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This page is about Splitsville, an episode. For Splitsville, the restaurant, see Splitsville (restaurant).


Splitsville
HIMYM episode 8x06 (166)
Splitsville2
First aired:
November 12, 2012
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Stephen Lloyd
Barney's Blog

Images (25)

When Robin is hesitant to break up with Nick, Barney takes matters into his own hands. Meanwhile, Lily and Marshall are desperate for some private time.


Recap[]

Robin complains to the gang about not having sex with Nick for 3 days because he injured his groin playing basketball on Marshall's basketball team. Now that they aren't having sex, they are beginning to talk more, which has made Robin realize how dumb Nick really is (although the gang already knew about that fact). Robin rethinks her relationship with Nick. The next day Robin tells the gang at the bar that she tried to tell to him about breaking up, but failed, after seeing how hard Nick's abs are.

Barney, knowing Robin wouldn't do it, provides a solution. If Robin doesn't break up with Nick by 8:00 PM that day, he will send an online invitation about Robin spending a whole day with her annoying co-worker Patrice.

Marshall asks Robin to let him down easy because he needs Nick not to be an emotional train wreck for the basketball game. Barney then suggests they go to Splitsville, a dessert bar where everyone dumps their partners.

Right when Robin is about to dump Nick, he gets a phone call that upsets him a lot. When he pulls it together he asks Robin what she was going to say, Robin crabs out and tells him to order anything he wants, not wanting to upset him further.

The scene goes back to Marshall and Lily's apartment where Ted comes back from his first basketball match with the "T-Squares", a group of his architect friends. He lost to a team of accountants called "The Number Crunchers."

Robin sneaks into the bathroom and calls the gang and asks Barney to stop the invite; he refuses and says it goes live in 5 minutes unless he hears Robin dump Nick on speaker phone. So she keeps the phone on speaker and joins Nick again.

When she begins to talk, Nick interrupts her and tells her what the phone call was about. Apparently his doctor had called and told him that his groin injury was worse than he thought and that he can't play basketball for weeks. Marshall who can hear this through speaker phone is devastated. However, Nick says that now that his injury is going to take longer to heal, they can start having sex again. He seduces Robin and she is about to give in when Barney appears at the restaurant and tells Nick that he is in love with Robin, so it gives Robin a reason to break up with Nick. Barney confesses his true feelings inside: "I am hopelessly, irretrievably, in love with her, more than she knows," which makes Robin and the gang (over the phone) look at him surprisedly. Robin then breaks up with Nick and he goes home with two women who have also just had their hearts broken. Future Ted states that that concluded "The Autumn of Break-Ups."

Ted then confronts Lily and Marshall about not having sex and they tell him that they haven't had sex since before Marvin was born. So Ted takes Marvin out to give Lily and Marshall some alone time. When Robin and Barney are walking on the streets, Barney boasts about how he should get an award for best fake romantic speech. Robin tells him he was really convincing and he replies saying "I was just bro-ing you out" and that if Nick didn't buy it so quickly he might have had to kiss her. He leans in and they almost kiss when someone calls Robin and interrupts them. It turns out to be Patrice, who got the email and will totally come for "Robin and Patrice's fun day." She ends the call and Barney says 'you know what I forgot to do' meaning he forgot to stop the email and Robin playfully pushes Barney.

Later, Ted is sitting at Splitsville with his architect teammates. They start saying that Ted is a great coach and that they all want to stay friends. At that moment a bowl of ice cream is set for Ted only and he realizes they are going to dump him. Ted says that he will change and asks whether there is another architect replacing him as his teammates leave him at the restaurant.

Continuity[]

  • Lily's habit of inappropriately fantasizing out loud when she hasn't slept with Marshall in a while comes up again, first introduced in The Chain of Screaming​​​.
  • This is the third instance of a phone call interrupting a possible kiss between Barney and Robin. This time the phone call was from Patrice. The first instance was by Nora in The Best Man​​​ and again by Robin's father in Disaster Averted.
  • Robin has previously expressed her disliking Patrice in The Stinson Missile Crisis​​​ and The Broath.
  • Nick not knowing whether some things are real or fake is similar to Robin in Legendaddy​​​ where she learns the North Pole is a real place. Both list some fictional things or places and then real ones.
  • This episode concluded what Future Ted called "The Autumn of Breakups" first referred to in The Pre-Nup when Barney and Quinn were the first to break up. In the eponymous episode, it was Ted and Victoria's turn to suffer that fate.
  • Marshall enjoys basketball, shown in Belly Full of Turkey with Baskiceball and again in Murtaugh when coaching the kindergarten team.
  • The bottom half of Marshall and Lily's "keeping score" white board is seen in this episode. It was first seen in a flash forward in The Drunk Train​​​.
  • When the gang is eating Chinese food, Barney is having trouble using the chopsticks. This has occurred whenever he has used them before, including The Mermaid Theory, and Ducky Tie​​​ before he made his bet with Lily.
  • Robin also had difficulty breaking up with a partner in Mosbius Designs​.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

  • Barney's speech during Robin and Nick's breakup is the first step of ​The Robin, his final "play" to get back together with Robin, which culminates in The Final Page - Part Two.

Gallery[]

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

Memorable Quotes[]

Barney: She can't go home with you Nick.
Nick: Why not?
Barney: Because Robin and I are in love.
Robin: Barney, what are you doing here?
Barney: Taking care of something you clearly can't do on your own. I'm sorry but you and Robin are done. Robin doesn't want to hurt your feelings because you're a nice guy but she thinks you're stupid and she hates you. You're welcome.
Robin: Stop doing this.
Barney: I love her Nick.
Robin: Look, he doesn't love me. He's just saying this because he thinks...
Barney: I love everything about her, and I'm not a guy who says that lightly. I am a guy who has faked love his entire life. I thought love was just something idiots thought they felt, but this woman has a hold on my heart that I could not break if I wanted to. And there have been times that I wanted to. It has been overwhelming, and humbling. And even painful, at times. But I could not stop loving her any more than I could stop breathing. I am hopelessly, irretrievably, in love with her. More than she knows.

Nick: Doesn't really matter if my groin takes longer to heal, so may as well start having sex again.
Robin: Listening.
Ted: Sickening.
Barney: Exiting.

Barney: And the Oscar for Best Fake Romantic Speech goes to Barney Stinson! I'd like to thank all the ladies over the years with whom I've practiced fake romantic speeches and of course Robin Scherbatsky who was so hypnotized by hog that she needed me to come and save her.
Robin: You know what, I didn't need your help.
Barney: You were this close to ripping off his misbuttoned shirt and pulling off his inside-out underpants.
Robin: I'll give you this, you were pretty convincing.
Barney: Hey, tricking good looking idiots is kind of my thing.
Robin: No, I mean you were really convincing.
Barney: Please, I was bro-ing you out. I'm just glad he bought it so quick. Any longer, I'd have had to kiss you.

Marshall: Oh my gosh! Guys we need to rush Robin to the hospital because somehow she swallowed her vocal chords and they got lodged in her rectum because (covers little Marvin's ears and whispers) she's talking out her ass.

Ted: (enters Splitsville) Hey t-squares. Well, bad news. Heard back from the league office, my shot is not gonna count. But onwards and upwards, right? What you cats wanna rap about?
Architect 1: Listen coach, you're great.
Architect 2: And we all really want to stay friends.
Ted: (bowl of ice cream is placed on the table) I can change. I can... (architects start to leave) Come on we... we had some good times, things have been weird lately. Is there another architect? Just tell me.

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

Allusions and Outside References[]

  • When Lily talks about Robin, Nick and a Danish exchange student, she names the student Nadia. Nadia was also the name of an exchange student in the American Pie movie series, which Alyson Hannigan starred in.
  • Nick is unaware that "Gypsies" refers to a real group of people.

Music[]

Other Notes[]

  • This episode marks when Barney's final play for Robin, starts.
  • Robin only recognizing Nick's unintelligence after they stop having sex mirrors Ted's ignorance of Cathy's shortcomings in Spoiler Alert. Ted failed to recognize that Cathy never stops talking because he wanted to sleep with her.

Guests[]

Podcast[]

Featuring an interview with Michael Trucco.

Reception[]

  • The episode received 7.95 million viewers. [1]
  • Donna Bowman of The AV Club gave the episode a A-, stating that "Robin and Nick's breakup is the best - meaning funniest and most meaningful - of the Autumn of Breakups." She describes Nick as "a comedy machine" and calls Barney's declaration of love for Robin as "classically beautiful". [2]
  • Angel Cohn of Television Without Pity gave the episode a C- and expresses disbelief that Robin could be just discovering that Nick is stupid. Cohn dismisses Barney's speech to Nick as "blah blah blah" and also calls the plotline of Ted's basketball team "ridiculous". [3]
  • Max Nicholson of IGN gave the episode a score of 5.2 out of 10, saying that "aside from a couple laughs involving Ted and Marshall, [the episode] was stunningly average." He writes that "Nick's exit felt contrived and meaningless." He says that "the B-stories weren't as annoying as usual," although he calls Ted's subplot "lame" and says Marshall and Lily's problem "felt tacked on and inconsequential". [4]
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 7 out of 10 stars. "...Nick's eating out of a bowl..."

References[]

External Links[]


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The Autumn of Break-Ups
Splitsville
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