Tailgate (How I Met Your Mother)

Did You Know?

• The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+ grade.
• The Puzzles subplot was described by The A.V. Club as "the funniest of the three stories".
• The bar's theme song was compared to the opening of Cheers.

Plot

On New Year's Day 2012, Marshall goes to his father's grave to keep their tradition of tailgating alive, tuning into the Chicago Bears versus Minnesota Vikings game on the radio. His plan for a quiet moment alone with his dad falls apart when his brothers show up with the same idea, and soon people from a nearby funeral wander over and join the party. At the gravesite, Marshall recounts how he, Lily, Ted, Barney, and Robin spent New Year's Eve.

Before that cemetery scene, Lily and Marshall are painting the baby's room in East Meadow. Marshall finds out Lily hasn't told her father she's pregnant. He talks her into calling him in Chicago, where he's at a board-game convention, but Lily feels let down by his indifferent response. Marshall then tries to read her his favorite childhood book, "Enigmas of the Mystical," but Lily admits she can't buy into any of the stories. Realizing she's upset, Marshall apologizes and says he acted that way because his dad taught him to believe in magic. Lily explains her dad taught her to believe only in herself.

Meanwhile, Ted and Barney get fed up with how hard it is to reach MacLaren's during the New Year's Eve crowd, so they turn Ted's apartment into a makeshift bar called "Puzzles." They get Kevin to tend bar and Doug, the MacLaren's bouncer, to handle security. They start with reasonable drink prices but are forced to raise them when the rowdy crowd gets out of hand, and eventually everyone leaves.

Robin gets called into work on New Year's Eve because Sandy Rivers, the TV anchor, starts drinking on air after the female producer for World Wide News dumps him. He then vanishes. Robin struggles to get Sandy back on the air, but he disappears again just before midnight. She calls Kevin in desperation, and he convinces her to take Sandy's place, even though Kevin later finds Sandy passed out in Ted's bathtub—something he doesn't tell Robin. She follows his advice, and Kevin, Ted, and Barney watch her anchor the New Year's Eve broadcast. Future Ted notes this was the turning point in Robin's career, leading to a promotion as Sandy's co-host.