Weekend at Barney's

"Weekend at Barney's" is the 18th episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 178th episode overall.

Plot

Barney wakes up in the middle of the night, twice, dreaming about a special play called the "Weekend at Barney's". It angers Robin, who already knows he destroyed the Playbook. Later at MacLaren's, they are not pleased to see Ted returning his wedding invitation with Jeannette as his plus-one. When Ted returns to his apartment, he sees Jeannette, who just messed up the place after reading a spam email message. She breaks up with him on the spot. Although Marshall and Lily console him, in actuality the gang is elated at the breakup.

Learning of the couple's breakup and Ted's plan to win Jeannette back, Barney sees it as an opportunity to find a replacement plus-one by matching up Ted at the bar using the Playbook (the copy he burned in front of Patrice was just a "ceremonial" copy). Barney sets up a station at the apartment to guide Ted with the plays. Two attempts fall flat, but as Barney guides Ted with a Scottish-themed play, Robin appears at Ted's apartment. She angrily storms out at seeing the Playbook, causing Barney to go after her, barely missing Jeannette making up with Ted at the bar. At the sidewalk, Barney explains to Robin that all his plays were definitely based on lies, but it helped him realize that he loves her, winning her over with a bouquet of paper roses.

Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily visit an art gallery where an up-and-coming artist named Strickland Stevens (Christopher Nicholas Smith) is showing off his works. Since she's now the Captain's art consultant, Lily aims to scout for new works while Marshall tries to crack art-related jokes on the guests. He fails with the jokes and later accidentally spills a bag of Skittles on the floor, embarrassing Lily and the guests as Stevens asks them to join him on a moment of silence to honor his late grandmother (his inspiration for a new art piece). Now humiliated by the gaffe, Marshall pledges to remain quiet, but an off-the-cuff remark about TMNT results in him and Lily hitting things off with Stevens.

Ted returns to his apartment with Jeannette, who fumes at seeing the Playbook. He simply sits on the street while she throws all his things out the window, Marshall and Lily join him in the meantime. As Jeannette tapes the Playbook to a batch of fireworks from Barney's prop trunk, Ted asks her not to blow it up, but Barney allows it to be destroyed, for good. At this point, Ted pledges to no longer date and is ready to settle down, erasing Jeannette's name from the invitation. Future Ted narrates that at that point for the first time in his life, he really meant it.

Critical reception

Donna Bowman of the A.V. club gave the episode an A.^[1]

References

External links

• "Weekend at Barney's" at the Internet Movie Database