Mary the Paralegal

"Mary the Paralegal" is the 19th episode in the first season of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on April 24, 2006.

Plot

A story that Robin did on her news channel was nominated for a Local Area Media Award (or as Lily calls it, a LAMA - pronounced LAME-a), and Robin has invited everyone to come to the awards banquet. Since she notified everyone three months in advance, Ted told her he would be bringing Victoria. Right before the awards banquet, Ted ended his relationship with Victoria and ruined his chances with Robin at the same time, and is wondering if he should still bring a date.^[1] Barney suggests getting Ted a prostitute as a date, which Ted immediately dismisses. Barney shows up a bit later with a stunning blonde-haired woman named Mary for Ted, and Ted again refuses until he sees Robin's date for the banquet: Sandy Rivers, the guy who reads the newspaper on the news show every morning and requests that he always be referred to by his full name. Ted then agrees, and Mary is his date for the evening.

At the banquet, Ted finds himself more and more attracted to Mary, who claims to be a paralegal at a law firm downtown. Ted tries to talk to Robin to restore their friendship, but fails. Robin wins the award, and thanks all of her friends for coming and supporting her, except Ted. Meanwhile, Barney has got Ted a room in the hotel for the night, and Ted is beginning to think about whether he and Mary should actually go up to the room. Marshall tries to stop him, but without success. Ted and Mary head up to the room, while Robin and Sandy Rivers get a cab. Shortly afterward, Robin returns, reiterating that she does not date co-workers, and she brought Sandy Rivers only to make Ted jealous, and Marshall tells her that Ted brought Mary to make Robin jealous. Marshall then (in an oddly telepathic manner) tells Lily that Mary is a prostitute, and Lily, who is asleep, wakes up and asks if Mary is indeed an escort. After a minute, Barney reveals that Mary is not really a prostitute, but actually a paralegal that lives in his building. Ted does not know this, and Mary eventually slaps him and leaves when Ted insists that she's a prostitute.

At the bar, Barney insists to Ted that the reason he got on so well with Mary was because he thought he was on to a sure thing anyway, but Ted reveals that he's had the last laugh by never checking out of the hotel room, and leaves to increase the already hefty bill on Barney's credit card.

Music

• Lemongrass - "Elle et moi"

Cultural references

• In the first scene Barney states "Good day. I said good day!", a line frequently said by Fez in "That 70's Show".
• During dinner at the awards ceremony, Mary makes a joke about Sandy Rivers' hair being put on like Darth Vader's helmet, which references The Empire Strikes Back.
• Sandy's segment, "In Today's Paper," is a parody of a segment done by Pat Kiernan on NY1 called "In The Papers". One of the cutouts Ted and Marshall use on the TV during Sandy's segment, "Yosemite Sandy," is a reference to the Looney Tunes character Yosemite Sam.
• Ted and Robin each insult each other's dates; Ted refers to Sandy as "Edward R. Moron," a reference to Edward R. Murrow, while Robin calls Mary "Paralegally Blonde" in reference to the movie Legally Blonde.
• At one point, Ted remarks that he feels like Richard Gere, which refers to Pretty Woman, in which Gere dates a prostitute.
• Mary the Paralegal says she works at the law firm "Douglas, O'Halloran and Stamp." These are the last names (Sarah Douglas, Jack O'Halloran, Terence Stamp) of the actors playing the three Kryptonian villains in Superman and Superman II.

Critical response

Critic Ryan J Budke of TV Squad enjoyed the episode and praised it for being "true to life" in the way the characters relate to each other, noting everyone has someone they can have a "telepathic" conversation with.^[2]

References

External links

• "Mary the Paralegal" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Mary the Paralegal" at TV.com