The Pineapple Incident - Plot

Plot

In this episode, Barney, Marshall, and Lily criticize Ted for overthinking what he's about to do rather than acting by the seat of his pants. They convince Ted to take five shots of 'Red Dragon' (a special blend by Carl the Bartender at MacLaren's); Ted claims that he can still function cognitively even under the influence of the alcohol, but shortly afterwards he blacks out. He wakes up the next morning with a girl he doesn't remember beside him in bed, a pineapple on his nightstand, and a sprained ankle. He also finds out that his coat has been partially burnt. Ted asks Marshall and Lily about the night, and Marshall and Lily tell him that he sang along with the jukebox in the bar while standing on a table. He also was talking on the phone with Robin while he was singing. He fell off the table (explaining the sprained ankle), and Marshall and Lily took him up to his bed. However, they do not know why there is a girl on the bed and why there is a pineapple on Ted's nightstand, and the reason his coat was burned. Ted calls Barney, thinking that he might know what had happened.

After finding Barney in the tub, Ted asks him about the night, and Barney tells him that he was going to call Robin again, so he lit Ted's coat on fire. Barney tells Ted that after some more fun, he put Ted back into bed. Ted finds that someone wrote on his arm, saying to call the number if Ted was found passed out somewhere. Ted calls the number, and finds out it belongs to the bartender, Carl. Carl tells Ted that he wanted to vomit and went to the bathroom (ending Ted's "vomit-free since '93" streak), and told him the meaning of the word karaoke and that he wanted to go see some penguins at the zoo, but he had to make one more call first, and asked Robin to come over and do something "crazy". Based on this information, Marshall, Lily, and Barney believe that the mysterious girl in Ted's bed is actually Robin, but as Ted goes to wake the girl up, Robin calls.

The girl in bed, Trudy (portrayed by Danica McKellar), wakes up, and explains her side of the story, telling Ted that he did not vomit after all, and that she exchanged numbers with him in the ladies' room of the bar. Ted tells Trudy to hide when Robin comes over to talk, and Trudy leaves via the fire escape before Ted can show her to Robin to prove that he has moved on. Future Ted explains that Trudy never responded to his subsequent message, and he never did work out where the pineapple came from, but they still ate it.