The Broath

"The Broath"

"The Broath" is the nineteenth episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 155th episode overall. It aired on March 19, 2012.

Plot

After being absent from the group for a while, Barney summons Ted to his apartment to administer "The Bro-Oath" or "Broath," swearing him to secrecy about what Quinn does for a living. Although Ted agrees to keep the secret, he immediately tells the rest of the group, who are worried Quinn is simply using Barney (as she did when he was her customer at the Lusty Leopard). Following an evening at Quinn's apartment during which Quinn insults Barney and orders him around, Lily tells the gang they need to break up Barney and Quinn after learning of their plan to move in together. They stage an Intervention, or, as Marshall calls it, a "Quinn-tervention". Quinn walks in and breaks up with Barney, saying if he has to lie about her job, she can't be with him. When the gang goes to Barney's apartment to apologize, he swears them all to a Broath not to interfere with his life "unless it is a matter of health, national security or [he is] about to get up on a fattie." After getting both Lily & Robin and Marshall & Ted to kiss, Quinn reveals it to be an elaborate hoax she cooked up with Barney to keep the gang from judging her.

In the sub-plot, Robin and Ted, both of whom are recently homeless since Robin left and Ted handed over his apartment's lease to Marshall and Lily, fight over who deserves to sublet Quinn's apartment when they learn she plans on moving in with Barney. Both feel like they deserve Quinn's apartment in light of their own recent respective struggles and heartbreaks. In an argument regarding who deserves the apartment more, Robin reveals to Ted that on top of her struggles, she suspects that she's likely to be fired on the upcoming Friday at a meeting with her boss. Following Robin's meeting, Robin and Ted regroup at MacLaren's. Contrary to her suspicions, Robin tells Ted that because of her impressive coverage of the New Year's Eve ceremony in Tailgate for World Wide News, she has been made a co-anchor. With her new raise, she's going to move into a new apartment on Central Park West, leaving Quinn's apartment for Ted. Future Ted reveals that, after they parted ways at MacLaren's, it was a very long time before he and Robin saw each other again.

Later, while Barney and Quinn are talking at Barney's apartment, the issue of Quinn being a stripper comes up. Barney initially tells her that he's okay with her stripping for a living, but later implies that he'd eventually like her to stop when he constantly notes that he'd be okay with her switching careers and pressing for what it "hypothetically" would take for Quinn to stop stripping. Quinn responds that "Hypothetically, I would stop stripping if I ever got married".

Continuity

• Lily and Robin kiss as part of sealing the Broath, but Lily attempt to kiss longer and with much more passion than Robin anticipated and/or wanted and stops her midway through. Lily has expressed homoerotic thoughts towards Robin in the past.
• The students Ted reprimands in the dorm hallway resemble Ted, Marshall, and Lily in their own flashbacks. They mention Ted's story being overly long and express pity for his future children.
• The gang rolls out the Intervention banner.
• Robin rants to Ted her misfortune upon losing Kevin, her exit from the apartment, and her frustrations with co-worker Patrice. Her promotion was hinted at in the episode Tailgate.
• Barney mentions the Bro Code again. The Broath is sworn on a bound copy of the Bro Code.
• Marshall suggest they play a game. Marshall's love of games (as well as his talent at them) has previously been shown.
• All the furniture from Lily and Marshall's East Meadow house and DOWISETREPLA apartment is now in their old apartment.
• Martin, the student resembling a younger Marshall, is seen eating a sandwich. "Sandwich" is Future Ted's euphemism for marijuana when he talks to his kids.
• The "no boogie boarding" sign from Disaster Averted can be seen in MacLaren's.

Barney's blog

Barney lists plays on ten common Latin phrases.

Cultural references

• Barney's fake history discussion focuses on the assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus and the claim that Caesar invented a salad.
• The music playing during the Broath is similar to the Gregorian chant. Barney mentions that he had a group of local monks record it.
• Marshall reveals that he once played Peter Pan in a school play.
• Lily mentions a Metallica concert.

External links

• "The Broath" at IMDb