Top 10 How I Met Your Mother Episodes

Greetings, reader!

This spring, the debut season of spin-off series How I Met Your Father was released. It flew so much under the radar that even this HIMYM mega-fan hasn't gotten around to seeing it yet - maybe some day. For now, I figured that a ranking of How I Met Your Mother's greatest episodes is long overdue, as it is one of my all-time favorite sitcoms.

A spoiler alert is in order, as the post is aimed at people who have seen How I Met Your Mother, so I will go into plot details when discussing what makes these ten episodes so legen...

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Here are my honorable mentions: The Pineapple Incident (Season 1 Episode 10), The Limo (Season 1 Episode 11), How I Met Everyone Else (Season 3 Episode 5), Shelter Island (Season 4 Episode 5), False Positive (Season 6 Episode 12), Legendaddy (Season 6 Episode 19), Tailgate (Season 7 Episode 13), Last Forever (Season 9 Episodes 23-24).

10. The Magician's Code (Season 7, Episodes 23-24)

"Look - I'm a screwup. I'm having something special with this girl Quinn and I ruined it. But this guy; he's done everything right. He's been loving and devoting since he was 18 years old. There are a few truly great people on this planet and he is one of them. And he deserves to be at the birth of his son. So what do you say?"

...dary!

This two-part finale to the show's seventh season manages to cram a whole lot of material into its runtime. Lily (Alyson Hannigan) gives birth to her and Marshall's (Jason Segel) firstborn Marvin, while Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) proposes to Quinn (Becki Newton) in a hilariously over-blown spectacle that is somehow only the second-most memorable proposal in the series, and a flash-forward ending gives more details on the wedding where Ted (Josh Radnor) will eventually meet the love of his life.

The episode has some hilarious gags, such as Barney taking the mystery of the 'Magician's code' very seriously and Marshall and Lily giving their child the middle name Waitforit. It is also filled with emotional moments - my heart melts every time the old people on the bus pull a Spartacus so that Marshall can be there to witness the birth of his son. It's a climactic and extremely eventful ending for the season, setting the table for the show's two final seasons with brilliance.

9. The Time Travelers (Season 8 Episode 20)

"Kids, it's been almost 20 years since that cold April night in 2013, and I can safely tell you, if I could go back in time and relive that night, there's no way in hell I'd go to Robots vs. Wrestlers. No, I'd go home. I'd go to my old apartment, see all my old furniture, my old stuff. I'd see my old drafting table where I sketched out my first building. I'd sit on that old couch and smell the Indian food cooking three stories below. I'd go to Lily and Marshall's place, be back in that old living room where so many things happened. But none of those things is the thing I'd do first. You know the thing I'd do first"

If I had a list of the TV episodes most sure to make me cry, this would probably make the top five. A majority of the episode is strongly on the wacky shenanigans -side of things, as Ted debates whether or not he should go to Robots vs. Wrestlers, and in his head he has conversations with Barney, 20-years-from-now Barney, 20-years-from-now Ted, and 20-minutes-from-now Barney. It's all quite fun. But then the episode's ending hits you like a thousand nails piercing your heart.

When you're watching the series through for the first time, not knowing how it will end, the ending is only somewhat emotional - we find out that Ted is just 45 days away from meeting the Mother (Cristin Milioti) for the first time, and if future-Ted could go back in time to that moment, he would immediately find the Mother so that they could meet earlier. Pretty sweet, I guess.

But when you've watched the whole series, thus finding out that the Mother has passed away by the time Ted is telling the story to their children, re-watching this episode will give you a crucial bit of context. We realize just how powerful Ted's words are, because he's talking about his dead wife, and how he would give anything to have met her earlier, because spending just those 45 extra days with her would've meant the world to him. When we hear narrator-Ted saying "You know the thing I'd do first", followed by a vision of Young Ted running over to the Mother's apartment and telling her that they're going to fall in love and that he wants these extra 45 days with her, to the backdrop of John Swihart's deeply emotional score - it's just too much. HIMYM is one of the funniest shows I've seen, but it's also so much more than a mere sitcom.

8. Three Days of Snow (Season 4 Episode 13)

"We should buy a bar"

"OF COURSE, we should buy a bar!"

"We should totally buy a bar"

"We should TOTALLY buy a bar! Our bar would be awesome. And dude, dude...DUDE! DUDE!!!! The name of our bar...Puzzles. People will be like, 'why is it called Puzzles?'. THAT'S THE PUZZLE!"

And now for something completely different - whereas The Time Travelers represents HIMYM at its most obscure, creative and wildly emotional, Three Days of Snow is a testament to how well the series succeeds as a conventional sitcom as well. There's nothing all that groundbreaking about this nice season 4 episode (although the twist that we had been following three separate days instead of three storylines on the same day was quite cool), but it's just a really swell feel-good episode filled with heartwarming moments and hilarious jokes.

Not only do Ted and Barney want to buy a bar, but so does (at least on some level) every real-life set of bros who have watched this series and this episode in particular. The storyline of those two running McLaren's for a night, to the backdrop of The Beach Boys' Kokomo (the HIMYM showrunners are world class in always choosing the best possible song to perfect the atmosphere), is an absolute delight. Even better is Lily and Marshall's storyline of keeping up their silly airport tradition, which ends in a fantastic rom-com payoff that melts my heart every time.

7. Tick Tick Tick (Season 7 Episode 10)

"Feels good to be sober again. Man, how long have we been sitting here?"

"Twelve seconds, and you're in the wrong booth"

Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Barney's storyline in this season 7 instalment is a good example of the show's emotional side, and Neil Patrick Harris' acting is so good that you'll really feel for the character who you'd often think to be beyond deserving anyone's sympathies. But that thoroughly decent storyline isn't why Tick Tick Tick is one of my biggest favorites - the reason for that is Ted and Marshall's stoned misadventure during the Groovapalooza, which is one the hands-down funniest things I've ever seen across movies and television.

Radnor and Segel are just so damn funny when acting high, and the various running gags such as them never finding the nacho line and always ending up in the line for the ladies' room are simply top tier comedy. Even better is the moment when Lily finally finds them, explains that they were gone for only two minutes, and we see the "What really happened" version instead of the "How the characters experienced it" one we'd seen earlier (a trope that HIMYM has often used in clever ways). This episode has me rolling with laughter every time.

6. Girls Vs. Suits (Season 5 Episode 12)

"I thought you were a complete idiot - but a very cute idiot"

"So, um, do you ever date cute idiots?"

"Almost exclusively"

The hundredth episode of the series hits all the right notes. How I Met Your Mother celebrates the 100-episode milestone in two remarkable ways, with one storyline that takes the show's comedic hijinks to a spectacular level, and another that masterfully weaves the show's romantic themes, magical atmosphere and long-term storytelling into a great sequence of events.

The comedic side comes from Barney's storyline, where he's trying to get with a hot bartender who hates men in suits - thus forcing the character to choose between his two greatest passions. This difficult decision culminates in a fantastically over-the-top musical number, where Neil Patrick Harris really gets to show off his Broadway chops while the choreographies are way better than a half-hour network sitcom has any right to be.

But Ted's storyline is arguably even more hundredth-episode-worthy, as the star-crossed story of him and The Mother comes to one of its most memorable points. Of course, the two would meet for the first time in the series finale, but throughout the series, there are magical moments of them almost crossing paths in memorable ways, and one of the very best instances can be found here: Ted goes on a date with her roommate, Cindy. When at their apartment, Ted singles out three items in Cindy's room that really resonate with him, and they are the exact three items that actually belong to the mysterious roommate - the woman he would one day fall in love with. The late Bob Saget provides one of his finest hours as the voice of older narrator-Ted, as his emotional reminiscing of this close-call-encounter is a real testament to how meant-to-be the eventual love story of Ted and Tracy always was.

5. Something New (Season 8 Episode 24)

"This is such a big decision. I'm not good at big decisions"

"...Are you sure you want to be a judge?"

Did I mention that the people who chose the background songs to pivotal How I Met Your Mother scenes are absolute geniuses and the very best in their field? Because the finale to the show's second-last season is one of the best examples of their masterful work - the use of Simple Song by The Shins in the final montage is so good, that it has literally become a song that starts to play in my head during certain dramatic season-finale-like moments in my own life. The way the song's creepy intro starts to play in the background while Lily warns Ted not to do anything stupid (right before Ted, as is tradition, does something stupid), is so wonderfully unsettling, only for the first verse to kick in just as the season-ending montage begins as we see the main characters looking important and determined, with all five having dramatic moments and decisions ahead of them.

Of course, the delicious cherry on top of this cake is the very ending of the montage, as after eight seasons of build-up, we see The Mother for the first time. While it would take a whole final season before we got to see her meeting Ted for the first time, this scene feels climactic as hell as we finally get a face to the by-then mythical figure. Cristin Milioti was so perfect for the role, that with just one mundane line of dialogue and a smile, it immediately felt right - of course the woman Ted has been talking about looks and acts like this. Definitely one of the most epic character entrances in all of television.

4. Farhampton (Season 8 Episode 1)

"Have you ever felt this way about someone?"

"I think so"

"If you have to think about it, you have not felt it"
"And you're absolutely sure you'll find that someday?"

"Of course. Everyone does eventually...you just never know when or where"

Farhampton is, in my view, the greatest season premiere in sitcom history. The show's eighth season couldn't have kicked off any better, as this 22-minute juggernaut hits an insane combo of memorable laughs, heartstring-tugging emotion and well-built storytelling. The laughs are much thanks to Marshall and Lily being deliriously sleep-deprived and out of it in the aftermath of Marvin Waitforit Eriksen's birth, further complimented by the linguistic shenanigans of runaway groom Klaus (Thomas Lennon) and perfected by the scene where Barney basically recaps the entire series to Quinn in one minute.

The heart, as well as the epic scale of the story, reaches a maximum at the ending - once again made infinitely better by the best possible soundtrack choice, The Funeral by Band of Horses. The song's atmospheric and delicate opening half plays as Klaus gives Ted a monologue of love, and we see a heartfelt montage including Robin realizing how much she means to Barney, and Lily and Marshall looking lovingly at their newborn child. Then, just as the song implodes into power-ballad mode with banging drums and distorted guitars, we flash forward to the stormy wedding night some ways down the road, where Ted would eventually meet The Mother, thus learning for the first time where the fateful encounter would take place. That moment always gives me major goosebumps.

(*Salutes* Major Goosebumps!)

3. The Final Page (Season 8, Episodes 11-12)

"Step fourteen: Robin arrives at her favorite spot in the city, and finds this secret final page of the playbook - the last play you'll ever run"

For many years, I considered The Final Page to be the #1 best episode of HIMYM - it still is just half an inch away, as the top three are all 10/10 masterpieces that were extremely difficult to put into order. While it is now very barely beaten by two others, this two-part extravaganza is still better in my books than the #1 best episode of shows like F.R.I.E.N.D.S., Seinfeld and The Office.

Part 1 is hilarious in its own right, as we see the gang taking jinx rules way too seriously (something that has passed on to me and my friends at university, with amusing results), but Part 2 is where the fireworks start. Barney's proposal to Robin may be insanely over-the-top, but for those particular characters in this particular series, it is just magical enough to work - the show's overblown hijinks meet with the show's rom-com influences to make for a scene that is as funny as it is clever and most of all heartwarming. I've watched the episode many, many times, and my heart still always skips a beat when Robin sees Barney standing on the rooftop after reading through the Playbook's final page - and even more so when she turns the page and realizes that he's proposing, as Let Your Heart Hold Fast by Fort Atlantic starts to play (seriously, the people who were in charge of soundtracks for HIMYM might be my favorite people in the world).

But everyone only remembers this episode for the high-concept proposal, which overshadows an other element worth mentioning - this is the episode where the building designed by Ted is finally opened for business. The architect protagonist's dream of designing a building into the New York City skyline is first mentioned in season 1, and it was built gradually across eight seasons, with tons of small steps across the process mixing into the series. I've always found Ted very relatable (often to a worrying degree), and so I was very invested in this long-term storyline - hence the very climactic feel of finally seeing his building opened, which is a huge moment for his character.

2. The Leap (Season 4 Episode 24)

"That was the year I got left at the altar. It was the year I got knocked out by a crazy bartender. The year I got fired. The year I got beat up by a goat - a girl goat at that. And dammit if it wasn't the best year of my life"

Again, I just have to applaud the soundtrack department. Not only does Prophets by A.C. Newman create the backdrop for this episode's climactic scene (the best individual moment in all of HIMYM), but snippets of its intro and chord progression are heard throughout this season four finale as a means of subconscious build-up. I've watched this gem so many times that this soundtrack build-up has created somewhat of a Pavlovian effect on me; right in the very first scene, as you hear the Prophets chords in the background as Ted explains what is going on and the song bursts into its intro at a sudden high volume, I immediately feel a rush of magical anticipation.

And it all builds up to that scene, where after long deliberation, the five main characters take the symbolically important leap from their rooftop onto the patio of the next building. When everyone else has jumped except for my main man Mosby, he pauses to think as the older narrator-Ted gives the speech I quoted above. And naturally, the song reaches its most epic part right at the moment he says "And dammit if it wasn't the best year of my life" and takes the leap.

I've always found this episode to resonate with me, but it gained a whole new level at the end of 2020. I was celebrating New Year's Eve with my friends, when I started thinking about the past year - Covid-19 had fucked the world up, I had broken up with a longtime girlfriend and so on, yet I couldn't help but smile when thinking of all the good things that had happened that year. And in that moment, more than ever before, I felt exactly as I've imagined Ted feeling in that moment, realizing he wants to focus on the good instead of dwelling on the bad, ready to take the metaphoric leap.

1. How Your Mother Met Me (Season 9 Episode 16)

"Kids, I must've heard your Mom's rendition of La Vie En Rose a million times over the years - every night when she tucked you in, for instance. But that performance, that first night I ever heard her sing, that one will always be my favorite"

Across the show's first eight and a half seasons, we had seen many close calls between Ted and Tracy - his date with her roommate, the back-and-forth journey of the iconic yellow umbrella, him accidentally teaching an Econ 101 class where she was enrolled, and so on. And late in the final season, with just a few episodes to go of the series, the showrunners had their greatest stroke of genius - doing an episode that follows the timeline from the show's pilot episode all the way to the present point in time on Barney and Robin's wedding weekend, but from Tracy's perspective.

The episode is beyond clever, as we get so much more context for the various connections between the star-crossed lovers. It's also fun and nostalgic, as we see bits from classic episodes across the seasons from a slightly different viewpoint. But the great minds of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas didn't settle for just fun and clever, but opted to also give Tracy's story a massive emotional core - we find all about the original love of her life, his tragic passing, and the years and years that it took for her to get over the devastating loss and be ready to find love again. Every time I re-watch this episode, I'm left speechless by just how effectively the showrunners could flesh out a character and make the viewer care about her so incredibly much in less than half an hour of runtime.

The scene where she steps outside to speak to her former lover up in the heavens is a towering performance by Milioti, and the way it goes down is nothing short of cathartic. Shortly after that, we're treated to an equally powerful scene, as Tracy returns to her hotel room and plays a beautiful rendition of La Vie En Rose on the ukulele, as the camera pans to show that Ted was on the very next balcony, listening in awe (if you manage to watch this scene without shedding a tear, I'm convinced you're a robot or an alien impostor). God, this series is amazing.

Thank you for reading! Saturday Night Live (1975-Present) airs its season 47 finale this week, so next week I'll be sharing my Top 15 favorite SNL skits of all time. See you then!