“Right Place, Right Time”
←	HIMYM episode 4x22 (86)	→
First aired: May 4, 2009
Director: Pamela Fryman
Writer: Stephen Lloyd
Barney's Blog
Images (9)

Ted recounts the series of events that led to him being in the right place at the right time for a life-changing encounter. Barney prepares for his 200th conquest and Marshall abuses the Graphics Department at GNB.

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 Reception 8 References 9 External Links 10 Comments

RecapEdit

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Future Ted describes to his children a day near the beginning of his struggling solo architecture career, where a set of circumstances began his journey to meet their mother. The cold open shows Ted walking down his street with a yellow umbrella, stopping at a newsstand, giving some cash to a homeless man, and stopping at a crosswalk before a woman's hand reaches over and touches his shoulder.

Going backwards, Future Ted describes his desperation when he began doing solo architect work. Ted takes a job from a chain restaurant company to design a building shaped like a Stetson hat. When he complains to Robin about his lack of inspiration, she tells him to get out of the house and clear his head. He agrees to go out for a bagel, and Robin tells him to take an umbrella because her station's clown weatherman said it would rain. As he comes down the steps, he turns right, but then turns left.

Ted explains that a few days ago, Robin vomited into a local woman's silk purse on her show because of food poisoning she got from one of Ted's favorite restaurants, Schlegel's Bagels. Ted turns the other way outside his apartment to go to his second favorite bagel place.

At MacLaren's, Barney shows Ted his copy of "Bro's Life", and notes that he will be going out with a supermodel featured in the issue (Petra Petrova). Barney declares that he is about to meet his goal of having sex with 200 women. He credits the number to an argument he had back in junior high. A bully named Matthew Panning taunted the young Barney, saying he had been with "a hundred girls," and Barney retorted that he would be with 200 women some day.

Unfortunately, as Robin checks over his list, she notices he has listed a woman twice, leaving Barney at woman number 198, not 199. He runs to his gym and sleeps with a female bodybuilder to get him up to 199, but when he returns to the bar, Robin tells him that the list uses a number twice, so the bodybuilder was actually number 200. Ted stops at the newsstand to check out the bodybuilding magazine "Muscle Sexxy" that Barney's number 200 is featured in.

During the discussion of Barney's 200 sexual conquests (which most of the other characters cite as "too many"), Marshall takes the conversation as an opportunity to take out some professionally-made charts, showing Barney's low "batting average" noting that only 1.2 percent of the women he approaches actually sleep with him. This leads into Marshall's addiction to the charts that the GNB graphics department make up for him, including a list of presidents' last names by order of innuendo and a Venn diagram based on Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia" Eventually, the gang pulls out the Intervention Banner, causing Marshall to pull out a chart to refute their claims of sagging interest in the charts. After the intervention, Marshall discovers the gang threw away all his charts, including the ones necessary for an important meeting on tax shelters.

Ted agrees to retrieve the charts, but finds them in the possession of an eccentric homeless man called Milt, who agrees to sell them for one million dollars. Ted negotiates to pay him on a dollar-a-day basis. After stopping at the newsstand, Ted crosses the street to give the man a dollar, and continues down the street to a crosswalk. As he waits he is tapped on the shoulder by a woman's hand. Future Ted talks about how fate is a funny thing, and that has control over your life, which is scary, but also beautiful, and that if anything had happened differently, the children wouldn't be there. He says that if he knew where all those circumstances were leading him, he would have gone back and thanked everyone involved, and in a montage Ted imagines going back and hugging everyone in the episode. The camera then turns to reveal that Stella is the woman behind Ted at the crosswalk.

Afterwards, Barney is at the bar, sitting with a grown-up Matthew Panning, gloating over his success. Panning is amazed that Barney has spent his adult life outdoing a lie he told in middle school, but after he leaves, Barney tears up the list, stating that he wonders what he'll do next. He then turns to see Robin at the bar.

ContinuityEdit

• When Marshall didn't have his charts in his important presentation, he improvised by telling fish jokes to buy some time. He was last seen using this stand up routine in Old King Clancy.
• The intervention banner makes a second appearance, first seen in Intervention.
• This episode used the yellow umbrella to create suspense. In Where Were We?, Future Ted explained that it was involved with him meeting the mother. Ted found the yellow umbrella in No Tomorrow.
• Ted meets Stella Zinman, his ex-fiancée who left him at the altar earlier this season.
• The gym Barney is at is Total Rip Fitness from The Yips.

GalleryEdit

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

Memorable QuotesEdit

Robin:	Someone already put it up on YouTube?
Barney:	Yeah...Someone (looks away).

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Marshall:

This is a pie chart describing my favorite bars, and this is a bar graph describing my favorite pies.

—Marshall talks about his charts

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Notes and TriviaEdit

Goofs and ErrorsEdit

• At the beginning of this episode Future Ted tells us this episode was set in May 2009 despite occurring before Ted's 31st birthday which has already been established as being on April 25th.
• In The Bracket, Barney claims not to have a list of all of the girls he has slept with. However, in this episode, he has a list. However, as Barney is a pathological liar, so it is likely that he didn't tell the gang about the list, so he could show them the scrapbook. It is also possible that the list was created after The Bracket.
• Marshall's chart and math are presumed on Barney having a sexual history going back to when he was approximately 16. However, it was established in Game Night that Barney was a virgin until he was 23. A corrected version of Marshall's math would make Barney's success rate just over 2.1%.
• When Ted is walking down the stairs of the apartment, the MacLaren's Pub sign was missing.

Allusions and Outside ReferencesEdit

• Marshall's Cecilia chart is a reference to a Simon and Garfunkel song of the same name. The opening lyrics are: "Cecilia, you're breaking my heart. You're shaking my confidence daily."
• On Marshall's chart about his favourite bars, you can see at second place is "McGee's Pub", which is the actual pub that served as the inspiration for MacLaren's.
• When talking to Matthew Panning in the flashback, Young Barney appears to be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
• When Robin jokes about being pregnant after throwing up due to food poisoning, they are referencing Cobie's actual pregnancy.

MusicEdit

• Glad Girls - Guided by Voices

Other NotesEdit

• Barney's 200th sex partner-to-be, Petra Petrova, is shown in Bros Life Magazine on page 83, Barney's iconic number, as has been shown numerous times in previous episodes.
• Allyson Hannigan is once again absent in this episode due to the filming being during her last week of pregnancy.
• Cobie Smulders is again visibly pregnant.
• Robin says "But Umm" twice when explaining to Barney that he used the same number twice on his list.

GuestsEdit

• Dan Castellaneta - Milt
• Sarah Chalke - Stella Zinman
• Kurt Long - Galoshes the Weather Clown
• Kit Pongetti - Fran
• John Duerler - Harlen Johnsen
• Joel McCrary - Ged Wilkinson
• Katie Hein - Jenni
• Mary Ann Jarou - Jenny
• Bianca Lopez - Gennie

ReceptionEdit

Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode with a grade B+. ^[1]
Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 8.5 out of 10. ^[2]
Cindy McLennan of Television Without Pity rated the episode with a grade B. ^[3]

References Edit

External LinksEdit

• Right Place, Right Time at the English Wikipedia
• Right Place, Right Time at the Internet Movie Database
• Right Place, Right Time at TV.com

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