Marshall Eriksen

Marshall Eriksen
How I Met Your Mother character
Jason Segel in 2011
First appearance	"Pilot"
Last appearance	"Last Forever"
Created by	Carter Bays Craig Thomas
Portrayed by	Jason Segel
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Lawyer (2005–2018), judge (2018–).
Family	Marvin Eriksen (father, deceased) Judy Eriksen (mother)
Spouse(s)	Lily Aldrin (2007–present)
Children	Marvin Waitforit Eriksen Daisy Eriksen Carly Eriksen
Nationality	American

Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Jason Segel. Series co-creator Craig Thomas explained that he based Marshall and Lily on himself and his wife Rebecca.^[1][2]

Character overview

The series revolves around the adventures of the five main characters: Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) and his best friends Marshall, his wife Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). Marshall met Ted and Lily during their freshman year at Wesleyan University in 1996, and they moved into an apartment in New York City together after graduation. In the show's pilot episode, he proposes to Lily, inspiring Ted to start looking for the love of his life.

Marshall was born and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota, the youngest of three brothers. His last name, and the fact that he is from Minnesota suggests that he might be a Danish American or Norwegian American. He is extremely close to his family, particularly his father, Marvin (Bill Fagerbakke). When Marvin dies^[3] Marshall is devastated, and takes a long time to recover, not to mention that during the episode, Last Words ^[4] he struggles with remembering what Marvin's last words were to him. He is also close to his mother, Judy (Suzie Plakson), and is oblivious to the fact that she and Lily despise each other. As a teenager, he got into brutal fighting matches with his brothers.^[5] He is a huge fan of the Minnesota Vikings. Marshall received his B.A from Wesleyan University and Juris Doctor (J.D) from Columbia University Law School.

In the first two seasons, Marshall is studying at law school with dreams of working as an environmental lawyer for Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC). Once he passes the bar, however, money concerns force him to take a job in the legal department of Goliath National Bank, a corrupt multinational corporation.^[6] He quits his job in the seventh season and finally achieves his dream of working for the NRDC.^[7] In the last episode of the eighth season, he applies to become a judge, deciding that this is where he will be able to make the most impact. Later on, he is offered a recently vacated seat, and accepts without telling Lily; staying in New York conflicts with her dream job in Italy.^[8] He gives the position up in the ninth season, however, so he can go to Rome with Lily and their children.^[9] The series finale, "Last Forever", reveals that he worked for another corporate firm after returning to New York, until another judge's seat opened up for him. In the year 2020, he is elected to the New York State Supreme Court.^[10]

Marshall is fascinated by the paranormal, and has absolute faith that mythical creatures such as Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster are real. He has even discovered a paranormal event himself: a bizarre creature he names "the cockamouse".^[11]

Relationships

Lily Aldrin

Marshall and Lily meet on their first day of college and fall in love at first sight. They move in together and eventually get engaged. In the final episode of the first season, Lily breaks off their engagement to accept a painting fellowship in San Francisco.^[12] Marshall falls into a deep depression, but nevertheless refuses to take Lily back when she returns to New York.^[13] They eventually reconcile, however,^[14] and get married in the end of the second season.^[15] They initially have trouble conceiving a child, but Lily finally gets pregnant at the end of the sixth season,^[16] and gives birth to a boy, Marvin, at the end of the seventh.^[17]

Marshall and Lily are soul mates; they do virtually everything together, tell each other about every minute detail of their lives, and have only had sex with each other. They can even understand each other perfectly when they are seemingly incoherent, such as when Lily is trying to speak through bouts of morning sickness^[16] or when Marshall is speaking in pseudo-Italian gibberish.^[18]

Throughout the final season, which takes place over one weekend, Marshall travels with Marvin to the Farhampton Inn, where Robin and Barney are getting married. He struggles with telling Lily about his new job, as it conflicts with her dream of working as an art consultant in Rome. When he finds out she is pregnant with their second child, however, he gives up the judgeship and agrees to go to Rome with her and their new family.^[9]

By the end of the series, Marshall and Lily have three children: Marvin, Daisy, and a third child whose name is never revealed.

Ted Mosby

Marshall and Ted are college roommates and best friends. They first bonded during an ill-fated college road trip.^[19] Marshall and Lily consider Ted a part of their family, their "third Musketeer". Ted helps Marshall recover when he and Lily briefly break up.^[20] Along with the other main characters, Marshall is by Ted's side during every major event in his life, including a serious car accident,^[21] being left at the altar,^[22] and, finally, Ted's marriage to the titular Mother.^[10] Ted is best man at Marshall's wedding, and Marshall does the honors when Ted gets married in the series finale.

Barney Stinson

Marshall and Barney know each other through Ted, Barney having taken it upon himself to "teach them how to live".^[23] Along with the other characters, Marshall is both amused and horrified by Barney's promiscuity, deceptiveness and penchant for over-the-top schemes. Barney has shown himself to be a good friend, however; he gets Marshall an internship,^[24] persuades Lily to return to New York from San Francisco,^[25] and gets him his job at Goliath National Bank.^[6] Barney serves as "co-best man" (along with Ted) at Marshall and Lily's wedding. Along with Ted, Lily, and the Mother, Marshall is present for the birth of Barney's daughter in the series finale. ^[10]

In the episode "Slap Bet", Barney loses a bet with Marshall and agrees to let Marshall slap him five times at random occasions "throughout eternity", which is later extended to eight. Marshall administers these slaps in the episodes "Slap Bet", "Stuff", "Slapsgiving", "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap", "Disaster Averted", "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra", and "The End of the Aisle".

Robin Scherbatsky

During the first season, Marshall and Robin are friends, but he nevertheless advises Ted to forget about his unrequited love for her. When the two finally get together, however, he accepts her as a permanent part of the group, and continues to do so after they break up. When Robin quits her job, he and Lily take her in to live with them,^[26] and do so again in the seventh season after Robin breaks up with her boyfriend, Kevin (Kal Penn).^[27] Marshall asks her to move out when it becomes clear that Ted has unrequited feelings for her.^[28] However, he has an ongoing bet with Lily that Robin and Ted will end up together, which he eventually wins in 2030.

When Robin leaves the group in 2016, as portrayed in the series finale, Marshall resents her for it, but nevertheless welcomes her back four years later to celebrate Ted's wedding.^[10]

There is a running joke throughout the series in which Marshall believes that Robin is attracted to him, despite all evidence to the contrary.

References