Challenge Accepted

"Challenge Accepted"
How I Met Your Mother episode
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 24
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Written by	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas
Production code	6ALH23
Original air date	May 16, 2011 (2011-05-16)
Guest stars
Nazanin Boniadi (Nora) Marshall Manesh (Ranjit) Jennifer Morrison (Zoey Pierson) Dave Foley (Jake Bloom) Chi McBride (Foreman)
Season 6 episodes
Big Days Cleaning House Unfinished Subway Wars Architect of Destruction Baby Talk Canning Randy Natural History Glitter Blitzgiving The Mermaid Theory False Positive Bad News Last Words Oh Honey Desperation Day Garbage Island A Change of Heart Legendaddy The Exploding Meatball Sub Hopeless The Perfect Cocktail Landmarks Challenge Accepted

"Challenge Accepted" is the twenty fourth and final episode of the sixth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother and the 136th episode overall. It aired on May 16, 2011.

Plot

With the Arcadian denied landmark status, Barney and Ted argue about who is going to press the button to blow up the building, which Future Ted says is the only thing they did over the summer. Amid the arguing, Ted mentions that he ran into Zoey after breaking up and she asked to get coffee with him, which Robin and Barney say is a signal that she wants to get back together with him.

The episode flashes-forward to September 2011. Marshall is feeling down, so Lily decides to get them both some of their favourite soup. But shortly after eating it, Lily gets sick and begins throwing up. Desperate to stop Marshall from eating any, after an attempt to call him, she runs from the school to meet him at the house. She stops him just before he takes a bite - of his third bowl.

Marshall has an important business meeting with a prospective employer (Dave Foley) and has figured out the time when he'll begin vomiting as well. While at the meeting, he resists vomiting, despite a plethora of disgusting images and stories that the employer tells. Eventually, he gives in and tells the employer he is set to vomit soon and runs out of the room.

Discouraged that he probably blew his chance at his dream job, he comes home and lays down to get some rest before his "countdown" finishes. He wakes up the following morning to find out that he hadn't gotten sick at all; it is revealed that Lily was throwing up because she is pregnant.

Meanwhile, with the Arcadian's demolition a day away, Ted is distraught with what to do about the lighting for the new building, and, as he has done before, decides that this warrants getting back together with a recent ex-girlfriend - in this case, Zoey. He decides to meet her and buy her an orchid like he first did for her, but Barney and Robin stop him before he can. While on their way to stop Ted, they have a tender moment, but ultimately decide that they both need to move on. Barney eventually lets Ted press the button to blow up the Arcadian, and soon after the demolition takes place, Barney meets Nora again, and asks her to coffee, which Nora accepts. Robin is first shown to be smiling, but then quickly becomes upset as she sees that Barney wants to get back together with Nora, hinting that her feelings for him may be resurfacing.

The episode flashes-forward again to the wedding first seen in "Big Days", where Ted and Marshall are sitting outside the church, and Ted is then called in by Lily. Ted goes inside to check on the groom, who is revealed to be Barney.

Production

According to show co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, a majority of this Season 6 finale takes place in September instead of May "so we can pick up Season 7 exactly where we left off".^[1] Said Thomas, "This is the first time in the history of our show we're doing a finale that is not set in May. We jump ahead to September, basically to the beginning of next season."^[2]

This episode was shot with extra security because of the two major revelations at the end: Lily being pregnant and Barney being the groom at the future wedding.^[1]

Music

The underscore from "Subway Wars" is reused in this episode.

"Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)" by George Harrison is played during the wedding scene at the end of the episode and also played at the first episode of season 6.

Continuity

• Future Ted tricks his kids into thinking a blonde girl he gives the orchid to by mistake is their mother. He plays a similar trick in "Belly Full of Turkey".
• Lily is seen with the "Marshpillow" stand-in, first seen in "Desperation Day", when Marshall walks into their apartment after an interview.
• Lily speaks "conductor," as previously shown in "Subway Wars".
• Barney says "challenge accepted" after Nora says it's never too late to wear sundresses. This could be a reference from "Hopeless", whereby Barney's dad Jerome said the biggest challenge in his life was settling down.
• Nora's comment on sundresses is a throwback to the first episode of the season, "Big Days," when Barney complains to Ted that the season for wearing sundresses is ending soon. In "Big Days," after denying Barney's claim that she has "lost it," Robin leaves the bar to change. When she returns, Barney observes that she "sundressed up."
• Lily introduces a new class pet guinea pig, Mr. Buttons 2, after Mr. Buttons 1 (and its fate) is mentioned by Barney in "A Change of Heart".
• Barney mentions his "New is always better" rule. It was first mentioned in "Architect of Destruction".
• Marshall is a terrible liar, as shown in many episodes such as "Miracles", where he tells his boss he has lice and in Jenkins when Lily visits GNB.
• A montage of flashbacks show Ted asking other ex-girlfriends if they'd like "to get coffee" with him, including Natalie from "Return of the Shirt", his former cheating college girlfriend Karen, and Robin.
• Barney and Robin try to remember where Ted says he and Zoey went on their first date, but both realize they only heard muted trumpets, first referenced in "Garbage Island". It's revealed that Lily also tuned out Ted's talking about Zoey.
• Ted rips the label on his beer throughout the episode, which he first does in the first episode of the season "Big Days".

Cultural references

• Marshall says Lily's vomiting makes her sound like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park.
• Barney and Robin do not listen to Ted by spacing out like Miss Othmar in Peanuts.
• Trader Joe's was mentioned while Barney and Robin were outside the "Intersection".
• The construction company is called "Muttnik Construction", referencing the Carter-Bays stamp logo at the end of every episode.

Reception

Donna Bowman of the AV Club gave the episode a B.^[3] IGN gave the episode a rating of 7 out of 10.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "How I Met Your Mother’s Carter Bays and Craig Thomas on Last Night’s Finale and Their 15-Year Partnership". New York Magazine. 2011-05-16. http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/05/carter_bays_craig_thomas_how_i.html. Retrieved 2011-05-21. 
2. ^ "How I Met Your Mother's Craig Thomas: Don't Miss the Last Two Minutes of the Finale". TV Guide. 2011-05-15. http://www.tvguide.com/News/HIMYM-Finale-Craig-Thomas-1033120.aspx. Retrieved 2011-05-21. 
3. ^ http://www.avclub.com/articles/challenge-accepted,56083/

External links

• "Challenge Accepted" at the Internet Movie Database