Episode no. Season 8
Episode 2 | Directed by Pamela Fryman | |
Written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas Original air date October 1, 2012 (2012-10-01) | ||
"The Pre-Nup" is the second episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 162nd episode overall.
Contents
The episode narrates Ted Mosby's problems with his current girlfriend, Victoria, and it focuses on the downfall and eventual breakup of Barney and Quinn. It gathered 8.17 million viewers, but it was panned by critics.
Plot
Future Ted tells his children that the summer of 2012 was uneventful because everyone was happy and in love, so he skips ahead to October. Barney designs a detailed and complex prenuptial agreement for his and Quinn's upcoming wedding after he fears that his marriage will fail and that he will be left with nothing. The conditions in the pre-nup are unreasonable; Quinn angrily tells Lily, Robin, and Victoria, who all agree with her.
When Barney relates the same story to Marshall, Ted, and Nick, they all consider how in their relationships there are some things they would like to change: Marshall is upset that Lily won't let him play with baby Marvin as he wishes, Nick is annoyed by how Robin wants to watch television as they have sex (unaware that she is aroused from watching herself on the news), and Ted is having second thoughts about letting Victoria's ex-fiancé Klaus stay with them as he tries to get back on his feet. That night, all the couples talk about the prenup and Future Ted reveals that all of the couples except Lily and Marshall would break up by the end of the season and that one would break up the following day.
Quinn and the girls confront Barney with an equally unreasonable pre-nup. Barney calls up the other guys and the meeting turns into a huge argument between all the couples. Barney's lawyer, Arthur Hobbs, convinces everyone to stop fighting and actually reveal what has been bothering them in their relationships. All the couples manage to resolve their differences, except Barney and Quinn. Despite their attempt to get rid of their pre-nups, they realize that getting married shouldn't be so hard but find they cannot trust each other, so they break up.
At MacLaren's, Barney tells Marshall and Ted that he's better off not getting married and that his single life will always be "legendary." However, in a flash-forward, he announces his wedding will be "legendary" to his co-workers. When Arthur asks if he needs a pre-nup, Barney tells him he doesn't need it this time as Robin arrives and they leave GNB together.
Music
Critical reception
The AV Club's Donna Bowman wrote that "while HIMYM can sometimes take hackneyed plots and give them fresh twists, that didn't happen here" because "the episode proceeds by the numbers." She gave the episode a C.
Max Nicholson at IGN said that "it was most definitely lackluster in both comedy and all-around enjoyable content" and gave the episode a score of 5.2/10 (mediocre).
Television without Pity's Angel Cohn graded the episode at C− writing that it "was annoying and nearly completely useless, save for the fact that it explained how/why Barney and Quinn split up."