The Magician's Code
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"The Magician's Code" is the hour-long final episode of the seventh season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.[1] It aired in two half-hour parts on May 14, 2012.[2][3]
Plot
Part 1
Lily starts going into labor, but refuses to go to the hospital until Marshall is there with her. Ted and Robin try to distract her with stories from their past until her contractions are four minutes apart, and Lily finally agrees to go to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Barney and Marshall are stuck in Atlantic City following the events of "Good Crazy" and must find a way back to Manhattan for the birth. Barney offers to help Marshall on the condition that Marshall's son has the middle name "Wait-for-It". Marshall agrees and Barney manages to secure two seats on a bus to New York — only for Marshall to realize that the destination refers to the state of New York and not New York City; its final destination is actually Buffalo. The two are left trying to find another way back to the city when several senior citizens on the bus, inspired by Marshall's predicament, claim to be having heart attacks to force the driver to take a detour to the hospital where Lily is giving birth.
Lily starts giving birth without Marshall, and Robin faints at the sight of the birth. Marshall arrives just in time for his son to be born, whom Lily names after Marshall's late father and honors Barney's condition, and everyone welcomes Marvin Wait-for-It Eriksen into the world.
Part 2
Part 2 begins with a flashforward to Barney's wedding, where Lily tells Ted that the bride wants to see him, mirroring the ending of "The Best Man".
After the birth of Marshall and Lily's son, Ted and Robin finally reconcile as friends again. Robin bluntly tells Ted that all the women he has pursued in the past were the wrong person, with Victoria being the only exception. She convinces Ted to call Victoria; Ted eventually asks Victoria to meet him at MacLaren's, hoping to find out if she ever got engaged. She arrives in a wedding dress and asks him to run away with her, as she has never stopped thinking about him. Though he initially agrees and gets in the car with her, some further thought causes Ted to admit he cannot let Victoria leave her fiance at the altar after what Stella did to him. He tells Victoria that he is taking her back to the church so that she can go through with her wedding. However, as they near the church Ted begins reminiscing about their past relationship (specifically, the moments he let her walk away) and drives past it. When Victoria tells Ted that he has driven past the church, Ted says that he knows, indicating that he has willingly changed his mind, the two passionately hold hands as they drive off into the sunset together.
Marshall and Lily appoints Robin to take the photograph for baby Marvin's birth announcement, but she can't take a decent shot of the family together (with the only good photo emerging being when they take the baby down to McLaren's to give advice to Ted, and the two are horrified when they realize their son's first outing was to a bar). Eventually the two fall asleep on their bed with Marvin between them, allowing Robin to get a perfect, if unconventional, shot.
Barney returns to Quinn to find that she has completely re-decorated the apartment bright pink as an act of revenge for his leaving town suddenly after their fight, but Barney is only glad she had not left him and the two quickly make up. On the way to Hawaii, Barney is stopped at airport security because of a mysterious box he has placed in his luggage, the contents of which he claims he cannot reveal due to "the Magician's Code". He and Quinn are taken in for questioning, where she reveals that she has quit her job for Barney and is now unemployed. After missing their flight, Quinn is ready to leave, forcing Barney to perform the trick contained within the box, which turns out to contain an engagement ring. He proposes to Quinn, and she accepts. They return to Marshall and Lily's apartment to announce their engagement. As Quinn leaves the room to tell the story of the proposal, Barney asks Robin if she is okay with everything. Robin says that she knows how awesome he is, and that she is happy for him.
The episode closes with a flash-forward to Barney's wedding. Ted and Marshall stand in a hallway, with Marshall talking about how everything turned out for them. Ted then enters a room where the bride is located, when the bride turns to face Ted, it is revealed to be Robin.
Production
In an interview published after "The Magician's Code" originally aired, show co-creator Craig Thomas admitted that Barney's bride "had to be [Robin]", and it was decided, "literally years ago," that the two of them would get married after they originally broke up in season 5.[4] As for Lily and Marshall's baby's middle name, "Wait-for-It", Thomas said, "How often do you tell someone your middle name? ... Middle names aren't that useful and why not?"[4]
Music
Part 1: "You Were Born" by Cloud Cult
Part 2: "The Wind" by Cat Stevens
Continuity
- Lily does not want her father anywhere near her during medical emergencies. Lily's strained relationship with her father was first revealed in the season 5 episode "Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap."
- During the flashback of Lily stealing the six-pack, Marshall and Ted pick her up in Marshall's old Pontiac Fiero, with the song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers playing. It is explained in the episode "Arrivederci, Fiero" that this is the only song that it can play because the tape got stuck.
- Robin says she has delivered 12 babies "with one of them being human," referring to her on-camera delivery in the season 4 episode "The Front Porch".
- Stella left Ted at the altar in the season 4 episode "Shelter Island".
- The sign of "No Motorcycles on the Casino Floor" was foreshadowed earlier in the season in the episode "Disaster Averted".
- The scene where Doctor Sonya says "Lily, if you don't push, I'll shove this baby out your throat and pull it out of your mouth" was already shown in Season 7, episode 4, "The Stinson Missile Crisis," with Future Ted stopping and saying "I'll get to that."
- Robin tells Ted that he ruined his chance with Victoria by "chasing a hot piece of ass." This is a reference to the Season 1 episode "Nothing Good Happens After 2 AM" in which Ted was ready to cheat on Victoria with Robin.
- Victoria was previously seen to be getting engaged in the season 7 episode "Ducky Tie".
- Robin brings up the fact that Barney has partial Canadian lineage, which was discovered earlier on in Season 7 in "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns".
- Ted fulfills his promise to be Robin's best man from Season 6's "False Positive".
- When Barney seeks a favor from Marshall at the casino, Marshall says he can't have sex with Lily. Barney earlier asked for such a favor in the season 4 episode "Right Place, Right Time", where Marshall threatened to kill him.
- In the bus Barney mentions that girls from Buffalo are not cute, a remark he first made in "Sweet Taste of Liberty".
- In the episode, Barney and Quinn were on their first romantic getaway to Hawaii. Quinn got tickets to Hawaii to surprise Barney in the episode the Broath.
Cultural references
- In Robin's recollection of the "Cuban sandwich crisis," she notes Ted as looking like "Joe Frazier after the Thrilla in Manila".
- Robin claims she spent some private time with Neil Young at her bedroom in Ted's apartment, though Barney tells her it was not who she thought it was.
- While heavily drunk, Marshall speaks like Yoda.
- Marshall imagines an ATM screen as actually showing scenes from the 1986 video game The Legend of Zelda.
- Ted reminds Lily of the gang trick-or-treating on Halloween as characters from the The Breakfast Club, but a failure at coordination causes them all to dress as John Bender.
- Barney tries to pick up women as the Terminator. He wonders why he is unable to pick up any women in biker attire and later tries doing it nude, impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice.
- When Barney returns home, Quinn states that his bedroom was too "American Psycho." This was a reference to the novel by Brett Easton Ellis in which the main character tries to maintain an apartment design similar to Barney's.
Reception
The season finale was viewed by 8.49 million viewers.[5]
Donna Bowman of The A. V. Club graded the episode at B, stating that much happened in the episode even if there were contradictions along the way while the outcomes of certain events are attempts at misdirection. [6]
Entertainment Weekly's Michelle Profis stated the episode does not leave anything for the audience to contemplate before the next season but left some emotional moments such as the baby being named after Marshall's father. [7]
Ethan Alter of Television Without Pity gave part one a C+ and part two a C-. He referred to the episode as a "fake clip show" where "the fake clips here were funnier than anything else in the episode", and remarked that the show could have revealed Robin as Barney's bride with equal impact in the season premiere, thereby making the entire season redundant.[8][9]
References
- ^ ""Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on House, Fringe, Castle, HIMYM, NCIS, Grey's, The Killing and More!" at TVLine.com". TVLine.com. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
- ^ ""Shows A-Z - how i met your mother on cbs". thefutoncritic.com. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Text "TheFutonCritic.com"" ignored (help) - ^ ""CBS reveals 2012 Season Finale Dates" - TVFanatic.com". TVFanatic.com. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
- ^ a b "How I Met Your Mother Boss on Barney's Bride: "It Had to Be Her"". TV Guide. May 15, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
- ^ "Ratings News - 15th May 2012". SpoilerTV. Retrieved May 27, 2012.
- ^ Grade it (May 14, 2012). ""The Magician's Code" | How I Met Your Mother | TV Club | TV". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
- ^ Hibberd, James (May 15, 2012). "'How I Met Your Mother' finale recap: The Magician's Code | Season 7 Episode 24 | EW.com". Tvrecaps.ew.com. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
- ^ "How I Met Your Mother TV Show - The Magician's Code Part 1 - How I Met Your Mother Recaps, How I Met Your Mother Reviews, How I Met Your Mother Episodes | TWoP". Televisionwithoutpity.com. May 14, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
- ^ "How I Met Your Mother TV Show - The Magician's Code Part 2 - How I Met Your Mother Recaps, How I Met Your Mother Reviews, How I Met Your Mother Episodes | TWoP". Televisionwithoutpity.com. May 14, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.