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We're Not From Here
HIMYM episode 3x02 (46)
Were not from here - two robins
First aired:
October 1, 2007
Director:
Pamela Fryman
Writer:
Chris Harris
Barney's Blog

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Ted and Barney pretend to be tourists in order to hook up with girls. Robin begins to lose the side of her she enjoyed while in Argentina. Marshall struggles to write a note to Lily in case of his death.


Recap[]

Lily & Marshall explain they are writing their 'death folders' containing useful information, should either of them die, and a letter to one another; Marshall tells Ted and Barney that he forgot to write his letter. Ted and Barney play on Marshall's superstitious nature by insisting he will not die before writing it, forcing Marshall to knock on wood, throw salt over his left shoulder, and spin around three times, before calling them jerks and leaving.

Future Ted narrates that Robin needed time away following their break-up and we see her on holiday with Gael, saying she felt up-tight in New York. Back in the bar she claims to be a different person but Barney says Robin is still the same, she will realize this and dump Gael soon. When Gael joins them, the gang use big words in order to continue their conversation without Gael understanding, and Gael asks if they are talking about baseball.

Marshall writes his letter to Lily, pouring his heart (and tears) out over many pages. Once finished, he decides to read Lily's letter to him and is angry to discover it is not heart-felt at all, and only tells him to "cancel Vogue."

At the bar, Gael is surrounded by women while telling a story. Ted and Barney are watching lamenting how easy it is for Gael to get girls simply by being from out of town. This gives them the idea to pose as tourists outside MacLaren's and they strike up a conversation with two passing girls. The girls agree to show the guys around the following day and Barney suggests they meet up outside MacLaren's but the girls think it's a lame bar. Ted tries to defend his favorite watering hole, without revealing he is a New Yorker.

Inside, Lily asks Robin how things are going with Gael and Robin reveals she has become annoyed doing things at home that she loved on holiday, such as being hand-fed her food by Gael (dropping spaghetti on her sofa) and him sweeping the table clear to make love (breaking her laptop). Robin says she won't complain and go with the flow but when she is in the shower later, a strange Australian traveler uses her toilet. Robin goes to speak to Gael but discovers he has invited more travelers to stay with them indefinitely.

Marshall starts an argument with Lily over her loveless letter. They exchange a quick hug after Lily mentions this is their first fight as a married couple before Marshall continues to storm out.

The girls (Colleen and Lindsay) take Ted and Barney to a potato restaurant. When the girls go to the bathroom, Ted says they have met the "two lamest New Yorkers of all time", but Barney convinces Ted to continue with the plan and the girls decide to take Ted and Barney to a friend's party.

Robin reveals she ate a marijuana-laced blueberry muffin one of the backpackers had baked causing her to say some inappropriate things on the air. She tries to lay some ground-rules but the group are watching the television and so Robin decides to lie down as she is still "pretty baked."

Ted, Barney, Colleen and Lindsay are in a cab on their way to the party. Ted questions where they are going and is terrified to learn they are heading for the South Bronx. His fears are confirmed as they end up giving descriptions to the police of three guys who have apparently mugged them.

Marshall quizzes Lily over why she couldn't write a love letter like he did and Lily states it is because she cannot bear to think about not being with him and that he would just open the letter and read it as soon as she has finished writing anyway. Marshall promises he won't so Lily agrees to write her letter, but Marshall asks her to make the letter dirty and slip in some polaroids too.

Back on the street, Ted and Barney are invited back to the girls' place but Ted finally snaps when he finds out the girls are actually from New Jersey. Ted chastises the girls about not being from New York and derides New Jersey. He tells them to go home, which they do getting a lift from the cops. Ted and Barney try to get the same courtesy but the police officer refuses by stating he is "Newark, born and raised."

Later that night, Robin is woken up by the sound of bongo drums and confronts "Vacation Robin" in the living room. "Vacation Robin" tells Robin that she has lost her way since coming home; Robin retorts by saying that her vacation self is boring, lame and getting sand everywhere. As the two are about to kiss, Robin is really woken by drums and finds the group of travelers playing in the living room. She finally gets rid of them by brandishing her gun, but the shouting wakes Gael and Robin tells him they have to break up.

Barney toasts the return of the real Robin while she mentions that vacation Robin popped up in her dreams again and they went all the way stating "she might be sandy but that chick knows what I like", naturally intriguing Barney.

Lily finishes her letter and makes Marshall swear not to read it until she is dead. Future Ted narrates that he kept his promise until the year 2029 when we see an older, balding Marshall sadly opening the letter (implying that Lily has died) to find Lily's words telling him he is busted revealing the note is a fake. Marshall then calls Lily, older and very much alive, into his office and they argue. Marshall says Lily also broke her promise as there are no naked pictures in the envelope for him, so Lily says she will take some photos. Marshall says he doesn't want ones of her now and she takes offense, as they continue to argue into the credits.

Continuity[]

  • In the flashforward to 2029, Marshall has a newspaper clipping in his office titled "NYC Lawyer Captures Nessie." Marshall's obsession with the Loch Ness Monster, along with the paranormal in general, was first established in Matchmaker.
  • Barney is essentially describing himself in 1998 (as shown in Game Night) when he mocks Gael as "a massage-giving, windsurfing, bongo-playing, teetotaling, vegan, peacenik hippie."
  • Future Marshall and Future Lily in 2029 appear.

Future References (Contains Spoilers)[]

  • Barney tells Ted that he has had "I can't believe you just proposed" sex "only four or five times". In The Bracket, one of the girls on the bracket is referred to as "Fake Proposal Girl" by the gang. Barney tells Nora that he lied about wanting to get married to sleep with her in A Change of Heart.
  • Ted's hatred of New Jersey is explored further in I Heart NJ.

Gallery[]

For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:We're Not From Here images.

Memorable Quotes[]

Barney: Whoa. Are you topless? Ted, check this out.
Ted: Seen 'em.
Barney looks at Robin's travel photos

Barney: You haven't changed, Scherbatsky. You're a sophisticated, scotch-swilling, cigar-smoking, red meat-eating, gun-toting New Yorker.
Lily: (looking at Robin's travel photos) Just shoes and a shirt. That's a look.
Barney: What you are not is a massage-giving, windsurfing, bongo-playing, teetotaling, vegan, peacenik hippie like your soon-to-be ex-boyfriend Gael. Back me up here, Ted.
Ted: I'm just happy Robin's happy.
Robin: Thank you.
Lily: Wow, it's like a "Where's Waldo" of exposed genitalia, except it's really easy to find Waldo.
Robin: I've evolved! And I enjoy living my life a little bit closer to the way Gael and I did in Argentina.
Barney: Vacation romances have an expiration date. Gael's got a "best-if-banged-by" sticker on him, and once your romance starts to stink, you'll dump his ass down the drain like sour milk and and go back to being "unevolved Robin," the one we actually like. Back me up here, Ted!
Ted: I'm just happy Robin's happy.
Barney: I'm telling you, within three days—
Lily: Oh, here he comes! Switch to big words.
Barney: Within a triad of solar periods, you'll recognize your dearth of compatibility with your paramour, and conclude your association.
Robin: My journey was transformative, and I reassert my commitment to both the aforementioned paramour and the philosophies he espouses.
Gael: What are we talking of? Baseball?
Barney: This is all gonna return to masticate you in the gluteals. Support my hypothesis, Ted!
Ted: I'm just jubilant my former paramour is jubilant.
The gang uses big words so Gael doesn't understand what they are saying

Marshall: My dearest, sweetest, Lilypad, let this letter be a small beacon, a tiny firefly to help light your way through the years ahead. [...] My love for you persists, higher than the Himalayas. Deeper than a Scottish loch. [...] If I died under suspicious circumstances, then beware. Trust no one. Not even Ted. Especially not Ted. [...] Know that's I'll always be there in your heart whenever you need me, and that my love for you will never die. Love, your Marshmallow.
Marshall's death letter to Lily

Barney: You and me, we have to bend over backwards to get women to... well, bend over backwards. But that guy...every woman in the bar in hanging on his every slightly mispronounced word. And why?
Ted: He's better-looking than us.
Barney: No. Because he's from out of town. With an accent and an innocent smile, you don't even have to try.
Ted: Yeah. Plus, automatic out, you're leaving in a couple days.

Robin: This just in, look at my hand, how weird is my hand, is not an appropriate thing to say on the air.
Robin is angry about eating a drugged muffin

Barney: We just survived a mugging. You know what that means?
Ted: "Thank God we're alive" sex?
Barney: "Thank God we're alive" sex! It's even better than "I can't believe you just proposed to me" sex, which I've only had like, four or five times.
Barney helps Ted look on the bright side

Ted: Because I will do a lot to get laid, but I am not going to New Jersey!
Ted really hates New Jersey

Robin: Well, I have to have a job.
Vacation Robin: "I have to have a job" It's so American.
Robin: I'm Canadian. You know that.
Robin confronts her vacation self

Robin: She may be sandy, but that chick knows what I like.
Robin remarking on a dream where she was seduced by her vacation self

Notes and Trivia[]

Goofs and Errors[]

  • Lily's statement that the argument about the letters in their "death folders" is their first fight as a married couple is consistent with all (canonical) episodes of the series, however, it is contradicted by an apocryphal scene. In "Lily and Marshall's Honeymoon Videos," (shown first at http://www.marshallandlilywedding.com/ and later compiled on the Season 3 DVD) Lily and Marshall are seen fighting several times due to situations revolving around their honeymoon plans in Scotland and Marshall's obsession with forgoing these plans to remain at Loch Ness to keep a lookout for Nessie. Since the honeymoon took place immediately after the wedding reception in Something Blue, and the events in We're Not From Here take place well after their return to New York, chronologically the arguments in Scotland would qualify as their first fight as a married couple, or at least predate the argument over the letters.
  • In the timeline of the series Robin moves to Argentina after Marshall and Lily's wedding, June 2007 more or less; Argentina at this time is in winter, so the idea of a caribbean place is wrong (Although this can be explained by the fact that even in winter temperatures can range from 30º to 35ºC (86 to 95º F) in certain regions and Robin being Canadian and often not displaying the same response to weather as the rest of the group, as shown in Duel Citizenship).
  • When Robin slams the door to her room after shouting "I'm Canadian!", the whole wall of the set can be seen shaking.

Allusions and Outside References[]

  • When Robin brandishes her gun in front of the Australians one of them yells "Michael Moore was right about you Americans". He is referencing the 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine directed by Michael Moore which focused on the epidemic of gun crime in America.
  • When seeing pictures from Robin's vacations, Lily says "This is like a "Where's Waldo" of exposed genitalia".
  • In the letter Lily writes to Marshall, she asks him to cancel her Vogue Magazine subscription.
  • When Ted and Barney are in the taxi with the two girls, Ted questions which road they are on. Barney, still posing as a tourist, says he's been watching too much "Steinfeld" (Seinfeld).
  • In the year 2029, when Marshall opens Lily's death-folder, behind him there's a report from a newspaper, which says "N.Y.C. Lawyer Captures Nessie", which implies, that Marshall's dream of getting a photo of Nessie came true.

Music[]

Other Notes[]

Guests[]

Reception[]

  • Donna Bowman at the A.V. Club gave the episode a C.[1]
  • Omar G at Television Without Pity gave the episode a B.[2]
  • Staci Krause at IGN gave the episode a 5.9 out of 10.[3] This was their lowest review out of all season 3 episodes.
  • The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 6 out of 10 stars. "Pretty weak episode, but 'that's how we got the blender.' "

References[]

External Links[]


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