Air Date: January 17, 2011
The gang tries to help Marshall deal with his father's death.
The episode provides examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: To prove how serious last words can be, Marshall asks his friends, "Do you remember the last thing your father said to you?" This prompts some reflection as Robin, Ted, and Lily realize they are all currently on bad terms with their fathers, while Barney grew up without a father altogether.
- Blatant Lies: Ted, Robin, and Barney claim, while openly weeping, that Marshall's mother and brothers stories about their last conversations with Marvin Sr. are lame to try make him feel better about the man's last words to Marshall.
- The Bully: Minister Platt wasn't available to lead the funeral, so he put his son Trey, who used to bully Marshall back in high school, in charge instead.
- Cold Open: Averted. Except for season one's episodes, this is the only episode of the series that doesn't have a cold open, due to the seriousness of it.
- Crazy-Prepared: Robin. She sure has everything Marshall needs in that bag, including a copy of Crocodile Dundee 3 that she couldn't have possibly known would be relevant.
- Darkest Hour: When Marshall realizes his father left a message on his phone, he realizes that it contains his true last words to him. After angsting about weather or not he should listen to them, he ultimately decides to, only for it to turn out to be a pocket dial.Marshall: How is this fair? You know, like, an entire human life, and it just ends for no reason. And... what are we left with? (Holds up phone on speaker)
(The static continues playing for a few seconds when suddenly:)
Marvin: Marshall? Oh! Looks like I've been calling you for almost five minutes! How's my pocket sound? Heh, Oh sorry about that, buddy. Um, anyway, your mom and I had such a great time seeing you. I love you. - Everyone Has Standards: Barney gets rid of Daphne's phone number the moment he learns she is 15.
- Family of Choice: Everyone shows up to Marvin's funeral and does their best to keep him from falling apart. Barney even wears a suit. He never wears suits to funerals, but he did it for Marshall.
- Good Parents: To Marshall, his father is his hero, his teacher and his best friend.
- Groin Attack: Ted and Barney think watching videos of this can cheer Marshall up. And after they realize that videos won't make Marshall any better, they decide it needs to happen in live-action. Cue Barney kneeing Ted in the crotch.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Daphne is a tall girl and is revealed to be 15 years old, and Barney immediately takes back his number. Robin naturally lampshades this.
- Last-Second Word Swap:Robin: Doesn’t Marshall's mom hate y... the fact that you two aren’t very close?
- Last Words: Deconstructed. Marshall's father had a heart attack and died so suddenly that he couldn't have one last moment with his son. Therefore, his last words don't have much meaning, just random silly things like Crocodile Dundee 3 and strange Korean stereotypes. Eventually, he comes through for Marshall though, as he left a message telling Marshall he loves him... and also asking about his foot cream, but Marshall holds on to the "I love you" part.
- Long List: Barney’s list of various Groin Attacks
- Meaningful Funeral: It’s snowy. The jokes are pretty subdued. The cast all wears formal attire, including Barney who thinks suits are too cool for funerals. And Marshall makes an emotional, heart-wrenching speech about the deceased.
- The Napoleon: Trey, who is significantly shorter than Marshall, used to bully him. He even made Marshall carry the ladder for him.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: The pre-existing animosity between Judy and Lily isn't helped by Judy being stressed out from her husband's death, which complicates Lily's attempts to help her get better. Their relationship does improve by the end of the episode, however, because Lily realizes that Judy's hatred of her gives her the outlet she needs to vent her emotions and get some release. She leans in and does her best to make Judy mad. Judy acknowledges it and thanks her for the effort.
- Parental Issues: The gang, except for Marshall, all have issues with their fathers, as shown by the flashbacks to their respective last conversations with each of them. The episode ends with Ted, Lily, and Robin calling their fathers to try to reconcile, while Barney calls his mother to tell her he's ready to meet his father.
- Ted's divorced father has become uncomfortably open about his sex life, much to Ted's chagrin. Their last conversation involved him telling Ted about hooking up with Ted's prom date and asking how far Ted got with her.
- In spite of their reconciliation in "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap", Lily's father is still an irresponsible deadbeat, with their last conversation being him calling her from jail after he was arrested for tax evasion.
- Robin's father doles out a large helping of verbal abuse towards her over the phone, telling her in some detail what a disappointment she is to him, while wishing her for her birthday.
- Barney remains deeply affected by never having known his Disappeared Dad, and decides to reach out to him at the end of the episode.
- Pocket Dial: Zig-Zagged. Everybody of the Eriksen family shares their last moments with him and everybody has something very heart-warming to tell, except for Marshall. His father's last words to him were that he should watch a surprisingly good Crocodile Dundee III. However, he later finds a voice message from his father on his cell. He listens to it, but it's just a pocket dial, which makes Marshall even more depressed. However, as he listens to it, it's revealed that he actually found out that he was making a pocket phone call and said a couple of nice words, though of course he didn't know they would his last to Marshall. For the funeral speech, Marshall decides to go with the Dundeee story to make people smile and laugh tearfully, and he keeps his story about the pocket dial to himself and his closest friends.
- Shout-Out: To The Shawshank RedemptionMan: I hear you're a woman who can get things.Robin: I've been known to locate certain objects from time to time.
- Spit Take: Marshall spits out the liquor Robin had lent him when suddenly remembers his father’s words.
- Troll: The gang has been being nice to Marshall since his dad died, so he acts like this to get them to finally make them insult him and treat him like normal, even saying that The Phantom Menace is the best Star Wars movie.
- Tough Room: Marshall doesn’t even smirk at Ted and Barney’s videos, though justified since it’s at his father’s funeral.
- Younger Than They Look: Marshall's cousin Daphne, the girl Robin gets drunk, is 15. As soon as Judy tells the gang this, Barney also gives back the phone number she gave him.Robin: Whoa, they grow big out here.
