- Ted tries to keep his irresponsible sister from hooking up with Barney during her trip to New York, and Robin starts hanging out with Marshall at a bar for Minnesotans, not telling them that she's really Canadian.
- During this Christmas holiday season, Robin is feeling more homesick than usual. To help her feel better, Marshall takes her to his local bar, which is for people from and celebrates Marshall's home state of Minnesota. Marshall comes here himself whenever he is feeling homesick. Despite Robin not being from Minnesota and despite the bar patrons ridiculing Canadians, Robin tries to make the bar her own place, at the expense of Marshall. Meanwhile, Ted's younger sister Heather is coming for a visit with the thought of actually moving to New York to begin a career in finance. Heather has always been a bit flaky in Ted's eyes and he can't see her making this move. But what Ted is most afraid of if Heather moves to New York is Barney, who has always wanted to sleep with Heather despite never having met her. Upon her arrival, Heather asks Ted to co-sign an apartment lease, otherwise there is no way she can move to the city. Ted, believing that Heather is too irresponsible, declines her request. Barney, Heather and Ted all try to use Lily to their advantage.—Huggo
- Robin enters MacLaren's wearing an unseasonable t-shirt and explains to Ted that the cold weather doesn't affect her because she's from Canada. Marshall agrees and compares New York in winter to a spring day in Minnesota, except for all the taxis, skyscrapers and non-white people. Upon returning from the bar Ted explains that his sister Heather (Erin Cahill) has arrived in New York and is planning to move there. He explains to the group that Heather is something of a screw up (having taken six years to graduate from three colleges, during which she crashed two cars, got married for five days, and lived in a tree nobody was planning on cutting down for nine weeks) and expresses his doubt of her ever actually moving to New York, telling them of the time she sold his possessions to buy tickets and travel to a Nine Inch Nails concert in Spain. When Barney calls he ignores it and Lily explains that he has been keeping Heather and Barney apart for the years she has been visiting New York, because he sings Christmas songs about banging her (I wish I could see her naked and down on all fours, Ted has a little sister gets hotter everyday and if I ever meet her with her boobies I will play).
Heather arrives and the group discovers Barney waiting for them at Ted's apartment with a rented swivel chair he brought for the occasion and a glass of brandy. Because of her inability to keep secrets, Lily admits tipping off Barney of Heather's arrival and reveals Robin's Christmas gift for Ted.
Barney is hurt that Ted tried to keep him away from Heather and explains that he never intended to act on all the inappropriate jokes he made. Ted explains that he does not trust Heather or Barney, though he relents (when Barney makes a sad face and offers to leave) and invites Barney to dinner with them on Sunday.
Robin is homesick and so Marshall takes her to the Walleye Saloon, a Minnesota-themed bar that he goes to when he is feeling homesick. Unfortunately she likes it so much (The guys at the bar are real men. No hair products, no manicures) that she ends up pretending to be from Minnesota to win the friendship of the bar patrons, much to Marshall's frustration. His frustration grows when she claims his story about the 1999 NFC championship game (The Vikings were 2 mins away from the super bowl, when their kicker missed a field goal and the team lost in overtime.. Marshall's dad cried and said that a little part of him died that day) as her own and boils over after she beats his high score on the Fisherman's Quest video game, at which point he unmasks Robin as a Canadian. He outs her by asking the name of the kicker who missed the field goal in the 1999 NFC game. While leaving Robin says to the whole bar that she is proud to be a Canadian where people are nice and friendly and you can go to a strip club and order beer while watching a coal miner's daughter strip down to her pelt. Plus Canadians are not afraid of the dark as Americans believe.
Over dinner, Heather and Ted discuss her decision to move to New York to work in finance and she asks him to co-sign the lease of an apartment she found. However, his lack of faith in her proves an obstacle. Barney offers her a job at the Goliath National Bank. Frustrated with Ted's insensitivity, Heather and Barney stage a fake sexual encounter after their interview at Goliath National Bank and ensure that Lily walks in on them (she had offered Ted to keep an eye on Heather and not leave her alone with Barney, but had stepped away from a few mins to say hi to Marshall at his office), knowing that she won't be able to keep it a secret from Ted.
Heather and Barney persist in taunting Ted until he confronts them at MacLaren's, claiming that Heather has never changed her attitude. Barney explains the plan to the surprised Ted and Lily, at the same time revealing that he kissed Ted's mother. Heather storms out to find a hotel, expressing her anger at Ted's refusal to accept that she has grown up.
Eventually Ted makes up with Heather (by giving her an expensive briefcase) and co-signs her lease, telling her he wants to get to know her. Marshall apologizes to Robin for outing her as a Canadian, and reassures her that despite her lack of job or boyfriend she still belongs in New York with her friends. To help ease her Christmas homesickness he takes her to a Canadian-themed bar, the Hoser Hut where he sings Let's go to the Mall much to Robin's shame.
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