Lily loves her birthday, and Marshall loves planning birthdays. This year, he’s planned a black tie dinner at the house. They’re waiting for Ted and planning the group shot photo. Then, Ted walks in with a girl.
Amanda is the chef who’s going to make Lily’s cheesecake. She’s known as “the shedder” at work because her hair gets into everything. Lily is THRILLED. Really. In the meantime, they start playing silly games. Like Lilial-Pursuit. Amanda’s trying to play along, but since she doesn’t know Lily, it’s kind of hard to keep up. When Amanda goes to check on the cake, Lily insists on the group photo. When Ted calls her out on not wanting to include Amanda in the photo, she insists that she’s done with the dumb skanks ruining the memories. She’s tired of Ted bringing random girls to big group events. The worst part, he can’t remember the girls’ names. As they flip through the photos, they also realize that Barney has the same pose. He claims it’s the key to his not taking a bad shot. Marshall, on the other hand, can NEVER take a good picture.
And thus starts Robin’s project to get a bad photo of Barney.
The worst one was Ted bringing Karen (Laura Prepon) to Paris to visit Lily. Right before the plane took off, Karen announced that she’d slept with her philosophy professor. Ted broke up with her on the plane, and even though Lily and Marshall hadn’t slept together in two months, Karen decided that she needed to sleep in Lily’s room. Worst. Vacation. Ever.
Ted and Lily start fighting about the random skanks, and Ted points out that Robin is sitting right there. They’re BFFs now, but before then, she was just a random skank. Lily claims she’s the exception, not the rule. Ted says that he brings girls to these events because they’re important to him. Lily points out a number of events that his girls have ruined. Ted promises that Amanda’s not going to ruin Lily’s birthday.
Then, Amanda brings out a cake that reads “Happy 42nd Birthday, Lori.” Lily laughs it off, but Marshall loses it. He throws Amanda out, and Ted follows. When he comes back, he claims that Marshall has to apologize. Marshall claims that Ted should apologize to him. After all, he’s been the girlfriend clean-up crew for years. Whenever Ted dumps a girl, they turn to Marshall for comfort. Awkward? Totally.
Ted starts flipping through the photos and pointing out that they’re just representations of what Lily wants the world to look like. Fights with Marshall just before the pictures aren’t seen in their smiling faces. They find the first photo ever of Lily, Ted, and Marshall together. Marshall and Lily had just been dating for a few weeks, and yet Ted still invited her into the picture. Lily thinks they should get Amanda back. After all, she could be the one.
Bumper scene: Lily’s 33rd Birthday. Ted can’t remember Amanda, and Robin finally gets a bad picture by putting cilantro in the dip. Barney’s allergic to Cilantro. Whoops!
