Blind dates are stressful usually.  Getting to know someone, their quirks, the weird way they twitch their nose, all that stuff.  But what happens when you find yourself on the same blind date with the same woman seven years after the first?  It can only happen on How I Met Your Mother.

Ted goes to pick up a girl, Jen, at her apartment and takes her to his favorite “blind date” restaurant.  After he makes a lame joke about shellfish, they realize they’ve been on this date before … seven years earlier.  They decide to go through and recreate the date to see what they did right and wrong.  She thought he was snobby (he points out misspellings in menus) and he thought she talked too much about her cats.  The date goes really well for them, until she remembers that last time he promised he’d call her back and he never did.  He apologizes, tells her he’d really like to fix it, and then has a realization.  He didn’t call her because he likes pointing out misspellings and telling lame jokes.  She likes talking about her cats.  They decide that they’d rather wait for the person who loves them for their quirks, not just tolerates them.

While Ted’s on his date, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) takes Marshall (Jason Segal) to a strip club stating that Marshall’s marriage to Lily has made him less masculine.  Marshall is visually uncomfortable, until a stripper walks out onto the stage who looks exactly like Lily.  Barney and Marshall rush back to the girls to tell them.  Lily, whom Marshall assumed would be upset, is super excited and makes them go back to the strip club so she can see her.  Robin however is very ticked off at Barney.  She feels that now they are dating, he can’t go running off to strip joints.  They reconcile while Lily gets a private dance show for her and Marshall.

I actually identified with this episode to a degree.  I firmly believe that in a relationship your partner should love you for your faults, not despite your faults.  It was good to see Ted and Jen come to this realization.  That being said, it’s also a ton of fun when your partner surprises you like Lily did to Marshall.  I really loved this episode.