Lily fears that she will never get pregnant, so she and Marshall go see a reproduction specialist. Marshall's parents come to visit, but after they leave Marshall receives some bad news.
This episode provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Of course Barney's Doppelganger is a doctor. See also Fridge Brilliance.
- Adoption Is Not an Option: Subverted; Lily and Marshal don't talk about adoption during their conception issues, but when Marshall's parents find out about it, they suggest adoption as a possibility if they can't conceive biological kids.
- Blatant Lies: Marshall just learns that his parents always knew about his “private business” in the bathroom.Marvin: What I'm saying is, we love you no matter what. Now, why don't you pretend you're in high school, get back in that bathroom, and "blow dry your hair".
Marshall: Wait, you knew?
Judy: We didn't have a hair dryer, dear. - Call-Back:
- In order to assure Lily that Barney and Dr. Stangel are different people, Barney remains in the room during her exam while wearing the Sensory Deprivator 2000 from "Monday Night Football".
- We also get a brief reference to the hot dog vendor who looked nothing like Barney that Lily thought was the fifth Doppelganger.
- Continuity Nod: A montage of essentially every embarrassing public clip of Robin from the show thus far is played after Sandy Rivers finds them and shows them to the rest of the World Wide News staff, including all three of her Robin Sparkles videos from "Slap Bet", "Sandcastles in the Sand", and "Glitter", respectively.
- Death's Hourglass: A countdown of numbers starting at 50 is hidden throughout the episode. When it gets to zero, Lily tells Marshall that his father has died.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Everytime Marshall calls his dad, he answers right away. At the end of the episode, the phone rings with no answer. When Lily walks in, we find out why.
- Groin Attack: Discussed — Marshall suspects his history of being hit in the nuts may have impacted his fertility.
- Identical Stranger: Lily and Marshall finally find the fifth doppelganger - their fertility doctor. Lily is understandably freaked out by the idea of someone who looks exactly like Barney examining her downstairs, to the point where she actually brings in a blindfolded Barney during the examination so she feels comfortable enough to go through with the examination.
- Meet My Good Friends Lefty and Righty: Ted goes down to Sandy's house and threatens to introduce him to "common sense" and "reasonable discourse." Robin worries, "Please tell me those aren't the names of your fists." Ted affirms that they're his feet, as he's "more of a kicker."
- Mood Whiplash: The ending goes from Marshall high-fiving everyone about his strong sperm, to finding out his father has died.
- Noodle Incident: Ted just finds out from Robin that she once got attacked by an owl. It's never shown how it happened, but Ted can't help laughing every time he hears an owl related word after watching the video.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Sandy Rivers digs up basically every embarrassing incident from the whole of Robin's working life.
- Owls Ask "Who?": Ted tells Robin that he tracked down someone's (Sandy's) address. Robin asks "Who?" which makes Ted crack up because it reminded him of the video where Robin was attacked by an owl.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Marshall has trouble masturbating in the bathroom because his mother keeps grossing him out by talking about her low-cut bikini and how much his father loves it.
- Streisand Effect: In-Universe, Ted advises Robin to "steer into the skid" about her Old Shame as Robin Sparkles and falling in horse poop in order to avoid this at work. Eventually she does, and it works.
- Twist Ending: Hey, a countdown from fifty! Obviously we're going to learn that Lily is pregnant! WRONG.
- Wham Line: Marshall learning about his father's death creates serious Mood Whiplash.Lily: Your father. He had a heart attack. He didn't make it.
- Wham Shot: When Marshall gets the good news, he eagerly calls his father to tell him about it. Cut to his father's phone ringing and nobody there to answer it...
