Ted, Barney, and Marshall continue their three year tradition of watching the original Star Wars trilogy together, thinking back to when they've done it in the past, and looking forward to when they'll do it in the future.
This episode provides examples of:
- Call-Back: One of their "Trilogy Time" reunions happened during the summer Robin and Barney had their secret affair. In hindsight, Future!Ted comments that they were idiots for not noticing it back then.
- Character Development: Barney gets offended when Ted imagines 2015!Barney with another random girl instead of Quinn.
- Continuity Snarl: The Flash Forward reveals that in three years, Ted will have an infant daughter. Unless he knocked up Tracy right away, like there on the train platform, it doesn't quite work. Of course, the writers didn't really know they were getting two more seasons, so, yeah.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: By 2015, Ted finally gets a girl to watch Star Wars with them. It's his newborn daughter.
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Hide Your Pregnancy: Subverted. In all of Marshall's fantasies since college, Lily is heavily pregnant. - Heroic BSoD: Ted sadly realizes that he hasn't accomplished any of his goals for the future, imagining himself as a Future Loser in 2015.
- Shout-Out: The episode revolves around the guys' traditional "Trilogy Time", where they watch the Original Star Wars Trilogy every three years. In the final scene, Barney tells Ted's daughter that Han shot first.
