The gang crosses paths with Darren, the lead singer in the band playing at the wedding who finds ways of getting friends to start fighting just because he can. The Mother picks up Marshall and Marvin on the side of the road and drives them to the wedding.
This episode provides examples of:
- Baby's First Words: Marvin utters his first words: "skunk junk". Marshall and the Mother are, naturally, horrified and quickly agree to tell Lily he said "mommy".
- Beware the Nice Ones: This is only the second time Ted has ever thrown a punch at someone.
- Continuity Nod: Lily is still angry at Marshall for taking the Judge position without talking with her.
- Could Say It, But...: Lily doesn't confirm or deny the existence of a window through which Ted could possibly abscond with a bottle of $600 30-year-old Glen McKenna (the third bottle, technically).
- Extreme Doormat: The Mother turns out to be this, since she always is the one to shy away from confrontation. Because of this, Darren slowly took over her band and she even quit before Darren could boot her off. Marshall immediately calls her out on this and tries to help her fight back.
- For the Evulz: Darren likes to play a nasty little game where he breaks up friends just because he's good at it.
- The Gadfly: The Mother totally messes with Marshall, pretending to be psychic, before revealing that she rode the train with Lily.
- Hollywood Law: Ted says he won't commit grand larceny stealing a $600 bottle of scotch. Yes, that's a real crime, but it's based on the amount of money (or equivalent) is stolen, which these days is usually four figures.
- Internal Reveal: Barney finds out that Ted is moving away to Chicago right after the wedding.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted. The Mother thinks people like Darren will never get his comeuppance, and then Ted decks him.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Even after Darren screwed with the gang for his own amusement, they still reconcile and make the friendships even stronger.
- Oh, Crap!: Marshall and The Mother have this reaction when Marvin's first words turned out to be "Skunk Junk".Marshall: For the record, his first words were "Mommy."
(The Mother nods)- Later, Barney has this reaction when he keeps pestering Marshall and Marshall suddenly cocks his arm back, making Barney realize that Marshall is chasing in another one of his slaps.
- Personalized Pledge: Ted insists to an upset Barney that their friendship is important to them, swearing on his mother's grave, then to God, then to Hugh Hefner. To the final, Handsome Lech Barney exclaims, "Don't take that name in vain!"
- Tempting Fate:
- Darren posts an ad looking for a new bassist, in order to oust Tracy; by the end of the episode, Darren quits the band after Ted punches him, allowing Tracy to keep her band.
- Barney keeps needling at Marshall, until Marshall reveals he's giving him the fourth slap (or the seventh slap, if you include the three additional slaps Barney got as a penalty for giving up the ducky tie earlier than as instructed). Barney immediately wishes he hadn't been so obnoxious.
- Possibly Inverted when Tracy all but states that she doesn't expect Darren to receive any comeuppance for his manipulative and deceitful behavior. Not a few seconds later, it is revealed that Darren ended up at the receiving end of Ted's fist. Darren gets the knockout punch he deserves after all.
- You Didn't Ask: Linus reveals that after all the hijinks trying to get a bottle of 30-year Glen McKenna, he had a bottle of 35-year behind the bar and never revealed it because they kept asking specifically for the 30-year.
