraman was first seen working with Robin at Metro News 1 in Atlantic City.
- Marshall is seen smoking his "last cigarette ever" in Good Crazy.
GalleryEdit
- For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:Last Cigarette Ever images.
Memorable QuotesEdit
| Barney: | I am not a smoker. I only smoke in certain situations: post-coital, when I'm with Germans—sometimes those two overlap—coital, birthdays, to annoy my mom, pre-coital, on a sailboat, the day The Mets are mathematically eliminated every year, and, of course—wait for it 'cause Lord knows I have—pregnancy scares. |
| Ted: | Why are you smoking right now? |
| Barney: | I'm always pre-coital, Ted. |
| Barney: | (while smoking) I'm proud of you guys! I have heard how difficult it is for smokers like yourself to quit, and on behalf of non-smokers everywhere, I salute you, and I am here to help. So hand in your cigarettes, and I will get rid of them one at a time. |
| Lily: | (raspy-voiced) You're quitting, dollface! I know I don't normally call you dollface, but it kinda works in this voice. Dollface. |
| Marshall: | He fired what's his face, Ted! And what's his face was invaluable! |
| Ted: | Look I can understand you getting upset, but it's not worth killing yourself over. |
| Barney: | Yeah, wait till you get laid off then kill yourself, like what's his face. Although, I guess now it's more like... where's his face... |
| Robin: | If I can't even get my best friends to watch, who's gonna watch? |
| Marshall: | Lots of people! You’ve got bed ridden insomniacs, bums camping outside a department store, people waiting in the ER, where the TV is in a cage so you can’t change the channel… |
| Lily: | Oh, do you have any stalkers? |
| Robin: | Yeah. But even Leonard won't watch the show. |
Notes and TriviaEdit
Goofs and ErrorsEdit
- The gang uses a Tim Horton's coffee can as an ashtray about halfway through the episode, and the Tim Horton's name is clearly shown in the trademark gold oval on the front of the can. Near the end of the episode, the gang is back on the roof, and the "Tim Horton's" has been removed from the gold oval.
- When Ted walks up the stairs, it is said "three flights later" after he has already walked up one floor. But in How Lily Stole Christmas , Ted exclaims, "Three flights of stairs and not a single drop!" referring to the beer in his hand. So there are 3 flights of stairs and not 4.
- When Arthur Hobbs first shows his dog shirt to show Marshall, his cigarette is in his mouth, however a few seconds later, when he asks him to pet it, it is in his hand.
- As Arthur is unbuttoning his shirt and the shot switches you do see his hand near his mouth possibly grabbing the cigarette.
Allusions and Outside ReferencesEdit
- There is a Tim Hortons coffee can beside Ted when the group is smoking on the roof. Robin and Barney visited a Tim Hortons in Toronto in Duel Citizenship.
- When Don tells Robin about how he has in fact worked for a network news show, he gives a speech that is an homage to the speech "Crash" Davis gives to "Nuke" LaLoosh in Bull Durham.
- The McRib is mentioned in a flashback.
MusicEdit
- Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk - Rufus Wainwright
- Morning Mood - Peer Gynt suite by Edvard Grieg, played during flashbacks of 13-year-old Marshall's camping trip, when he had his first cigarette.
Other NotesEdit
- In the "future" where it shows the kids being told the story, they show clips from the pilot episode. This is for continuity within the episode for when they say "What!" to the news that each gang member smoked. This was originally their reaction to when Ted told Robin he loved her.
- The flashback pictures of Don Frank on his different morning TV shows feature the exact same wooden set. Although the scene changes are noticeable because different titles and background pictures are used in each scene, the wooden set has been used not only for Channel 12, but also for Metro News 1(Seasons 1-4) and when Robin auditioned for a news anchor job in The Possimpible.
- The flashback scenes also show the telephone set on the stage right of each set.
- International Airdates: Australia: April 22, 2010 on Channel 7; United Kingdom: August 5, 2010 on E4
GuestsEdit
- Ron Nicolosi - Mike
- Benjamin Koldyke - Don Frank
- Harvey Fierstein - Lily's Smoking Voice
- Tyler Peterson - Thirteen Year Old Marshall
- Trent Peltz - Ricky
- Bob Odenkirk - Arthur Hobbs
ReceptionEdit
Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode with a grade A-. [1]
Joel Keller, reviewer at TV Squad described the casting of Harvey Fierstein as Lily's smoking voice as only the third funniest thing in the episode. He praises the flashback scenes to thirteen year old Marshall's first smoke as the funniest thing in the episode. [2]
Brian Zoromski of IGN gave the episode only 5.5 out of 10. Zoromski noted that he had never been a smoker and described this as the worst episode ever. [3]
Cindy McLennan of Television Without Pity rated the episode with a grade A-. [4]
References Edit
External LinksEdit
- Last Cigarette Ever at the English Wikipedia
- Last Cigarette Ever at TV.com
- Last Cigarette Ever at the Internet Movie Database
| ← Previous episode The Window | Last Cigarette Ever (all episodes) | Next episode → Girls Versus Suits
|
Start a Discussion Discussions about Last Cigarette Ever
You can find discussions about everything related to this wiki on How I Met Your Mother Wiki Forum!
