First Time in New York

Infobox Television episode
Title = First Time in New York
Series = How I Met Your Mother
Season = 2
Episode = 12
Airdate = January 8, 2007
Production = 2ALH12
Writer = Gloria Calderon Kellet
Director = Pamela Fryman
Guests = Lyndsy Fonseca (Daughter), Ryan Pinkston (Sister's Boyfriend), David Henrie (Son), Brian Kubach (Brian), Stuart Randy Smith (Stranger), Misti Traya (Molly, Ted's First), Lucy Hale (Robin's Sister)
Episode list =List of How I Met Your Mother episodes
Prev = How Lily Stole Christmas
Next = Columns

"First Time in New York" is the 12^th episode in the second season of the television series "How I Met Your Mother". It originally aired on January 8, 2007.

Plot

Robin realizes that she is in love with Ted, but she can't bring herself to say it; instead, she says "falafel." While telling Lily about it, Robin admits that she's never said "I love you" to a guy before; none of her relationships have progressed that far.

Robin's sister Katie is coming to visit New York for the first time, and Ted suggests that he and Robin take her to the Empire State Building. When Katie arrives, Robin is surprised to see that she is with her boyfriend Kyle who is in town visiting his cousin. Katie tells Robin she's planning on having sex with Kyle and Robin recruits everyone else to help her convince Katie not to.

The gang takes Katie to the Empire State Building, which they use as a thinly-veiled metaphor for waiting for sex. Katie gets annoyed and accuses Robin of being a hypocrite. She says that she read Robin's diary and knows Robin lost her virginity when she was 16. Besides, she's been with Kyle for two months and they've already done everything else. Frustrated, Katie stalks off to smoke.

Everyone reflects on the first time they had sex. Barney tells them a story that turns out to be the story to "Dirty Dancing." Lily and Marshall did it in college; they wanted to wait and make it special, but did it in his dorm room with Ted in the top bunk. In the middle of sex, Robin's boyfriend admitted that he was gay. Robin says that they only "barely" had sex, and when Lily says it doesn't count, Marshall realizes that she went halfway with her high school boyfriend, Scooter. Lily doesn't understand why Marshall is mad at her, because she didn't really have sex with Scooter. She compares it to being in the Empire State building; they're in the lobby right now, and nobody buys tickets to get to the lobby. It doesn't count if you don't get to the top.

Katie comes back and says she doesn't want to see the Empire State Building anymore and she's going to see Kyle. Robin says that Katie only has one chance to lose her virginity and that she should do it with someone special, not Kyle. Katie points out that Robin has done it with "a hundred" guys and she couldn't have been in love with them all. Robin insists that she had some kind of feeling for all of them, and Katie puts her on the spot by asking her if she loves Ted. Ted pulls Robin aside and tells her that it's no big deal. Robin says that she just doesn't want to do it too soon. Ted asks, "Like I did?" Robin calls him an "I love you" slut and he calls her an "I love you prude." Ted then takes his "I love you" back.

Narrator Ted tries to convince his kids that when Katie slept with Kyle, she got pregnant with quintuplets, moved into a trailer park, and died an alcoholic. But in reality, Katie doesn't sleep with Kyle. Robin says that Katie admits it was because Ted told Katie about his first time, in which he told a girl he loved her when he didn't and he never saw her again. He told her that all 17 year old boys just want sex and will say anything to get it, even the nice ones. Katie tells Kyle she wants to wait and he dumps her. Robin tells Ted that the story doesn't sound like him, and he admits that it happened the other way around (the girl didn't mean it when she said she loved him). Robin then tells Ted that she loves him and they kiss.

At the end of the episode, the group takes Katie back to the Empire State building, and Marshall says that the last trip didn't count because they didn't get out of the lobby. Lily points out that, by that logic, he is the only one she's had sex with. Later that day, after Katie has left, they go to the bar and egg Barney to tell them the real story of his first time. He tries unsuccessfully to describe sex scenes from various movies before admitting that he was 23 and it was with his mother's 45 year old friend Rhonda. Realizing how much this embarrasses Barney, the group decides to pretend they never heard the real story.

Music

* The Weepies - "Gotta Have You"
* Mickey & Sylvia - "Love Is Strange"
* Nada Surf - "Always Love"
* Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes - "(I've Had) The Time of My Life"

Notes

* All of the characters reveal at what age they lost their virginity:
**Robin, 16
**Ted, 17
**Marshall & Lily, 18
**Barney, 23
*In the shots with a 17 year old Ted, when he and girlfriend both get out of bed (both times), they start with their jeans on, but in the next shot, they are putting their jeans on.

Cultural references

* Barney's story of when he lost his virginity is a parody of "Dirty Dancing". Marshall also has had the Patrick Swayze hit single "She's Like the Wind" stuck in his head since he saw the movie on TV. Later, Barney tries to use stories from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Risky Business" and "War Games" as his "first time" stories, but his friends call him on it.
*Future Ted's story about Robin's sister having quintuplets is a reference to Ryan Pinkston (Kyle) being on the short-lived Quintuplets; the creators of the show also worked on a couple episodes of that series.

Continuity

* The story about Ted being awake while Marshall and Lily lost their virginity is revealed after being mentioned in the pilot as one of their "firsts" in which Ted was present.
* The story about Barney losing his virginity to Rhonda comes up again in Season 3, The Yips.

External links

* " [http://www.tv.com/how-i-met-your-mother/first-time-in-new-york/episode/946374/summary.html First Time in New York] " at TV.com
* " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0897111/ First Time in New York] " at the Internet Movie Database