Episode no. Season 4
Episode 20 Written by Kourtney Kang | Directed by Pamela Fryman Original air date April 13, 2009 | |
"Mosbius Designs" is the 20th episode in the fourth season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 84th overall. It aired on April 13, 2009. In the episode, Ted starts his own architecture firm while Marshall is worried about his own employment situation. The episode also marks the beginning of Alyson Hannigan's maternity leave; Lily appears only in the cold open.
Contents
Plot
Barney tells a dirty joke with an unrevealed punch line so offensive, Lily avoids the group for four weeks.
Ted starts his own architecture firm, Mosbius Designs, and operates it out of his and Robin's apartment. He initially focuses on trivial matters; Robin then urges him to focus on contacting clients, and he hires an intern, PJ (Ryan Sypek). PJ manages the apartment like an office; Robin is attracted to his authority and they begin having sex together, including during business hours, so Ted fires PJ. With PJ now focusing all his time and attention on Robin, she feels smothered and breaks things off. Ted re-hires PJ, causing Robin to renew her interest in him. PJ eventually decides to leave, perversely giving Robin a letter of explanation, and Ted a bouquet of roses. Hearing of Robin's relationship with PJ, Barney becomes jealous; as Lily isn't around, he confides in Marshall that he is in love with Robin.
Meanwhile, at GNB, Marshall fears he lacks job security, and Barney suggests he ingratiate himself to the office with a gimmick. Marshall decides to run a fantasy baseball league, but quickly becomes overwhelmed by the additional responsibilities and his coworkers' demands. Marshall hires PJ as a paralegal and delegates the fantasy league to him while retaining credit for it; Barney thanks Marshall for getting PJ away from Robin.
Production
The final draft of the episode did not reference the dirty joke from the cold opening, but was later added by Carter Bays as a device explaining the disappearance of Lily, as Alyson Hannigan was entering the final weeks of her pregnancy.
In November 2008, Cobie Smulders and her boyfriend Taran Killam (who plays the character Blauman) announced that they were expecting their first child. Despite the best efforts of the show's writers and costume designers, it is obvious that Smulders is pregnant, due to some poor camera angles that show her abdomen.
Critical response
Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode with a grade A.
IGN gave the episode 8.6 out of 10.