Cupcake (How I Met Your Mother)

"Cupcake" is the 16th episode in the first season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on March 6, 2006.

Plot

Victoria has been offered a fellowship at a culinary institute in Germany, putting her relationship with Ted in jeopardy. Both are unsure, but have always believed that long distance relationships never work; according to Ted, it's a lie teenagers use to get laid the summer before college, while Marshall and Lily say that they are all talk and no sex.

Marshall needs a new suit for an important interview for an internship position at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Barney tells him that he will take Marshall to his tailor and get a discount for it, and outfits Marshall with a very nice suit. Ted accompanies them and continues to agonize over his problem with Victoria. Meanwhile, Victoria and Robin take Lily shopping for a wedding dress, but cannot find anything she likes in her price range. Robin gets tipsy on free champagne and tries to manipulate Victoria into going to Germany, since Robin wants to break them up so she can make a move on Ted, but eventually accepts that Victoria and Ted are really in love. In helping Ted and Victoria make their decisions, Marshall and Lily tell two versions of the same story: During college, Lily took a summer art class in Paris. According to Marshall, Lily met this strange man named Gabriel; Marshall thought he was moving in on Lily, so when he visited her he told Gabriel to stay away from Lily. According to Lily, she was good friends with a homely girl who was self-conscious about her mustache named Gabrielle, who suddenly stopped talking to Lily about halfway through the summer, leaving Lily friendless. Neither of them knows the other's story.

Just for fun, Victoria gets one of the nice dresses from the front window, which Lily loves; she cannot afford it, but accidentally sits down in the free cake provided by the bridal shop, and then rips the dress. Later at the bar, Marshall gets the bill for the suit from Barney and finds out that he must pay $4,000 for it, even though Barney promised him a great deal, and realizes it must be a ruse by Barney to get him to accept a high-paying job at Barney's firm, something which Barney attempts to deny. He turns to Lily and says he'll do whatever it takes to pay it off, at which point Lily breaks down and reveals that she ruined, and thus had to purchase, an $8,000 dress; Marshall, his back to the wall and with no other option to pay $12,000 plus the money for the wedding, decides to go work for Barney.

Ted and Victoria meet for dinner having made their respective decisions: Ted thinks she should go, while Victoria thinks she should stay. However, they both impulsively change their minds after Victoria hands Ted a cupcake. They argue a bit and decide to break up. However, Marshall tells Ted to spend one more awesome day with Victoria. The two decide to spend the day enjoying New York doing all the things they'd wanted to during the relationship, and Future Ted tells his kids that's exactly what they did (but it's unclear if they did or if Future Ted is able to remember any of that stuff, since actually only scenes are shown of them in bed). At the airport, Ted and Victoria decide to give long distance a try, both saying that it will work; however, Future Ted tells his kids that it didn't, that long-distance relationships never work.

External links

• "Cupcake" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Cupcake" at TV.com