Episode 404: Intervention

Episode info after the jump. Spoilers: Medium to severe.

The normal side of things, first: Barney sets out to show that even as an old man, he’d be able to score. He proves this with “astonishingly good old man make-up.” First he tries a Back to the Future-type pickup line where Old Barney convinces a girl she needs to sleep with Young Barney, but he does actually manage to land a girl as Old Barney.

Everyone plans a “getting married to someone you barely know is a horrible idea” intervention for Ted, but they change their minds before they can really go through with it. However, Ted insists on hearing their objections anyway.

And now, the big stuff: Everyone’s moving. Or everyone intends to move, anyway.

Ted, Marshall, and Lily are packing up the apartment and plan to move out the next day - Ted’s going to New Jersey to move in with Stella, Marshall and Lily are moving into their apartment in Dowisetrepla.

Robin has been offered a job in Tokyo, and is flying out in a week.

Making sense of things a little - this is just speculation, though: Presumably, all of these moves will be built up to in 401 and 402 - Ted moving in with Stella isn’t such a big leap, after all, when we know she says yes. We don’t know a lot about what Marshall and Lily are up to in the first two episodes, so it’s probably their decision to move.

Robin’s new job feels a little out of the blue - but we know next to nothing about 402, so there could be a lot going on there. There’s also her talk with Barney in 401 about taking chances. Besides, anyone who’s ever watched television can tell you that she’s not actually going to go through with the move - maybe she can’t get her apartment back, and that’s how she ends up moving in with Ted? It’s probably time for Lily and Marshall to move out, but we know Ted’s still in the apartment when he turns 31 and Sarah Chalke’s only around for four episodes, so if he moves, I doubt it’ll stick.