As Barney and Robin fight last minute jitters, Marshall and Lily revisit their own vows. Robin gets her locket from Ted and a last piece of advice from the Mother.
It is 5:28 PM at the Farhampton Inn, exactly 32 minutes before the wedding commences at six, and Barney and Robin are extremely anxious. Having spent a good part of his bachelor life lying to seduce and sleep with women, Barney is unable to come up with solemn and meaningful wedding vows - one which Robin will believe and he will be able to keep. Marshall and Lily try to give him advice, as they had already exchanged vows, but Barney calls them out for breaking almost everything they promised to each other at their wedding day. While somewhat taken aback, the couple admits that it is true.
Robin, on the other hand, is still despondent on not being able to find her locket to wear as "Something Old" for her wedding, and takes it as a sign that Barney is not the one she is supposed to marry, as he was unable to find it for her and she wants a man "who always comes through for her." Ted tries to calm her down. Unbeknownst to her, Ted managed to retrieve the locket after going great lengths to find it. Ted decides to have Barney give the locket to her and take all of the credit for finding it so that she'll feel convinced that she made the right decision.
Robin, however, sees through the deception, and confronts Ted about it. Unable to lie himself out (he said that Barney found the locket in a pigeon's nest near the carousel at the park, while Barney said that he found it in Marshall and Lily's basement), Ted decides to come clean and tells her the real story. Realizing that Ted is the man who never lied to her and always goes out of his way to make her happy, Robin decides not to push through with the wedding, asking Ted if she can elope with him to Chicago and start a new life there. Ted, realizing he doesn't love Robin anymore, refuses and tries to talk her out of it, saying that he is no longer the Ted who loved her deeply and did all those romantic things for her. However, Robin decides that if Ted won't whisk her off, she will run away all by herself. On her way out of the reception area, she bumps off into The Mother.
Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily, clearly stung by Barney's Brutal Honesty, began to evaluate their married life
This episode provides examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: While Lily tells Marshall to stop with all the bad 'vow' puns, she does laugh (or Alysson Hannigan corpses) when he says that they have become 'in-vow-luntary'.
- As You Know: Ted nonchalantly spills to Robin how he managed to find the Locket.Ted: How does anybody find anything? You hear it might be in your race car pencil box, it's not there. So you swing by your ex-fiancee's storage locker on the opposite coast, it's not there. You learn Victoria has it in Germany, but Jeanette intercepts it, throws it in Central Park Lake. It's a nice day for a swim, so what the heck? You dive in, scoop it up, make it home in time for Jeopardy! Ease-to-the-pease! Happy Wedding.
- Call-Back: Barney panicking over not wearing a matching tie and Robin getting cold feet at their wedding day served as the framing device for the events of Farhampton.
- Continuity Nod: Robin walking down the aisle to an instrumental version of "Sandcastles in the Sand" is a nod to how that song led to her sleeping with Barney for the first time.
- Crash-Into Hello: How Robin met The Mother.
- Foregone Conclusion: No one in the audience seriously expects Robin to run out on her wedding since we've already seen flashforwards to her and Barney's married life.
- Foreshadowing: Barney's greatest romantic moments are in fact giant lies, and Ted can't help but be there for Robin.
- Frequently-Broken Unbreakable Vow: Downplayed and Discussed. While inseparable, Marshall and Lily had broken a lot of specific vows since they got married. So to counter this, they vow to update their vows once they break it.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Marshall delivers the last slap right as Barney is freaking out during the wedding.
- Hurricane of Puns: Vow Marshall takes his spin of the word "vow". He even does every pun twice, because no one laughed the first time around (or the second time, for that matter).
- Lohengrin and Mendelssohn: Averted. The wedding music is a piano-only version of "Sandcastles In the Sand".
- Meaningful Background Event: In the last episode before the finale, what lies behind Barney as he panics over the end of his single life? Why, The Last Supper, where Jesus's friends realize their time together is coming to an end.
- The Promise: Barney tries to make up a very elaborate wedding vow, which Marshall and Lily view it as specific and shallow, so Barney chose only one: "To be truly honest to his wife."
- Runaway Bride: Robin freaks out and makes a break for it. Ted defies it, as he doesn't want her to be the third participant of the "runaway bride" situation.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: While Robin still says "Nobody asked you, Patrice," she uttered it to her in a softer tone.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Robin asking Ted to run away with her causes him to realize he is no longer in love with her.Robin: Ted...I should be with you.
Future Ted: (narrating) There it was. The words that some deep, dark part of me always wanted to hear. But it's funny. Once you actually hear those words out loud...
Ted: (present) I don't want to hear that.
