Ted and Robin deal with the issue of them having things from previous relationships. Ted's apartment is full of stuff from other relationships, and Robin's dogs were given to her by ex-boyfriends. They both ask each other to give their stuff away, but while Ted is forced by the group to comply, the group rules in Robin's favor in keeping her dogs. However they really bother Robin, so she decides to give her dogs away anyways.
Meanwhile Lily invites the gang to a play she's in. Barney is rude about going, and after the show tells Lily it was horrible, which it appears to have been. Lily is angry, and says that friends go to each other's plays and say nice things about them. Barney responds by putting on his own one man play where repeatedly says "moist" because it bothers Lily. Lily finally calls it off, but Barney wants them to stay to watch the horrible show because he worked hard on it.
Ted and Robin return to his apartment, and Robin finds out that Ted actually didn't give up his stuff. The two fight for a long time, until they decide to move in together.
Marshall uses the Second Slap on Barney during his show.
Notes
Marshall uses the second of five slaps accorded to him from the episode Slap Bet. Robin and Ted also decide out of the blue to move in together. This decision, coupled by the fact that they end up being unable to really live together as a couple leads to them breaking up. You can probably call this foreshadowing of the fact that them moving in together won't work, since they arrive at the decision following a huge fight.
Review
Back in high school, I invited my friends to my plays all the time. I hope they weren't as bad as Lily's play, although frankly that looked to be quite fun. I loved the fact that Barney responded to Lily's challenge by writing his own play. The adversarial relationship between the two makes for a very fun dynamic that is very different then the relationships between the other characters. Barney's play was fun to see, and actually surprisingly insightful into his feelings, as he is the lost robot looking for love. I also feel kind of sad about losing Robin's dogs as I think they were a fun part of the show, but I guess Josh Radnor was allergic to them, so we didn't really get to interact with them very much. The idea of Ted and Robin fighting until they decide to move in with each other, makes me laugh every time I see it, because it's so random. But what I think is happening is that they're stuck in their relationship, because they love each other and don't want to break up, but deep down they both know that they're not right for each other. The decision to move in together is them pushing forward on their relationship. Finally I love that Lily doesn't like the word "moist". That's totally random.
Ranking
9 out of 10.
Season Comparison: Season 1 vs. Season 2: "Cupcake" vs. "Stuff"
Barney's one man play really decided this one for me. Both Cupcake and Stuff deal with a relationship issue, and both end sort of happily but with foreshadowing of bad things to come. I think I prefer Ted and Robin's plot to Ted and Victoria's a little, but it is awfully close. Cupcake included the beginning of Marshall selling out which was fun to watch, and probably more important to the character then the Barney-Lily-Marshall plot in Stuff. But this is the one time where I gotta go with comedy over character insight. Besides there was some character insight in Barney's lost robot looking for love routine. But really I have to give the win to Stuff because it features the Second Slap. Great inside joke properly executed wins the day.
Winner
Season 2 Episode 16: Stuff
Scoreboard
Season 1: 8
Season 2: 9
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