When Ted analyzes his past relationships and finds that the only one that wasn't bad was with Victoria, he makes an attempt to contact her, but is conflicted when she wants him to run away with her on the day of her wedding. Meanwhile, Barney and Quinn are arrested by airport security while waiting to board the plane for their vacation to Hawaii, and Barney refuses to open a box he brought.
This episode provides examples of:
- Beyond the Impossible: A security guard at the airport makes a random woman disappear and reappear inside random luggage... Future Ted lampshades that Barney's version is a lie; it was just a card trick.
- Barney's trick does this, too, for real. Somehow, he snuck a broadsword through airport security, planted a silk handkerchief on a guard, snuck a key onto a necklace on Quinn's neck, and then it just gets more absurd from there.
- The Bus Came Back: Victoria returns. In a wedding dress.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Hawaii trip Quinn bought for Barney returns. They spend the episode at the airport in detention because of a magic trick Barney brought along.
- We get a few flashbacks to the times Ted had to say goodbye to Victoria before he drives past the turn to her wedding, and they drive off into the sunset.
- Ted is best man at Robin's wedding, just like he promised.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: To punish him for taking off to Atlantic City after their fight, Quinn redecorates Barney's apartment, and replaces his luggage with hot pink zebra stripes.Quinn: Run away on me again, and you'll be wearing hot pink stilettos.
- Doomed by Canon: Barney proposes to Quinn in a really amazing way... but the episode ends with The Reveal that Barney's bride is Robin.
- Everyone Has Standards: During the whole episode Ted is struggling between running away with Victoria or return her to her wedding, since he knows what it feels to be left at the altar.
- Flash Back: Before Barney was a crunchy granola guy, he was a goth magician.
- Hide Your Children: Back and forth with baby Marvin. Sometimes they show him, but obviously an infant on set is a huge problem.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: When Robin lists off why the girls Ted dates are not marriage material, the first thing he counters is Robin's complaint that Zoe wore too many hats.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Quinn is not impressed with Barney's pun.Barney: You share my heart with another important miss. Miss Beat
- Mistaken for Gay: Two elderly women at the bar see Ted with Victoria in her wedding dress and congratulate him. One then comments to the other "See? I told you he wasn't gay!"
- The Reveal: We finally learn who Barney's bride is.
- Runaway Fiancé: Victoria shows up to the bar in her wedding dress and begs Ted to run away with her.
- Serious Business: The titular code. Barney and a random security guy both insist on not revealing the secret.
- Title Drop: Barney refuses to tell what's in the box because of the Magician's Code.
- Unreliable Narrator: To prove he's a fellow magician, the airport security guard performs a trick where he makes a random woman disappear and reappear inside random luggage. Future Ted then reveals that this was Barney's version of the story and Quinn told Ted the guard actually performed a simple card trick.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: Barney and Quinn got retained by airport security after finding explosives in Barney's luggage. After too many hours of interrogation and Quinn admitting that she quit her job at the strip club for him, he decided to reveal the purpose of the trick, which turned out to be his proposal for her.
