Spoiler Alert (How I Met Your Mother)

"Spoiler Alert" is the eighth episode in the third season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 52nd overall. It originally aired on November 12, 2007.

Plot

Ted thinks that he has found the perfect girl, Cathy (played by Lindsay Price), but the group disagrees. At first they refuse to give a reason so as not to "spoil" her for him, but eventually Marshall tells him that she talks too much. Now that Ted knows, he cannot stand her garrulousness. The five friends then let slip each other's flaws until all are "spoiled", and thus are more annoying to those who had previously not noticed the flaws:

• Lily: chewing loudly (pointed out by Ted to Marshall);
• Marshall: singing about whatever he is doing at the moment, or nonsense (pointed out by Robin to Lily);
• Ted: correcting people (pointed out by Lily to Robin);
• Robin: overusing and misusing the word "literally" (pointed out by Ted);
• Barney: speaking in a falsetto, using catch phrases, and spacing out when his friends are talking to him (pointed out by Marshall, Robin and Ted to Barney).

Whenever one or more of the group has these quirks pointed out to them, the sound of glass shattering is heard. This represents the shattering of their illusions about one another.

Meanwhile, Marshall's bar exam results have been released, but he cannot remember the password he needs to retrieve the results online (thus making him wait for three months for a notification by mail). Barney offers to help but this is only a ruse, and, with Marshall angry at Barney and the whole gang annoyed with one another, the arguments reach a climax. The argument is halted when the group mockingly sings one of Marshall's "nonsense" songs (Apple Orchard Banana Cat Dance 8 6 6 3); the song was actually a mnemonic device to help Marshall remember his password (aobcd8663 - it is not shown if it has upper or lower case letters) for the bar exam results website. He enters it and proudly announces "I'm a lawyer". The group then celebrates with champagne at MacLaren's with each sliding back into their bad habits (Lily crunching loudly on bar snacks, Ted making a correction on a comment, Robin using "literally" incorrectly, Barney saying "Law-suit up!" in a high-pitched voice, and Marshall singing his own praises) which they all let go.

At the end, in a time leap three years forward, Ted runs into his overly loquacious ex-girlfriend with her deaf fiancé Daniel, and uses sign language to announce how Cathy talks too much. Even though the man is deaf and it does not affect him, Ted has "spoiled" Cathy to Daniel, and a subtitle displays "(Glass shattering)" as Ted walks away and Daniel looks on in despair.

Critical response

• Donna Bowman of the AV Club gave the episode a B rating.^[1]

• IGN rated the episode 8.6 out of 10.^[2]

• Omar G of Television Without Pity rated the episode A−.^[3]

References

External links

• "Spoiler Alert" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Spoiler Alert" at TV.com