Season 3, Episode 9: Slapsgiving

General Idea.

Future Ted explains that as hard as he and Robin tried, it was still hard to be friends, and they could never be alone together.

Thanksgiving is coming up, but Marshall keeps referring to it as “Slapgiving.” Remember that countdown clock ?  (__) Turns out, Marshall’s going to use one of his slaps on Thanksgiving.  Barney says that Marshall took away the suspense so now he’s not worried.  But he still looks pretty worried.

Robin is dating Bob, who’s 41, and Ted sees as being ancient.  The group can’t believe that Ted sees Bob as being so old.  The group’s supposed to go to Robin’s and makes pies, but when Ted shows up Lily and Marshall can’t make it, so Ted tries to get Barney to come over, but Barney won’t.

The big day comes, and everybody’s congregated at the apartment.  Robin goes in the kitchen to talk to Lily and Ted goes to talk to Marshall and they both say the same thing, “Something really weird happened last night.”  Ted tells Marshall that Robin and Ted were alone in the kitchen and they realize they don’t have anything to say to each other.  Robin tells Lily that she was tyring to get rid of Ted but he wouldn’t leave.  Robin tries to break the ice with a lame pie fact, and Ted makes it worse by reminding her of the last Thanksgiving and how many times they’d had sex.  (Awkward.)  So Robin keeps going with lame facts.  Then it turns out they’re making one of the pies for Bob.  Ted asks if she thinks that he’s jealous of Bob.  And then he goes off on how old Bob is.  Or I should say ancient.  Robin takes offense, and points out that Ted’s been parading girls past her.  And they both realize that if they’re such good friends things shouldn’t be so weird.  And then they slept together.  Everybody who’s listening freaks out.  Robin thinks they need to talk about it, but Ted thinks they should ignore it.  When she tries to talk to him, Ted avoids, but then they end up fighting over who started it.

Lily yells at them both and throws them in Ted’s bedroom to sort things out.

Marshall keeps tormenting Barney, until Barney’s threatening to leave and Lily ends up yelling at them.  As Slap Bet Commissioner, Lily rules that there will be no slaps on Thanksgiving.

In the bedroom, Ted points out to Robin that they’re not really friends.  They just pretend to be, because it would be inconvenient otherwise.  So they decide that maybe they should stop pretending, and they go out to dinner.

Dinner is horribly awkward, Lily’s pissed, Barney’s triumphant, and Robin and Ted aren’t speaking.  So Marshall tries to break the silence by giving a little toast, that Lily started a tradition that they can continue through their lives.  And Ted and Robin make-up.

And Future Ted explains that it did become a tradition and that’s why they go to Lily and Marshall’s every year for Thanksgiving.

The countdown has reached the last 20 seconds and Barney won’t quit giving Marshall a hard time, so Lily gives him permission to slap Barney.  So Marshall slaps him, and Marshall sits down to play a song he composed for the occasion, “You Just Got Slapped.”