The Leap (How I Met Your Mother)

"The Leap" is the 24th and final episode of season 4 of the How I Met Your Mother TV series and 88th overall. It originally aired on May 18, 2009.

Plot

Future Ted (Bob Saget) describes the evening of his 31st birthday. Over the previous 3 days, Ted had been working hard to design the hat-shaped rib restaurant introduced in "Right Place, Right Time". As he pulls an all-nighter in an attempt to win his firm a contract, Marshall attempts to lure Ted to the roof for a surprise 31st birthday party (which Ted waves off because he thinks Marshall would never schedule two surprise parties in a row). Barney asks for Ted's blessing to pursue Robin, using an obvious analogy involving a suit.

Disappointed at his inability to throw a good party, Marshall stands on the ledge of the roof, ready to jump from their apartment roof to the neighboring building's roof (beautifully furnished with a hot tub), about seven feet away. A flashback shows Marshall's attempts over the last years to get the courage to jump. Lily tries to dissuade him by claiming that she is pregnant, resulting in Marshall to mention Lily gaining weight, and Lily storming off afterwards.

Downstairs, while Ted is hard at work, the goat scuttles through the apartment. Ted calls Lily, anxious and annoyed at the goat's presence. After repeatedly taking a washcloth away from the animal, the goat mauls Ted, and he is sent to the hospital. Finally, when he shows up to his restaurant design meeting, his clients decide to go with Swedish avant-garde architecture collective, Sven, instead of him.

Meanwhile, Barney has decided to confess his feelings for Robin, but before he can say anything, she says that she loves him. He quickly reacts by saying they should just be friends, and picks up a random girl at the party. Lily then tells him that Robin overheard his suit analogy with Ted, and was worried about what to do. After discussing it with Lily and Marshall (who reveal they had known for months), Robin decides to "Mosby" Barney, telling him she loves him right away, just like Ted did.

Barney discovers the truth, gets disappointed, and confronts Robin at the hospital. She admits to "Mosbying" him, but then tries to do it again, until the two confess their complicated feelings for each other, and kiss.

Finally, back in the apartment, Ted laments his situation, and Lily tells him to stop chasing something that is not working, and let the universe take over for a bit. When Lily tells him that maybe he should just take 'the leap' and do what the world seems to want him to do, Ted accepts the professor job at the University. Marshall takes the advice literally, and leaps from the roof to the other building, followed by the rest of the gang.

The episode ends with Ted, now Professor Mosby, in front of a class of students. Future Ted tells his children that despite being the year where he was left at the altar, knocked out by a crazed bartender, fired and attacked by a goat, it was the best year of his life. It was all worth it, because not only did it lead him into the best job he ever had but it also began him on the journey that would lead him to his future wife... as Future Ted reveals that one of the students in the class is his children's mother.

Music

• "Prophets" by A.C. Newman — plays at the end, when everyone jumps from the roof to the other side.
• "Murder Train" by The Foreskins — plays when Ted fights the goat.

Continuity

• The song that plays while Ted fights the goat is "Murder Train" by the Foreskins, first heard in "Sandcastles in the Sand", and the music heard in the background when Barney and Robin are talking towards the end are the chords for the titular song from the same episode.
• The story of Marshall's jump to the other building was slightly introduced in "Three Days of Snow". Future Ted compares the sentence "We should buy a bar" to a number of other ill-advised sentences said by men in the series, and Marshall is seen standing on the ledge, saying "I can jump that far"^[1]
• During the scene on the roof, Robin can be seen wearing the same necklace that Stella was wearing in the previous episode, "As Fast As She Can".
• Ted loses his contract to Swedish architecture collective Sven. The winning design was the same proposal Sven used for the GNB project in "Woooo!" - a building the shape of Tyrannosaurus Rex that breathes fire - but with "Old West" modifications.
• The nurse who makes fun of Ted at the Hospital is the same nurse from the Season 3 season finale "Miracles."
• The ending flashes back to season 4 episodes "Shelter Island", "The Fight", and "Old King Clancy".
• When Lily reveals that the goat that beat up Ted was female, Marshall makes fun of Ted for getting "beat up by a girl." Ted's son makes a similar crack after Natalie beats Ted up in "Return of the Shirt".
• Robin mosby's Barney hoping that he loses his feelings for her. The term was named after Ted and means expressing one's feeling too soon, just like Ted did with Robin in the Pilot. Other terms that the gang have created after Ted include "ted out", to overthink and overanalyse what are often simple decisions, and "ted up", to overthink and overanalyse what are often simple decisions, which ends in a disaster. These terms are first referenced in the episode "Matchmaker. ^[2]
• Missy the goat is not on the roof with Lily at the surprise party as was shown in the third season episode The Goat. Also in The Goat, Ted says that having a goat in the apartment was not a good idea because Missy would go on to do something in the bathroom of the apartment, something which is never addressed in The Leap.
• Ted says the same thing to Lily about the goat that Robin said about Doug in the episode Little Boys; "It's here Lily, it's looking at me."
• In one of the flashbacks of Marshall almost jumping, he is at the annual Halloween party on the roof introduced in the season 1 episode "Slutty Pumpkin".

Errors

• When all the main characters jump rooftops at the end of the episode, Ted, Robin, and Barney are wearing black sneakers with their suits. When they land, they are again wearing formal shoes.

Cultural references

• Lily talks Marshall off the ledge of the roof by telling him that she is pregnant. Actress Alyson Hannigan is clearly pregnant during season 4, this also explains why Marshall responds, "I'd noticed you'd gained a little weight."
• The line "It's here Lily, it's looking at me" is a reference to Ghostbusters when Peter Venkman first sees Slimer he hails Ray Stanz on the radio and says "It's here Ray, it's looking at me".
• Marshall tries to convince Lily to let him jump by bringing up Evel Knievel and his attempt to jump Snake River Canyon. Lily retorts that she is not Linda Knievel.

Barney's Blog

• Barney discusses his and Robin's potential relationship in his May 18 blog entry when answering letters from his mail "sack". One such letter is from "Jack Package" (Barney's alias in the episode Matchmaker) who asks Uncle Barney for advice.^[3]

Dear Uncle Barney: I think I'm in love. Every time I'm around this girl, my heart goes a mile a minute. And it's possible that she might have feelings for me too. And the thought of that scares me half to death, because who knows where this could lead? What if this is the real thing? But what if it isn't and she breaks my heart? Is this worth pursuing? Jack Package, New York Dear Jack, It's not worth pursuing. I say forget it.

Critical response

Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club graded the episode B+.^[1]

References

External links

• The Leap at TV.com
• The Leap at the Internet Movie Database