Drumroll, Please

"Drumroll, Please" is the 13th episode in the first season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on January 23, 2006.

Plot

At his friends Claudia and Stuart's wedding, Ted is disappointed and alone after Robin is forced to cancel their date because of work. But Ted sees a pretty woman across the room and the next morning he tells Marshall and Lily that he had the most amazing night of his life. He then begins to tell the story of his night.

Ted approaches the pretty woman (Victoria), who warns him that she never hooks up with people at weddings because all of the romance of the wedding isn't real. Ted wins her over with some flirting, so she suggests a compromise: they will spend the rest of the wedding together and then will never see each other again. They plan to use fake names — Victoria says her name is Buttercup and Ted gives his as Lando Calrissian — but Barney immediately comes by the table and calls Ted by his name several times. They agree to tell each other only their first names and not to exchange any contact information. Lily and Marshall interrupt the story to tell Ted what a stupid idea that is, but Ted defends his decision, saying that they had a great time and because he will never see Victoria again the memory won't be ruined.

Returning to his story of the previous night, Ted steals a bottle of champagne and Victoria steals the bouquet before they go into a ballroom in the hotel. After Victoria dances to Ted's accompaniment, the two sit on the piano bench together and almost kiss. Victoria says that they shouldn't kiss that night, that a bad kiss would ruin the romance of the evening. Instead she suggests that they almost kiss because the exciting parts of the kiss are the moments that lead up to it.

Marshall interrupts the story again and he and Lily tell Ted that Victoria sounds amazing and he is an idiot for not getting her phone number. While Ted initially defends the romance of their night together, he quickly realizes that he wants to see Victoria again. He calls Claudia to ask if she knows Victoria's last name, but Claudia tells him that there wasn't a guest named Victoria at the wedding. Remembering that Victoria was sitting at the table with the bridesmaids, Ted calls Barney to ask if he would call the bridesmaid he hooked up with to see if she knows Victoria. After Ted promises to go to Foxy Boxing with Barney, he calls the bridesmaid who doesn't know who Victoria is. Thinking that he won't be able to find Victoria, Ted accepts the situation as fate.

Robin comes over to Ted, Lily, and Marshall's apartment and tells Lily that after anchoring the news the previous night she is the new substitute weekend anchor. Lily tells Robin the story of Ted's romantic evening and Robin says that she knows who Victoria is. Lily asks how Robin could know Victoria when she wasn't at the wedding, and Robin tells her that she came late to the reception to surprise Ted. She saw Ted and Victoria almost kissing, and she went into the ladies' room to cry. Victoria heard Robin crying in a bathroom stall and tried to comfort her, giving her the bouquet. Robin says that she isn't sure why she was crying, and Lily tells her that obviously she cried because she has feelings for Ted. Robin finally admits that she does like Ted, but she doesn't think her feelings change anything because she doesn't want to get married and Ted does. Robin says that she should find Ted and tell him who Victoria is so that he can be happy, but Lily suggests that Robin could tell him that she has feelings for him, which will also make him happy. Robin leaves the apartment unsure of what to do.

At MacLaren's, Ted, Marshall and Barney are having drinks when Robin arrives. She pulls Ted aside to talk to him when he gets a phone call from Claudia. She apologizes for snapping at him when he called to ask about Victoria. At Marshall's insistence, Ted asks Claudia where she got the cake for her wedding, and she tells him that a local bakery called The Buttercup Bakery. Remembering that Victoria gave Buttercup as her fake name, Ted realizes that she wasn't on the guest list because Victoria made the cake. Ted wants to go find Victoria, but Lily tries to stall him. When Lily asks Robin to back her up, Robin tells Ted to go ahead. Ted takes a cab to The Buttercup Bakery with them, and with Barney's support, he leaves the cab.

He sees the shop, where he finds Victoria frosting cupcakes and crying, obviously sad at the point of missing Ted. When he walks in the door and Victoria sees him, she says, "Thank God" and they kiss.

Music

• Scott Joplin - "Entertainer". Played on the piano by Ted.
• Michael Bublé - "You Don't Know Me". The song is heard during the original airing of the episode, but the song does not appear on the DVD.
• Pavement - "Spit on a Stranger".^[1] This song is heard during the original airing of the episode, but not on the DVD. In subsequent airings, a cover by the band Nickel Creek is used.

Production

• The book that Lily is reading is when Robin comes over is Pure Ducky Goodness, a collection of comic-strips created by this episode's writer's husband, Dave Kellett.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• "Drumroll, Please" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Drumroll, Please" at TV.com