Sorry, Bro

"Sorry, Bro" is the 16th episode in the fourth season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 80th overall. It originally aired on March 9, 2009.

Plot

At 1:45 am, Robin gets up so she will be in time for her 4 am talk show that she now anchors. Meanwhile Ted tells his friends that Karen (Laura Prepon), his girlfriend during high school and college, is now in town.

Marshall and Lily are not happy with this news. They tell Ted how annoyed they were by Karen's pretentiousness and how Ted imitated her opinions, and how Karen always cheated on Ted, left for a few months, and then got back together with him. The gang agrees he definitely should not call Karen. Ted admits he already called her. They say he should not ask her to lunch, but Ted admits he already did. The group discusses the four different reasons one would have lunch with an ex: They want to get back together, as depicted in Lily's lunch with Scooter; they want to kill you, depicted in Barney's lunch with Wendy (when in fact she only wanted to give him back his tie); they want to give back something you left behind, depicted in Robin's lunch with "The Iron Man"; or they want to show off how well they are doing, depicted in an eight-year-old Marshall having lunch with eight-year-old Nicole.

Ted reveals that he has entered a relationship with Karen, facilitated by the strong sleeping pills Robin has been using to help her keep up with her schedule. Lily is extremely frustrated to hear this, and states the true reason she hates Karen: While she was painting Marshall in the nude, Karen entered and "lingered". Ted tells the rest of the story: while they were hooking up in her apartment, Karen's boyfriend entered. After the boyfriend left, Ted confronted Karen about it and said he never wanted to speak to her again. Karen later dumped the boyfriend. The gang is happy to hear this, but ask Ted how he could know Karen dumped him if he never spoke to her again. Ted quickly says that he and Karen called each other again, patched things up, are now back together and that she is coming to the bar. Karen enters the bar and the gang unhappily greets her.

The previous day at work, Marshall was playing basketball with his office colleagues and forgot his suit pants. He called Lily to come over and give him his pants. Lily gave the pants to Barney to give to Marshall, but Barney cut them up. Barney finds this story amusing and tries to tell it throughout the evening, while Marshall and Lily are much less happy about it.

Continuity

• Wendy and Barney dated during the episode "The Platinum Rule". Barney is still (mistakenly) convinced that Wendy is trying to kill him. She is in fact trying to give him a tie, which he is wearing during the episode.
• Robin and Kurt Irons dated in "The Platinum Rule" also.
• This episode shows a flashback of when Lily created Marshall's nude painting.^[1] The reason Lily gives for painting Marshall naked is because he had eaten her bowl of fruit. In an earlier flashback, Marshall is seen eating a bowl of fruit in bed.^[2] However, in "Columns", the reason stated for Lily painting him is that Marshall thinks that he should be the only guy she should see naked.
• In a flashback, Robin ate ribs while asleep. This is a reference to "The Bracket", when Ted says that Robin does not know how to lie, he asks her if she had ever fallen asleep while eating ribs. She answers "no", but she starts laughing, which Robin often does when she tries to lie.
• Barney calls Ted by his full name, "Theodore Evelyn Mosby", which was first revealed in the episode "How Lily Stole Christmas".
• Marshall says that he's been wearing his ripped pants all day because they show his calves, at which point Lily giggles. This continues on a gag from "Brunch", where it is revealed that Lily is attracted to Marshall's calves. This is later expanded on in future episodes.
• Scooter, Lily's desperate high school boyfriend, appears twice in the episode. In a flashback, the two exes meet for lunch, and the obsessive Scooter declares he will be the best waiter ever after Lily mentions waitering in passing. Scooter later appears as the waiter for Ted and Karen.
• Karen was first mentioned in "Arrivederci, Fiero" in the flashback of Marshall asking Ted if he wanted a ride home.
• The character Blauman appears in this episode even though he supposedly died in "The Chain of Screaming".
• In "The Possimpible", Marshall reveals he has a medical condition known as "dancer's hip" that prevents him from playing basketball. This is mentioned again in this episode.
• Marshall's list of the worst things in the world that could happen is topped by supervolcano, the supposed potential disaster that Barney suggests Ted mentions to seduce Rachel and Trudy in "Third Wheel".

Cultural references

• The scene where Barney cuts Marshall's pants is a reference to Edward Scissorhands by Tim Burton, when Edward is clipping bushes (or cutting hair).
• A few minutes later in the conference Barney says to Marshall, "Please, Sir, may I have some more?" in an English accent. This is adapted from Oliver Twist, when young Oliver begs for food at the workhouse.
• Bilson's question about Marshall joining AC/DC is a reference to some of the band members, notably Angus Young, wearing cut-off pants.
• When Marshall thinks he is going to Wrestlemania, he is dressed as the Ultimate Warrior. When Lily runs into the room she is dressed as Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
• After Marshall enumerates the worst things that could happen in the world Lily says "I'm Lily and I approve the order of this list" in the same style as elections campaign advertisements where the candidates are required to say they approve those messages.^[3]
• Barney yells "Pants story bomaye!" which is a reference to boxer Muhammad Ali and The Rumble in the Jungle. A popular chant during the fight was "Ali bomaye!", which is Congolese meaning "Ali, kill him!"
• Lily says of Karen, "She's gotsta get got," to which Robin replies, "The game is the game." This is a tacked-on reference to quotes from Omar Little, Brother Mouzone, and Avon Barksdale on The Wire.
• During the first flashback of Ted and Karen sneaking around Robin, Robin says in her sleep: "Pat LaFontaine gets the puck to Pierre Turgeon. Turgeon shoots! Glove save!" Both players played for the New York Islanders and are most known for playing for the Buffalo Sabres. However, they never played on either team at the same time. Turgeon was in fact traded from the Sabres to the Islanders for LaFontaine on October 25, 1991.
• During lunch, Ted tells Karen about an iron-on image of Molière, a French playwright, on his backpack.

Critical response

Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode with a grade B+.^[2]

Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 8.3 out of 10.^[3]

References

External links

• Sorry, Bro at the Internet Movie Database
• Sorry, Bro at TV.com