| "Return of the Shirt" | |
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| How I Met Your Mother episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 4 |
| Directed by | Pamela Fryman |
| Written by | Kourtney Kang |
| Production code | 1ALH03 |
| Original air date | October 10, 2005 |
| Guest stars | |
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Lyndsy Fonseca (Daughter) |
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| Season 1 episodes | |
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"Return of the Shirt" is the 4th episode in the first season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on October 10, 2005.
Contents |
In the future Ted explains to his children only one of your stories can end with "happily ever after", the others end with someone getting hurt.
Ted wears a shirt he owned for six years but had never liked it before. He realizes that his tastes have changed. He meets everyone else at the bar, and discovers that he likes Bourbon, which he thought he hated. He decides to reconsider girls he has previously dated but did not seem right at the time. Barney objects, saying there are only "two reasons" to date a girl you have already dated: breast implants. Ted thinks back to some of the women he dated and thinks fondly of the times he had with Natalie but he hadn't been looking for a serious relationship at the time. Initially Ted isn't sure if she would remember him, but she has not forgotten Ted and hangs up the phone abruptly when he calls. When Lily confronts Ted about why Natalie would be so upset with him, he admits that he broke up with her on her birthday, and to make matters worse he did so by leaving a message on her answering machine. Lily begins slapping him, saying that he shouldn't have broken up with her on her birthday, or broken up with her over the phone. The guys all point out that there is no good way to break up with a girl. Ted then visits Natalie's apartment, apologizing for his past behavior, offering a giant sock monkey toy as a belated birthday gift. Natalie explains she has even more reason to be angry than he knows; her friends were waiting to give her a surprise party and they all heard the message he left. Ted begs her to give him another chance, even just a cup of coffee. They soon end up in bed together.
Ted and Natalie start dating again, and after three weeks things appear to be going well. His friends like Natalie and agree she is the best girl he has dated in years. Ted says he has to break up with her, because he knows she isn't "the one". The next night Ted takes Natalie out to dinner to do the mature thing and break up with her face to face. She tells him it is her birthday but there is no need for a present since he has already given her the best present: she "can trust again". She says her mother can't wait to meet him, and unable to wait any longer Ted tells her he wants to break up. Natalie is furious and Ted's attempts to be honest only make her angrier. She demands a good explanation, and when Ted can't give her a satisfactory response, she uses what she learned in Krav Maga class to beat Ted up. Ted returns to the bar in pain and with the shirt that started it all ripped, and decides that there really is no good way to break up with someone. Future Ted tells his kids that as a result, all of his happy memories of Natalie were replaced with the memory of her beating him up. However, he also tells his kids that although Natalie was hurt within a year she was married and went on to have three children and in the end, the hurt helped Natalie to find her perfect guy. Along with this life lesson, what Ted's son also learns from his father's story is that his father was beaten up by a girl.
Barney dares Robin to say or do questionable things on the news for money. Robin refuses at first, but performs Barney's first dare when a Freudian slip causes her to say the word "nipple" when she meant to say the word "nickel". She then does the second dare, saying "I'm a dirty, dirty girl," at the end of a news story and spanking herself. When she finds out that no one, not even her boss, watches the news channel she reports for, she decides that she might as well perform the dares. On her third dare from Barney, she honks her own breasts during a report. Barney, as the fourth dare, wants Robin to do the "Ickey Shuffle" at the end of a report in tribute to Ickey Woods, a famous football player for the Cincinnati Bengals. Barney has the bar turn on the television to Robin's news show and tells everyone to watch for something amazing. Robin plans to carry out the fourth bet, but changes her mind at the last minute. While interviewing New York City's oldest Hansom cab driver she realizes her job is important to the people she is interviewing even if no one is watching. She stands up but accidentally slips and falls into a pile of horse droppings and curses on live television. Barney thinks this is better than anything he could have planned and everyone in the bar was watching with him. Robin is very embarrassed, especially when Ted reveals that he too saw the incident on the internet.
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