Season 1, Episode 8: The Duel

“It’s full of swords and video games, and kind of smells like dude.”

After Lily moves in with them, Ted and Marshall fight over who gets the apartment, while Barney makes a new dating law.

Ted, Lily, & Marshall- Future Ted starts off by saying how after all these years, the apartment they lived in at the time will always be “our apartment.”  Then we find out that Lily didn’t actually live with them at the time.  She had her own apartment.  But she and Robin stop by one day and discover it’s been turned into a Chinese restaurant.  Naturally, Ted tells her she should just move in because she practically lives there anyway.  Barney, of course, thinks this is a bad idea because when Lily and Marshall get married, then Ted is going to have to move out.  But Robin counters that Ted and Marshall have talked about who gets the apartment which brings up the fact that Ted and Marshall haven’t talked about who gets the apartment.  They keep leaving it to Future Ted and Future Marshall.  But Barney tells him that Lily and Marshall are going to start edging Ted out.  Ted goes home and everything seems fine, until he finds out they threw out Ted’s coffee maker and replaced it with Lily’s.  And they were going to replace the swords over the piano with a painting.  So Barney advises Ted to mark his territory by doing something big.  So Ted orders an English Phone booth.  Which leads to an argument and sword duel.  Which in turn leads to some pretty awesome moves and a surprisingly productive conversation.  Consequently, Marshall accidently stabs Lily.  At the hospital, Ted gives the apartment to Marshall, but when they tell Lily she tells them she doesn’t want the apartment.  It’s a boy apartment.  The group goes out to dinner and toasts, “the important stuff doesn’t change.”

Barney & Robin- Barney comes up with a “lemon law” for dates, where if in the first 5 minutes you don’t like someone, you can end the date.  Robin tries to tell him it takes longer than 5 minutes to get to know someone.  Which leads Barney to introduce Robin to a geek.  Robin is trying to have a good time with the guy, but ends up getting called to the hospital for Lily.  At the hospital, Barney tells them that earlier that evening he got “lemon law”-ed.  Which means it’s out there!

The Mother- I have no idea how this relates to The Mother.  Obviously, Ted is going to move out of that apartment one day, but how that relates to her?  No idea.