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"No Pressure" is the 17th episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 153rd episode overall. It aired on February 20, 2012.

Plot

Future Ted tells his children that the day that he told their mother he loved her was significant because he had not said those words to anyone since he confessed to Robin that he still loved her. In the aftermath of Ted's confession, he reminds Robin that five years ago their thoughts on the future were too different, and they broke up. Before they can talk about how Ted's confession could change their platonic relationship and status as room-mates, Robin suddenly has to leave to work on a story in Moscow -- she thought she had another twelve hours before she had to leave.

Meanwhile, Barney wakes up at Lily and Marshall's house after taking the "drunk train" and becomes convinced that they have a sex tape hidden somewhere in their house. While searching for it, he finds a box of long-term bets they have been keeping, one of which involves Lily betting Marshall that Ted and Robin will not end up together. As Ted tells Marshall and Lily what happened between him and Robin, Barney arrives and calls Marshall and Lily out on their numerous long-term bets. When Barney learns that one of the bets confirms the existence of a sex tape, he returns to Marshall and Lily's house and eventually finds the tape. Ted learns of the bet regarding his relationship with Robin and becomes upset with Lily, who forces Ted to consider why he hasn't got back together with Robin in the past five years.

After successfully finding the sex tape, Barney returns to Ted's apartment to use his VCR. When Ted considers that the reason why he and Robin never got back together was because she is in love with Barney, he is surprised with Barney's tepid reaction. Barney tells Ted everything that happened between him and Robin, saying, "Whatever I thought was there, she thought differently", and despite being told that Robin and Kevin broke up, he gives his blessing to Ted if he and Robin begin dating again. However, before they can watch the sex tape, Marshall and Lily arrive to try to win the bet involving the sex tape (Lily wins if Barney watches it, while Marshall wins if Barney does not). After scaring Barney with possible images that he won't want to see, Marshall wins the bet when Barney destroys Ted's VCR.

When Robin returns from Russia, she and Ted have the chance to re-examine their relationship. Ted picks her up at the airport, takes her to dinner at the Brooklyn bistro from the "Pilot" episode, and then home. He realizes that they aren't going to work out and turns down Robin's consolation that they still have an agreement to get married if they are both single at age 40. When Ted asks if Robin loves him, Robin admits that she doesn't and feels comfortable with them as friends. Ted asks her to forget that the past week ever happened.

When Marshall learns that Ted is giving up on the idea of being with Robin in any romantic context, he tells Robin that she should move out for Ted's sake, which she agrees to do. Robin shortly thereafter moves out, leaving Ted forlorn and alone on the roof of his apartment building. Some time later, as future Ted tells his children that getting closure on his relationship with Robin finally opened the possibility of meeting their mother, Ted walks out of MacLaren's Bar as all the people on the street walk by with yellow umbrellas. At their house, Lily, convinced that this is the definite end of Ted and Robin, asks Marshall to pay up on their bet. Echoing his words at Ted's wedding to Stella, Marshall refuses, smiles and then says "Not yet".

Music

• "Shake It Out" by Florence and the Machine.

Cameo appearance by Conan O'Brien

Talk show host Conan O'Brien makes a very brief cameo appearance in the episode as a non-speaking patron at MacLaren's; he can be seen in the second part of the episode, watching on as Barney races out of the bar. O'Brien won the role via a 2011 charity auction. According to show co-creator Carter Bays, when the show's writers and producers first learned that O'Brien won the auction, they started to brainstorm ideas about what he could play. O'Brien, however, replied back that he just wanted to be an extra who would blend in. "We realized this was really the funniest version ", said Bays. "In New York, every now and then you'll see somebody famous at a bar, but nobody really makes a big deal out of it."

Continuity

• The movie that is playing when Ted tells the Mother he loves her is The Wedding Bride III, a call-back to the twenty-third episode of the fifth season, entitled "The Wedding Bride."
• Various elements of Ted and Robin's on-and-off relationship throughout seasons 1 and 2, are flashed back to. The Blue French Horn (a.k.a, "The Smurf Penis") that Ted stole for Robin reappears, though now chained and padlocked to the restaurant's wall.
• Lily remarking that she nearly won the bet that Ted would not end up with Robin involves flashbacks to Ted's (almost) marriage to Stella Zinman in "Shelter Island."
• The idea of the yellow umbrella belonging to the Mother is revisited at the beginning and end of the episode.
• Russia is one of the countries that Ted mentions Robin will eventually visit in "Lucky Penny"; she has already gone to Argentina ("Wait for It") and Japan ("Shelter Island").
• It took Barney 46 minutes to get from Long Island back to Ted's apartment, the length of time Lily remarks it will take to get from Ted's apartment to her house on Long Island in "46 Minutes."
• Ted and Robin's agreement to get married at forty if they are both single is first referenced in the 17th episode of season 4, "The Front Porch."
• Marshall asks if Ted would have done the same thing for him if he was depressed, referring to Ted's Christmas light display he made for Robin in Symphony of Illumination
• Ted and Barney talk about Barney's infidelity to Nora and Ted mentions that he saw Barney cleaning up the rose petals from Robin's bed in "Tick Tick Tick."

Barney's blog

Barney provides an equation to determine whether or not someone should watch their bro's sex tape.

Cultural references

• Barney hears Lily speak in the same fashion that Charlie Brown hears every adult speak from the Peanuts cartoons.
• When Ted considers pursuing Robin again, Lily tells Ted to go to Russia with love in reference to the James Bond film.
• Robin goes to Russia to cover the Maslenitsa festival, which is a pre-Lenten festival celebrated by members of the Eastern Orthodox faith. It is very popular in Moscow, where the bulk of the festival occurs.
• Barney can be seen trying to figure out the "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" dance in the backseat of Marshall's car.
• Ted still has a VCR, the only friend Barney knows who still owns the "outdated video device", until Barney smashes it.

Critical response

Donna Bowman of The A. V. Club gave the episode an A−.

After being particularly critical of the previous episode, Television Without Pity's Ethan Alter gave "No Pressure" a B, stating that the Ted and Robin storyline was "mercifully brief" but criticised Lily and Marshall for breaking character.

References

1. "How I Met Your Mother Season 7 Episode 17 Photos". TVLine.com. Retrieved February 1, 2012. {{cite web}}: Text "TVLine.com" ignored (help)
2. "Conan O'Brien Books 'How I Met Your Mother' Extra Gig". AOLTV. 2011-06-24. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
3. "Did You Catch the Very Famous Extra on Tonight's How I Met Your Mother?". vulture.com. 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
4. How I Met Your Mother Mondays 8/7c (2012-02-21). "Barney's Blog: The Sex Tape Conundrum - How I Met Your Mother". CBS.com. Retrieved 2012-05-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
5. Grade it (2012-02-20). ""No Pressure" | How I Met Your Mother | TV Club | TV". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
6. "How I Met Your Mother TV Show - No Pressure - How I Met Your Mother Recaps, How I Met Your Mother Reviews, How I Met Your Mother Episodes | TWoP". Televisionwithoutpity.com. 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2012-05-26.

External links

• "No Pressure" at IMDb

• How I Met Your Mother (season 7) episodes
• 2012 television episodes