Recap / How I Met Your Mother S 7 E 05 Field Trip

Air Date: October 10, 2011

When Marshall witnesses his boss's soft approach in settling with a million-dollar company, he takes matters into his own hands. Meanwhile, Ted takes his architecture class on a field trip and things don't go as planned.

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The episode provides examples of:

• Aloof Big Brother: Kevin vents how his surgeon brother receives more attention from his parents, while he treats the human mind.
• Bait-and-Switch: Ted and Barney are discussing if it's "Edward or Jacob". Turns out they're actually discussing if it's Edward James Olmos or Jacob James Olmos.
• Beard of Sorrow: Ted is struggling with his career and love life, and spends the the episode with a heavy five o'clock shadow.
• Blatant Lies: Kevin tells Robin he will stop their sessions because he is moving to Alaska. Then a week later they encounter each other again at the same diner.
• Broken Bird: Cootes was said to be a fierce environmental attorney, until he became The Cynic at the prospect of "The End of the World", which made him accept small consolation prizes from big companies, enough to buy cake for everyone. This applies to everyone in the office, apart from Marshall. Cootes gets better by the end of the episode and, by implication, everyone else.
• Crazy-Prepared: Ted, desperate for something interesting to show to his intro to architecture class, brings them to Barney at GNB. Barney immediately whips out an advertisement for Sex Lessons before Ted interrupts and chastises him. Barney is too upset about Nora not liking Ewoks to actually care, and he proceeds to explain the problem using an in-depth history of the Ewoks. Ted interrupts again, telling him to "Skip to the part about you and Nora." And so Barney skips... and skips and skips and skips to the end where he presents his latest theory on the Ewok Line, proving that his "29-year-old girlfriend" has to be 37. In addition, he demonstrates that he memorized the names of Ted's 200+ students. And not just the hot chicks; he also knew Will's name, maybe because his 38-year-old mother is hot.
• Did Not Think This Through: Barney's Ewok Line theory relies on him using the subject's birth year relative to 1983 (when Return of the Jedi was released) to determine whether they like Ewoks or not. But as Nora explains later, she didn't see the movie until the previous year, meaning Barney's theory should be based on what age they first saw the film instead.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Kevin realizes he has fallen in love with Robin after a few sessions, so he decides to stop being her therapist. Even though he tries to avoid her because of the professional code of not dating patients, they eventually try dating, although the others keep telling them it's weird and creepy (and grounds for losing your medical license).
• Funny Background Event: When Marshall is lying to Lily that "everything is fine," after he just talked to his boss, the other lawyers in the firm are dancing in the background to the (original) Ewok celebration music, since (they think) they took down an evil empire (the pharmaceutical company).
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Invoked. At some point a tourist German family joins Ted's field group and participate in the poll round when Ted and Barney ask who thinks David Hasselhoff is cool.
  Ted: Huh. So it's true...
• Hope Spot: Marshall refuses to let the world end after seeing the sonogram of his unborn baby, which also motivates Cootes to regain confidence and declare war on Gruber Pharmaceuticals.
• Hypocritical Humor: Robin's therapist Kevin tells her he's moving to Alaska. Turns out he had to stop seeing her because he was attracted to her.
  Robin: [offended] So you dumped me as a patient so you could ask me out?
  Kevin: I'm not asking you out.
  Robin: [disappointed] You're not?
• Mommy Issues: Since Robin wanted back her hours of vulnerability, she gets them back by making Kevin vent. His first topic? How his mother treats him as The Unfavorite.
• Older Than She Looks: Played with. Barney thinks Nora is this because she hates Ewoks, so she was older when she saw the Star Wars films for the first time. Then it's averted, since Nora actually saw Star Wars just the year before.
• Serious Business: Barney, of course. Anyone who likes Ewoks is worthy of banging because they were children when they first saw Return of the Jedi, whereas anyone who hates them is too old. Then he takes it a step further by preparing a presentation for Ted's class about his Ewok Theory, which includes the rich backstory from the Star Wars Legends.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Marshall joined Cootes's team because he wanted to save the world. Turns out Cootes gave up years ago and now he settles for shitty token settlements from polluters because the end is inevitable. Marshall stands up and tells him he won't accept that, and he'll do an end run around Cootes and represent the case himself. Firmly on the idealism end of the scale, because this inspires Cootes to return to his roots.
• Stepford Smiler: Cootes has to pretend they are winners even after they only get small cash from their cases, because he believes the world is going to end, but tries to keep his employees happy with cake.
• Take That!: Of course the episode continues the trend of shitting on the Ewoks. It goes so far as to include the Yub Yub song when the NRDC celebrate a pitiful settlement.
  • They also take a shot at the second season of Friday Night Lights.
• Took a Level in Badass: Marshall once again manages to stand up to his boss. This time, standing up to Cootes not only allows Marshall to rush in and struggle to stand up to the evil company that destroyed a lake, he inspires Cootes to do the same.
  Cootes: Not. Good. Enough.
• Wham Line: "Not. Good. Enough."
  Marshall: Where are we going?
  Cootes: War, son. We're going to war.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The 5th episode is similar to how the Star Wars protagonists managed to get the Ewoks to help them fight the Empire.