When it becomes apparent that Barney and Robin are unhappy in their relationship, Ted and Marshall enlist Lily's help to break them up.
This episode provides examples of:
- An Aesop: It's a genuine Aesop, but turns into a Spoof Aesop almost immediately.Future Ted: That was the moment we learned that relationships take hard work, but eventually everything will work out.
Robin: [walks in, hot again]
Lily: Hey, where's Barney?
Robin: We broke up.
Future Ted: And that was the moment when we unlearned that other lesson we had just learned a few seconds earlier. - Batman Gambit: Lily's elaborate plan to have everything wrong with Barney and Robin's relationship show up at their date.
- Blatant Lies: According to Future!Ted, he "accidentally" dropped the suitcase with the porn while he was "getting rid of it", the "Archisexture" tape bounced into the walls and landed on the VCR player.
- The Bus Came Back: Meg, the woman Barney hooked up with when Marshall and Lily were buying their apartment, returns to spark an argument between Barney and Robin.
- Call-Back: The back and forth between Ted and Lily about throwing away the porn exactly mirrors the back and forth she and Robin had about the battery operated recreational fake penis Robin bought for her bridal shower.
- Continuity Nod:
- Marshall and Ted try to convince Lily to break Barney and Robin up, but she is still regretful after her fight with Ted about that.
- One of the strategies Ted tries is to freak Robin out with an engagement ring inside her glass. A sign that she and Barney are not being themselves is the resignation in their reactions.
- Robin mentions that she and Ted have a pact to marry if neither is married by the time she is 40. When she tells Barney, his reaction suggests he already knew, so Ted or Robin may have told him off screen, though he could have been lying to save face.
- Epic Fail: Lily comes out of retirement to break up Robin and Barney, but, apart from Alan Thicke showing up, everything goes wrong and Barney and Robin don't fight.
- Fat Suit: NPH puts on a series of ever bigger fat suits to represent how unhappy he is in his relationship.
- Foreshadowing: Alan Thicke lets slip that he and Robin worked together on Sandcastles in the Sand too. Barney takes off to find Robin Sparkles 3, a failed tv variety show.
- Hollywood Homely: In-Universe, though Ted says she probably only let herself go a little but, the show uglies up Cobie Smulders a lot to show how unhappy he is.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite everything going wrong with Lily's plan, Barney and Robin understand how awful they are for each other and break up.
- Even though Lily completely screwed up and got an actor playing the robot from Lost in Space instead of a stormtrooper, it would have worked. Robin also mistakes it for a stormtrooper and Barney has to prevent himself from launching into an argument about it.
- Loophole Abuse: Attempted by Barney, who asks to marry Robin if neither is married by the time she is 40. Robin says she already has that deal with Ted. Barney then asks to marry her if neither is married by the time she is 39. Robin laughs and they just walk out of the restaurant. Her answer, if any, is not shown.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Robin asks if anyone else just felt a chill moments before a de-fatted Barney walks into the bar, ready to hunt.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Meg was always a little nuts, falling way too hard for Barney and forgiving him for getting her arrested for trespassing and being willing to take him back, they really dial it up for this episode, showing that she's also forgiven him for the restraining order and knowing Alan Thicke's home address when she didn't even know he was going to be there.
- Shout-Out: Barney asks, if he's dead, for Ted to take his body to the Hamptons and recreate Weekend at Bernie's.
- Status Quo Is God: Right after Robin reveals to the gang that she and Barney are broken up, Barney doesn't take long to revert to his old womanizing self.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: A variation. Somehow, Barney knew where Marshall would be sitting when he, Ted and Lily were watching the tape.
