“Now We're Even”
←	HIMYM episode 7x21 (157)	→
First aired: April 16, 2012
Director: Pamela Fryman
Writer: Chuck Tatham
Barney's Blog
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Just as Ted starts to settle into his new apartment alone, Barney tries to entice him into going out every single night. Meanwhile, Lily has a provocative dream about someone other than Marshall, and Robin finally becomes a famous news anchor.

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

Recap

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Ted begins to get accustomed to his life alone in his apartment. He shares his experiences with Marshall, particularly being able to walk around naked with nobody taking offense and eating takeout food he saved for himself. Seeing an opportunity to excite Ted, Barney invites him to "make every night legendary" by doing zany things like establishing a Mariachi band and bringing a horse inside MacLaren's. Before long, Ted resists Barney's invitations and shuns his offer to bungee-jump off the Statue of Liberty. Barney locks Ted out of the apartment to make him go out on the town, but Ted just heads down to MacLaren's to call his apartment superintendent for help. When pressed by Ted, Barney admits that he needs to get his mind off Quinn during her shift at the Lusty Leopard. Remembering an earlier conversation from 2009, Ted takes up a dare to get a woman's number while wearing a sun dress.

Meanwhile, Marshall is distraught upon learning that Lily has had a sex dream about someone else, lamenting that she has often told him about her dreams over the years. As they go out on a fancy dinner date, he finds out that Ranjit is the one Lily dreamed about and confronts her on the road. Lily angrily leaves him and seeks advice from Quinn. Later over dinner, Marshall and Ranjit talk about the dreams and Ranjit counsels him that part of being a good husband and father is remaining calm while everyone else acts crazy. Marshall realizes that all the men in Lily's sex dreams were all great fathers. Back at the apartment, Marshall and Lily make up, though Lily keeps her wildest sex dreams a secret.

Although Robin has been promoted at World Wide News, she is disappointed that the front desk guard does not recognize her while letting everybody else through without an ID. Sandy Rivers asks her to deliver the night-time traffic reports from a network helicopter, where the pilot suffers a stroke. She successfully lands the helicopter with help from the ground as the incident is covered live (the other characters are also clued in to the footage). Future Ted reveals that the incident made Robin an instant star - which resulted in her meeting Mayor Michael Bloomberg, appearing on Letterman, and having a special deli sandwich named after her. As she goes home, she receives a text message from Ted telling her that, even if they are not talking right now, he is happy to know she's okay

Continuity

• This episode shows the reason behind Ted's "Now We're Even" from the end of The Mermaid Theory.
• Marshall gets Lily away from the table by asking her if she needs to go to the bathroom. Lily's frequent urination was previously mentioned in Duel Citizenship.
• Barney copies a show/movie without knowing it has been done before. In Woooo! he does what Mad Men would do, and uses inception in this episode.

Gallery

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:Now We're Even images.

Memorable Quotes

Ted:	Okay, now we're even!

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Ted:	Oh, My favorite is when she banged George Washington.
Barney:	I liked the three way with Bill Cosby and Papa Smurf.
Ted:	Oh, he smurfed the smurf out of her!

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Notes and Trivia

Goofs and Errors

Allusions and Outside References

• Ted and Barney form a Mariachi band.
• One of Barney's proposals for Legendary nights concerns seeking out Phil Collins to help him reunite Genesis.
• Future Ted told that Robin went to the late-night talk show, Late Show with David Letterman.
• Robin met the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg.
• Lily's previous sex dreams include George Washington and a threesome with Bill Cosby and Papa Smurf. Future Ted mentions she also had a dream involving Frankenstein and the teacup from Beauty and the Beast.
• Barney mentions how Ted once convinced the gang to watch the movie Norbit, during which Lily did not recognize that one of the antagonists was portrayed by Eddie Murphy.
• Barney says he spent five years trying to Inception Lily, but when Marshall points out the movie is only 2 years old, Barney replies: What movie?

Music

Other Notes

• The shot of Robin on Letterman shown is taken from Cobie Smulders actual appearance on the show.
• After Robin lands the helicopter, the pop machine that was in front of her picture is now in front of Sandy's.

Guests

• Becki Newton - Quinn
• Alexis Denisof - Sandy Rivers
• Marshall Manesh - Ranjit
• Eben Ham - Pilot
• Bryan Krasner - Gary

Podcast

Featuring and interview with Chuck Tatham.

Reception

This episode was viewed by 7.24 million people. ^[1] This is the lowest number of viewers any Season 7 episode has received.
Donna Bowman of the A.V. Club gave the episode a B^-. ^[2]
Chris O'Hara of TV Fanatic gave the episode 4.5/5. ^[3]
Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode 8 out of 10. ^[4]
Ethan Alter of Television Without Pity gave the episode a D⁺. ^[5]
Michelle Profis of Entertainment Weekly lauded the episode for its "eclectic mix" of multiple elements. ^[6]

References

External Links

• Now We're Even at the English Wikipedia
• Now We're Even at the Internet Movie Database
• Now We're Even at TV.com

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