- When Lily and Marshall realize that Robin and Barney are the perfect double-date friends, they try too hard to impress and come on too strong. Meanwhile, Ted gets a new nickname from Barney after an unsuccessful hook-up.
- Marshall and Lily are excited that Robin and Barney are dating as they now have friends who are a couple with who they can double date. Marshall and Lily don't have such friends because, unknown to them, they, to use Ted's vernacular, suck at being couples friends since they are so intense about making it a good time. Barney and Robin have no idea into what they are entering when they accept Marshall and Lily's invitation to spend a couples night at their place. After what they consider the worst night of their lives on that couples night, Robin and Barney don't have the heart to tell Marshall and Lily. After Robin and Barney eventually dump Marshall and Lily as their double dating friends, they are the ones who end up feeling shunned by the consequences. Meanwhile, Ted is sporting a new look - tweed - to make him look more professorial. He believes it is making him more attractive to the ladies. But when his latest "conquest" leaves the next morning, Barney believes that that look has now put Ted in the role of the sexless innkeeper. Ted tries to prove him wrong.—Huggo
- Lily and Marshall are excited to have another couple to hang out with. Future Ted explains that they had fared poorly with previous couples, coming across as clingy and desperate (Marshall would always offer the Gouda cheese, they try to block couple dates for New Years in April. Lily wont allow people to leave unless they finish their games and their food. One time they even invite Ranjit (Marshall Manesh) and his wife Falguni). With Barney and Robin now a couple, they hope to turn their luck around. This time they have prepared an entire flow of the room, and the stories they are going to share at each station.
After an evening together, Lily and Marshall are under the impression that it was "the best night ever", despite Robin and Barney being obviously bored and uncomfortable. They tell Ted that Marshall got super intense about the cheese (Lily is a gourmet cook and all she allows Marshall to serve is the Gouda block of cheese). They keep shoving platters of food in their faces. They would freak out if anything did not go according to plan (the egg timer broke). Marshall already made a website about the previous night with Barney and Robin, indicating that it was their best night ever with another couple. Marshall even sang a song
Robin and Barney ignore their messages and avoid Lily and Marshall, but they eventually admit that they don't want to be "couple friends" (when Marshall and Lily book for a couple's weekend in Vermont). Barney makes bizarre reasons like him and Robin being tasked to lead an expedition to find alien life at the bottom of the ocean. Devastated, Lily and Marshall blame each other for the failure, citing Marshall's bizarre photo montages of trivial events (Cat sitting for Lily's mom who jumped out the window, cat funeral, spilling soy sauce on the sofa while eating Chinese and flipping the cushion to hide it from Lily) and Lily's tendency to plan big outings too quickly. Lily says Marshall messed up the egg timer for the charades, but Marshall says he was also in charge of the Gouda.
After a week apart from Lily and Marshall, Robin and Barney realize they miss their friends, and head over to their condo, only to find them enjoying the company of another couple (Py (K.T. Tatara) & Shea (Maura McCarthy)). Barney and Robin are crushed by the rejection.
They interrupt another couple's night at Lily and Marshall's apartment, leading them outside with a trail of egg timers for Charades. In the rain, Barney and Robin ask for one more chance, which Marshall and Lily grant them, attracted by their "bad boy... and girl" mystique. They promise to never fight again, and share a hug.
Ted has settled into the persona of a professor, often wearing a tweed jacket. He claims it attracts the ladies, but after a woman leaves his apartment in the morning without having sex, Barney calls him the "Sexless Innkeeper." Barney says that the women are just looking for a place to crash for the night as they live too far away and Ted lives just above the bar. He elaborates with a poem set in a Dickensian version of Queens, where he was caught in a blizzard, walked a few blocks to an ugly woman's apartment, and feigned sleep to avoid sex. Ted is annoyed at the new nickname.
As Barney and Robin leave for brunch with Lily and Marshall, Ted recites a poem of his own for Barney, telling the tale of a busty young blonde woman who was turned on by his professor persona. Barney is skeptical, but is left speechless when the young woman appears at Ted's bedroom door, inviting Ted back to bed, thus ending the reign of the Sexless Innkeeper.
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