How I Met Your Mother

Season 2

Where Were We?

1. First time there is an opening scene before the credits.
2. When Lily (in Marshall's imagination) is talking about dancing on stage with George Clinton "Courteney Cox style", is a reference to Bruce Springsteen's video "Dancing In The Dark", where Bruce Springsteen chooses Courteney Cox from the crowd to dance with him on stage.
3. Comedian Joey Diaz can be seen in the background behind Marshall and Ted at the baseball game.
4. Even though it is later revealed that Marshall's fierro has a tape stuck inside it's tape recorder, you can actually hear different music in the scene where Ted and Robin in the car

The Scorpion and the Toad

1. The name of the bar Marshall and Barney enter (which is also the title of this episode) "The Scorpion and the Toad" is a reference to the fable by Aesop ("The Frog and the Scorpion" in the original translation). In the fable a scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river, promising not to sting him. Halfway across he stings the frog anyway and they both drown, the scorpion saying "it's my nature" - the point being that some creatures (or people) "just can't help being who they are", the motif of this episode.
2. Barney often uses magic to impress women. Neil Patrick Harris is an amateur magician. Alyson Hannigan who played Lily briefly hosted Penn and Teller: Fool Us a magic themed tv series
3. First time an episode is directed by someone other than Pamela Fryman. Rob Greenberg directs this episode.
4. When they are in the cafe, Robin tells Lily that Ted likes pennies. Ted later names his daughter Penny.

Brunch

1. First episode to feature the long running-gag of Barney always using "83%" when giving out fake statistics. Before this episode, he had used "75%" on a fake statistic about prostitution in How I Met Your Mother: Mary the Paralegal (2006).
2. The exteriors of the restaurant where the group has brunch is called Carrie's for this episode. However, it is the same restaurant that is called Nolita in Kitchen Confidential (2005), and had been in the background during "The Limo" episode in season one.
3. In the scene outside the brunch restaurant where Ted compares his relationship with Robin to his parents, he is wearing the same colors as his father while Robin wears the same colors as his mother. Ted and Alfred wearing red and white, Robin and Virginia wearing blue. All four of them wearing dark blue pants.
4. Ted, an Ohio-native and Cleveland Indians fan, asks his father about the likelihood of Cerrano winning the RBI title. In the movie Major League (1989), Cerrano is a member of the Cleveland Indians and is a clean-up hitter (an RBI producing player).

Ted Mosby, Architect

1. When chatting up Anna, Ted mentions Frank Gehry; an extremely famous, award-winning architect. In 2010, Vanity Fair heralded him as "the most important architect of our age".
2. First appearance of Joe Manganiello as "Brad"

World's Greatest Couple

1. This episode marks the first appearance of Barney's apartment, The Fortress of Barnitude.
2. Barney's apartment features a clonetrooper, which only appears in the star wars prequels. In later episodes he bashes the prequels. The clonetrooper is in later episodes replaced with a stormtrooper from the original trilogy.
3. Valerie Azlynn (who plays Barney's one night stand) played Veronica on iCarly, a girl who was only attracted to Spencer because he wore a tux, this girl says she's in love with Barney who always wears suits.

Aldrin Justice

1. First time that Barney accepts a challenge without actually being challenged by anyone.
2. Hammond Druthers says the line 'once again with feeling' to Ted in front of Lily. Alyson Hannigan, the actress who plays Lily; stars in the popular 'Once more with feeling' episode of Buffy the vampire slayer.
3. This episode features a stolen baseball signed three times by Pete Rose. On April 20th, 1990, Rose pleaded guilty to two charges of filing false income tax returns not showing income he received from selling autographs and memorabilia.
4. Lily worked in a themed restaurant like Monica Geller from the TV show Friends.

Swarley

1. During the final scene, Barney walks into the bar and is teased about the 'Swarley' name. He storms out, and we hear the Cheers theme, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name". To further honor that classic sitcom, the ending credits are presented in the same font as that on Cheers.
2. The opening lines of the episode where the guys conclude 'hanging out at a coffee place, not nearly as much fun hanging out a bar' is in reference to Friends, where the six characters constantly hang out at a coffee shop
3. When Barney and Ted are at the bar meeting Chloe "Crazy Eyes" (Morena Baccarin) for the first time, Taran Killam (SNL) is in the background. He previously and later in the series portrays Gary Blauman, one of Barney's work associates. He is also the real life husband of Colbie Smulders who portrays Robin Scherbatsky.
4. At the beginning of the episode, the guys were hanging out at a coffee house that was set up the same way as the coffee house in the smash hit comedy Friends.
5. Tom Lenk (Scott at the coffee shop) portrayed Andrew Wells/Cyrus in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which Alyson Hannigan portrayed Willow Rosenberg
6. Morena Baccarin (Chloe 'crazy eyes') is also a Joss Whedon alumni from Firefly/Serenity. Joss Whedon also created Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which Alyson Hannigan played Willow Rosenberg
7. Lily mentions having sex with Marshall in a bathroom and getting pregnant as a result. This is in reference to an earlier Season 2 episode titled "Brunch". However Lily does not fall pregnant as a result.
8. Lily jokes to Robin that Marshall got her pregnant when they have sex in the episode 'Brunch' in the restaurant bathroom. Interestingly, when Marshall does get Lily pregnant with their son Marvin, we find out he was conceived in Barney's bathroom.
9. On this episode, Robin is seen talking on the phone to her mom. Later (more specifically at the last season) the gang tells how little they know about her mom. Also, Robin gives a lot of importance to her mother showing up at her marriage, but on the phone she ignored most of the conversation.

Atlantic City

1. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) actually spoke reasonably accurate Mandarin Chinese during this episode. The game they played can be loosely translated as "Can or Cannot?"

Slap Bet

1. This episode is tied as the most highly rated episode of the series on IMDb.
2. The Texas-based independent woman wrestler Delilah Doom uses "Let's Go to the Mall" as her entrance music.
3. The "Let's Go to the Mall" video parodies two '80s teen pop icons Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. Robin's style and hairdo mirrors that of Gibson's, where as Tiffany got her big break at stardom singing in malls, hence the song/video and why present-day Robin was reluctant to go to the mall. Robin Sparkles was almost certainly also inspired by the early teen-pop career of Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, before her album Jagged Little Pill, as Morissette was often compared to both Gibson and Tiffany at the time.
4. In the episode "Slap Bet" you meet "Robin Sparkles" (Canadian Teen Pop Star) where you find out by Robin that "Let's Go To The Mall" started as an innocent modeling job but in real life Cobie Smulders started her fame as a model where she got noticed by an agent and started her life as an actress.
5. Each character in the series has had their own musical number except Lily (Alyson Hannigan). Ted (Josh Radnor) had his own musical number called "Super Date" in the episode How I Met Your Mother: Of Course (2010). Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) has his own musical number called "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit" in the episode How I Met Your Mother: Girls vs. Suits (2010). Robin (Cobie Smulders) had her own musical number (and many others) called "Lets Go To The Mall" in the episode How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet (2006) and Marshall (Jason Segel) has his own musical number called "Marshall vs. the Machines" (2010) and that leaves Lily without ever having her own musical number. This is down to actress Alyson Hannigan (Lily) dislike of singing.
6. Marshall actually gets a total of 10 slaps. The first five were in error and were later taken away by the "Slap Bet Commissioner." He's awarded another 5 slaps when he's slapped in error by Barney; Barney thought he had proved his original premise. The "Slap Bet Commissioner" took Barney's 5 away and gave Marshall a couple of options to use. But all total, Marshall uses a total of three slaps: two in the bar from the first 5, and one in his apartment from his second 5.
7. Marshall uses the first out of five free slaps he wins in this episode.
8. In the episode How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet (2006), Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) chooses 5 slaps for eternity after Marshall (Jason Segel) wins the slap bet. However Marshall ends up getting 8 slaps throughout the series. One in the episode How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet (2006), the second one in the episode How I Met Your Mother: Stuff (2007), the third in How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving (2007), the fourth in How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap (2009). In How I Met Your Mother: Disaster Averted (2011), Marshall is awarded 3 more slaps in exchange for Barney not wearing the Ducky tie. He uses two of them, leaving him with two more which he uses in How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra (2014) and How I Met Your Mother: The End of the Aisle (2014).
9. In the song "Let's go to the mall" sang by Robin, there is a line says that she meets a boy in the food court that has a hair style like Wayne Gretzky. In the last season at Barney and Robin's wedding , Barney gets her an autographed photo of Gretzky as a surprise.

Single Stamina

1. 3 weeks before this episode aired, Neil Patrick Harris (Barney) came out, and in this episode his character is against his gay brother getting married.
2. Coincidentally, Wayne Brady, who plays Barney's gay brother, is straight while Neil Patrick Harris, who plays (straight) Barney, is gay.
3. James Stinson (Wayne Brady), wears the same tie - purple with purple flower - when introduced in the apartment - that Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) wore in Season 2, Episode 5 "World's Greatest Couple" when he decides to stay in for the night with Lily.
4. Marshall (Jason Segel) is seen wearing a t-shirt from Notre Dame University, when it is a known fact that Ted, Lilly, and Marshall attended Weslyen University
5. The end scene with Ted and Robin where they say they are full of energy is foretelling of their break-up at the end of this season.

How Lily Stole Christmas

1. Barney teases Ted by calling him "Ted Vivian Mosby". Later in that episode, it is revealed that Ted's actual middle name is "Evelyn", a predominantly female name.
2. Although they share no scenes together in this episode, Harry Groener and Alyson Hannigan acted together in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," with Groener playing the evil Mayor of Sunnydale.
3. Title derives from Dr. Seuss' book "How the Grinch stole Christmas".
4. Zachary Gordon, who plays one of Stacy's Children, also appears in a future episode as Barney's fake son, Tyler.
5. Barney talks about "Lily's no cigar in the apartment rule" but it's revealed in a later episode that the whole gang smokes regularly though they likely smoke cigarettes not cigars
6. Zachary Gordon is best known as Greg Heffley in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series

First Time in New York

1. The 'Dirty Dancing' scene is actually the second time Neil Patrick Harris has recreated a scene on television from a Patrick Swayze movie. The first was in Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989) Season 3, Episode 1, where he recreated a scene from Ghost (1990).
2. Lucy Hale (Katie) was dating David Henrie (Son) at time of filming this episode
3. Ted tells his Children that Katie (Lucy Hale) ended up pregnant with quintuplets. Ryan Pinkston who plays Katie's boyfriend Kyle, starred in the Fox show Quintuplets.
4. Barney's prediction about the time of Ted and Robin's breakup (7 months) would only be correct if the Season 2 premiere, and not the Season 1 finale, is considered as the beginning of the relationship.

Columns

1. Neil Patrick Harris kept the painting of Barney that Lily painted.
2. First example of the recurring concert posters for Pitter Pals Revival. It is hanging in Marshal and Ted's dorm room.

Monday Night Football

1. The Colts went on to beat the Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI
2. This is another instance of Barney not wearing a suit as he doesn't suit up for Mark's funeral
3. The patch on Barney's sweatshirt is a brand logo for the EVER clothing company; this logo appears several times through the series.
4. Emmitt Smith actually won Dancing With The Stars
5. [at 13:08] When Barney exits the bathroom it says he took 8 minutes and 23 seconds. When he entered the bathroom there was 8 minutes and 23 seconds of runtime left for the episode

Lucky Penny

1. In the scene where Marshall and Lily are in the bathroom Lily is wearing a towel on her head because Alyson Hannigan didn't want to put on a wig
2. This episode talks about the same penny referred in episode 2 "the scorpion and the toad".
3. Although her face doesn't show up, this episode marks the first on-screen appearance of the mother.
4. Lily and Robin camp out all night for a wedding dress, but Lily already bought a dress in season 1 so camping out wasn't neccassary. She ruins a dress in the episode, "Cupcake."
5. Ted's daughter would be named Penny, maybe a reference to his love for coins.

Stuff

1. The title of Barney's play can be seen on the playbill of an audience member in the background. It is called "Suck It Lily."
2. At one point, Barney says: "Yeah, if you are a Smurf!". Neil Patrick Harris later appeared in The Smurfs (2011).
3. In one scene, Ted is seen wearing a t-shirt which has Hindu God Ganesha on it.
4. In this episode, Marshall uses his second out of five free slaps, which he won in How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet (2006).
5. In the story, Robin had to give up her five dogs because they reminded Ted too much of Robin's ex-boyfriends, since the exes gave Robin the dogs. However in real life, Josh Radnor who plays Ted is allergic to dogs. This might be the reason the writer & the creators decided to have the dogs sent away.
6. In the episode How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet (2006), Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) chooses 5 slaps for eternity after Marshall (Jason Segel) wins the slap bet. However Marshall ends up getting 8 slaps throughout the series. One in the episode How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet (2006), the second one in the episode How I Met Your Mother: Stuff (2007), the third in How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving (2007), the fourth in How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap (2009). In How I Met Your Mother: Disaster Averted (2011), Marshall is awarded 3 more slaps in exchange for Barney not wearing the Ducky tie. He uses two of them, leaving him with two more which he uses in How I Met Your Mother: Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra (2014) and How I Met Your Mother: The End of the Aisle (2014).
7. It is revealed in S8E5: "The Autumn of Breakups" that Barney went with Robin to give up her dogs to her aunts farm.

Arrivederci, Fiero

1. This is the first episode that doesn't include Ted addressing his kids at the very beginning
2. The song featured in this episode is "I'm gonna be" by The Proclaimers. More often referred to as "500 miles".
3. A "Cassingle" was a popular term used for a Cassette Single, which was a music cassette which instead of containing a whole album usually contained 2 songs - One song on each side of the cassette.
4. When the gang pushes the car, an instrumental version of "I'm Gonna Be" aka "500 Miles" is played.
5. In the episode the 500 Miles "Cassingle" is shown as a white cassette, While in reality the 500 Miles Cassingle was a yellow cassette.
6. The scene in which Robin and Lily spill Thai food in the car, Robin's speech on how to clean the car is, is the same as the speech given by the Wolfe in Pulp Fiction.
7. When deciding to let the Fiero go, Marshall says that their new car might be "the first car our 4 kids remember", Lily replies "the first car our 2 kids remember". They end up splitting the difference with 3 kids, Marvin, Daisy, and their unnamed 3rd baby.

Moving Day

1. In the previous episode, it is revealed that Barney can't drive. However, he steals the moving van and drives it to the bar in this one.
2. The last scene, Barney's top ten list is an obvious impersonation of David Letterman and his nightly top ten list.

Bachelor Party

1. In the scene where Barney, Ted, Marshall and Stuart are eating steaks after the strip, at the wall of the restaurant there are caricatures of celebrities. Among them, there are caricatures of HIMYM's creators and writers.

Showdown

1. The scenes in Robin's apartment had to be re-shot to remove the blue French horn from her mantle, after the writers broke the story for the season finale.
2. The blue French horn that Ted stole for Robin is gone from her apartment. See the season finale, "Something Blue".
3. After Barney wins the Price is Right he thanks Bob Barker for 35 years of hosting this episode aired two months before Barker's final episode.

Something Borrowed

1. David Burtka, who plays Lilly's ex Scooter, was Neil Patrick Harris's real life boyfriend at the time this episode aired. They are now married.
2. This episode, (Something Borrowed), and the subsequent one, "Something Blue", mirror the "Something Old" and "Something New" episodes one season 8.
3. Marshall references Britney Spears after he shaves his head. Britney Spears became a guest star later on the show as Abby.

Something Blue

1. The couple in the restaurant behind Ted and Robin really did get engaged during that scene.
2. Although mispronounced, Barney's statement about Ferrocarriles Argentinos (Argentinian Railways) is very accurate.
3. This episode (Something Blue) and the previous one, "Something Borrowed", mirror the "Something Old" and "Something New" episodes one season 8.
4. Argentina is mentioned 19 times (Including Barney's variation "Argentinian" (x2) and "Argentinos").
5. At the end of the episode, Lily French kisses Marshall in spite of Alyson Hannigan's request to not have to French kiss Jason Segel due to his smoking habit.
6. This episode has similarities with the episode Friends: The One with Barry and Mindy's Wedding (1996) of Friends (1994), a similar sitcom. Both are second season finales, both contains a wedding, both has a subplot of a couple breaking up, because one of them do not want to have kids. Also this episode was aired on May 14th, while Friends: The One with Barry and Mindy's Wedding (1996) was aired on May 16th.
7. When Ted and Robin are about to have sex after their restaurant escapades, Robin asks if Ted has any protection. He says no but they "risk it" anyway. There was in fact no risk, as it is later revealed in Season 7 that Robin is incapable of having children.
8. Ted and Robin break up because Ted wants kids and Robin doesn't. However, in real life Cobie Smulders has two children while Josh Radner has none.