Do I Know You?
"Do I Know You?" is the first episode in the fourth season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 65th overall. It originally aired on September 22, 2008.
| "Do I Know You?" | |
|---|---|
| How I Met Your Mother episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Pamela Fryman |
| Written by | |
| Production code | 4ALH01 |
| Original air date | September 22, 2008 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
| |
Plot
Future Ted tells his children that the longest pause in anyone's life is right after they propose to someone; Present Ted, during this pause, imagines all of Stella's possible responses ("No", "Oh, God no", "I already agreed to marry the quarterback from your high school", etc.), after which Stella gave her actual answer of "Yes". Ted and Stella spend the summer happily engaged; Barney goes through physical therapy; and Marshall copes poorly with unemployment. At McLaren's, Robin expresses discontent with her newscasting job, describing herself as a bogeyman with a teleprompter. In response, Barney laughs too hard at this joke, which Lily notices and becomes suspicious.
The next day, Barney gets Lily to come over to his apartment and confides that he is in love with Robin. She agrees to help him if he will stop having one-night stands with bimbos. He tries to call Robin but panics and leaves a high-pitched gibberish voice mail instead, followed by another awkward, unsuccessful phone call. Lily sets Barney up on a dinner date with Robin, where he behaves quite unlike himself: not taking advantage of opportunities to make sex jokes, ignoring their waitress April's generous cleavage, and being interested in the goings-on of Robin's day, especially when she admits her insecurities about possibly applying for a potentially better job at a rival news station. Afterward, Robin gets April to hook up with Barney by telling her that he is the second baseman for the New York Yankees. Barney tells April that on any other night, he would try to convince her that he was a Yankee, but he cannot because he is in love with the girl who just left; but April still sleeps with Barney regardless, which Lily finds out the next morning. As a disappointed Lily leaves, Barney turns on the TV to Metro News 1 and affectionately watches a brief segment of Robin's newscast.
Marshall asks Ted for some wedding shower gift ideas for Stella, which makes Ted realise he does not know much about Stella. Ted later makes dinner for Stella and uses peanuts as the "secret ingredient", which, unknown to him, Stella is deathly allergic to. After they go to the hospital, Ted and Stella ask each other their "firsts" (first kiss, etc.), and Ted finds out that Stella has never seen Star Wars, his favorite movie of all time. The next night, Ted and Stella watch Star Wars, but Ted is really watching Stella to gauge her reactions. She mistakes this for foreplay and tries to kiss him, but he rebuffs her with "great scene, great scene". Eventually Stella asks him to leave the room for the time being, so she can watch the movie alone. When it is over, she tells Ted and Marshall she loves it. After an ecstatic Ted leaves, Stella confides to Marshall that she hates it. Marshall is very concerned, but Stella is convinced that she can pretend to love Star Wars for the rest of her life with Ted, to which Marshall gives her his blessing to marry Ted.
Critical response
Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode B+.[1]
Michelle Zoromski of IGN gave the episode 9 out of 10.[2]
Joel Keller of TV Squad graded the episode as mediocre, labelling Stella as the opposite of Dr. Elliot Reid, Sarah Chalke's other TV doctor character in Scrubs. He saw the Barney-Robin story in the episode as "emotionally-satisfying" as Barney struggles with his feelings for Robin and his playboy lifestyle.[3]
References
- Donna Bowman (September 22, 2008). "How I Met Your Mother "Do I Know You"". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
- Michelle Zoromski (September 21, 2008). "How I Met Your Mother: "Do I Know You?" Review. We take a look at the season four premiere". IGN. News Corporation. Archived from the original on December 13, 2010. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
- Joel Keller (September 23, 2008). "How I Met Your Mother: Do I Know You? (season premiere)". TV Squad. Weblogs, Inc. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2010.