Season 1, Episode 4: Return of the Shirt

“Told the truth.  Turns out the truth has a mean roundhouse kick.”

After re-discovering a shirt in his closet Ted decides to revisit girls he dated before to see if his second impression is better.  Meanwhile, Barney tries to get Robin to push boundaries at work.

Ted- When going through his closet, Ted finds a (slightly ugly) shirt and falls in love with it.  After re-discovering scotch Ted goes over a list of girls he dated:

Steph	Made ‘adult’ films
Jackie	Ran over a hitch hiker (yikes!)
Natalie	Ted dumped her.  On her answering machine.  On her birthday.

Ted convinces Natalie to go out with him again (with an awesome giant sock monkey!).  Everything seems to be going great, until Ted realizes she’s not his ‘one.’  And after breaking up with her, again on her birthday, Ted learns that the Krav Maga classes Natalie is taking is not a type of yoga as he thought, but a type of guerilla-street fighting.

Barney & Robin- “Old people, babies, monkeys.  That’s not journalism.  That’s just…things in a diaper.”  Brian gets Robin to say slightly inappropriate things on-air after she realizes he was right, and she doesn’t report news that anyone listens to.

$100- “Nipple” during story on hot dog stand

$200- “I’m a dirty, dirty girl” story about death of twins on eve of 100th birthday

$1000- The Ickey Shuffle “Elbert ‘Ickey’ Woods.  The Bengals were fools to cut you in ‘91.  Your 1,525 rushing yars and your 27 touchdowns will not be forgotten.  So, Coach Dave Shula, screw you and your crappy steakhouse.”  Decided not to do it and then fell in horse crap while on camera.

I love how after everything Barney planned, the one he enjoyed the most was completely an accident.  And as Ted says, “Sometimes no matter how hard you try to do the right thing you just end up flat on your back, flailing around in a big pile of horse crap.”

Lily & Marshall- Honestly Lily and Marshall didn’t have a plot.  They were more just there to give advice and watch Robin on the news.

The Mother- I love this episode because Anne Dudek does a great job as being the slightly psycho Natalie.  And I love watching Barney play with Robin.