Marshall visits his father's grave to recount the story of New Year's Eve and continue their tradition of tailgating. Ted and Barney open a bar called "Puzzles", and Robin deals with the turning point of her career.
This episode provides examples of:
- An Aesop:
- Bars have bouncers, lines, and expensive drinks for reasons. They're not good reasons, but they're real reasons.
- A memorial for a dead relative on the anniversary for a reason doesn't have to be a lone moment, it can be shared with friends, family, even strangers.
- The New Year doesn't have to be a shitty let-down, it actually can be a chance for new beginnings. Robin gets promoted to co-host alongside Sandy, and Lily's dad proves he's turned over a new leaf and is willing to drive overnight halfway across the country to celebrate his daughter's good news in person.
- Anachronic Order: Marshall's scenes in Minnesota all take place in daylight, while the scenes in New York are at night, because he's telling his dad the story of what happened on New Year's Eve.
- The Bartender: Kevin gets tapped to tend the bar at Puzzles, because as a therapist he gets to listen people's complaints and fix himself a drink without hiding it on his coffee mug.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When Marshall asks Lily what the point of getting up in the morning is without believing in fantastical beings, she responds this way.Lily: Oh, I don't know: wife, unborn child, drop a deuce.
- The Bus Came Back: Doug returns to be a threatening figure. Now he's working as the MacLaren's bouncer and has ditched the toupee.
- Call-Back:
- Barney and Ted use again the name "Puzzles" for their New Year bar at their apartment.
- Sandy Rivers being an extreme pervert comes back not only as a philanderer who sleeps with the women who work for him, but hiring a male escort (who he mistakes Kevin for) to play "high school wrestler" in Ted's bathtub.
- The Erickson boys continue to exchange childish insults.
- Mickey is at a board games convention in Chicago with all his games, including "Slap Bet".
- Continuity Nod:
- Future Ted mentions Doug's former toupee.
Future Ted: Somehow, he was even scarier without the toupee.- Marshall is visiting his father's grave after nearly a year.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Lily became skeptical because her own father neglecting her most of her life, specially when he barely reacted after she told him she was pregnant over the phone. She started to believe in miracles again when it turns out that Mickey abandoned his convention and drove all the way to New York as soon as he ended the call.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Up to eleven with Sandy Rivers getting ditched early in the broadcast by the random chick he hooked up with leads to him getting hammered. Then she takes him back and he's sober. Five seconds later she's dropped him again and he's hammered.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Sandy mentions "a new bar called Puzzles" five seconds for disappearing, then showing up drunk in the bathroom at Puzzles.
- Funny Background Event: Sandy's New Years Eve broadcast while Robin and Kevin are talking.
- M-Word Privileges: According to Marshall, only mystical creatures have the right to call themselves "monsters".
- Rage Breaking Point: Subverted, because just as Marshall is about to explode at someone for opening a hard cider on his father's tombstone, someone else interrupts to ask for yet another bit of food, but accidentally calls him Marvin, because he's so much like his dad. This leads to the realization that Marvin would have loved this memorial, because he always accepted strangers into his tailgate, turning them into new friends.
- The Reveal: Turns out Lily has never really believed in all the same bullshit Marshall does, and has been playing along for 15 years.
- Shout-Out: The Puzzles banner hanging on the wall of Ted's and Robin's apartment is a copy of the Cheers title banner.
- Sibling Rivalry: Marshall, Marvin Jr. and Marcus are bickering over who deserves "Alone Time" with their father. Then Marshall realizes that his father would have wanted all of them to reunite, even strangers.
- Sixth Ranger: Kevin is desperate to join the gang, but Ted and Barney keep excluding him.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The "Puzzles" theme song plays a second time...over a montage of the chaos of running a makeshift bar.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Marshall and his brother go back and forth with talking about sharing a beautiful connection with their departed father while also trading childish insults.
- Stylistic Suck: The show Mysteries of the Enigma is the worst kind of pseudo-scientific schlock.
