Barney's relationship with
Quinn is strained as he overreacts whenever he thinks her job is mentioned. After two of Quinn's regular customers greet her on the sidewalk, Barney fires a top GNB employee and offers Quinn a job at the bank as an "executive strategy coordinator", so she can earn income without having to strip. Seeing that Barney is trying to dictate her career, Quinn asks for some time to think and leaves Barney, who reinstates the employee.
Lily and
Marshall hold their baby shower.
Ted and
Robin separately miss the shower on purpose to avoid seeing each other. Barney encourages Ted to try
online dating and sets him up with three specific women. Over the course of each date, Ted suddenly visualizes Robin sitting in front of him and is determined to get her out of his mind even if his dates find him weird. On the third date, Ted finds out that his date, Holly, needed someone to get her over a recent breakup, which leads them to sleeping together. Ted goes back to MacLaren's and tries to order a drink, but sees Robin as the bartender and as a nearby patron. Both pseudo-Robins encourage him to find Robin and make amends. With the baby's impending birth, Marshall conditions himself for various parenthood situations by using a watermelon as a practice baby. Lily is not happy with what he is doing and applies for a two-day parental workshop. Marshall dozes off seeing Lily as the driver but wakes up hours later with Barney behind the wheel. Barney explains that Lily asked him to help trick Marshall into taking a vacation in
Atlantic City so Marshall could unwind. At a casino, Barney proposes wearing the
Ducky Tie again if they can turn off their phones for one hour and drink 100 tequila shots. As Robin pulls up to McLaren's in a taxi, Ted tells her that they need to talk; she tells him that now is not a good time. In Atlantic City, a drunk Marshall madly tosses poker chips around the casino floor while Barney turns his phone back on and sees 17 voicemails – all coming from Lily, who is now in labor and wants them back in New York immediately. ==Critical reception==