The Ashtray

"The Ashtray" is the 17th episode of the eighth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 177th episode overall.

For Errol Morris's book, see The Ashtray (Or the Man Who Denied Reality).

"The Ashtray"
How I Met Your Mother episode
Episode no.Season 8
Episode 17
Directed byPamela Fryman
Written by
Original air dateFebruary 18, 2013 (2013-02-18)
Guest appearance(s)

Plot

When Zoey's ex-husband, The Captain, unexpectedly calls Ted, the gang reminisces about what happened when they last saw him a year and a half earlier. Ted tells Barney and Marshall that he, Robin, and Lily had attended a gallery opening a year and a half ago, after Ted and Zoey had broken up and he was dating Becky. The Captain and his art consultant showed up at the gallery; Ted recalled the Captain looked tense but had invited them all to view a painting at his apartment. After he threatened Ted with a harpoon gun, Ted claims that the Captain mentioned he had moved on. However, Ted screamed upon seeing that the Captain had a picture of Becky.

When Ted calls the Captain, he asks for Robin's number. Robin tells the guys her part of the story. Ted had been high (on a 'Sandwich' he shared with Becky) and the Captain was hitting on her, making her feel uncomfortable. At the Captain's apartment, she walked into his bedroom and saw the Captain lying on the bed in a seductive manner. According to Robin, she turned him down, telling him to pull himself together and call her in a year and a half. On the advice of the guys, she calls the Captain and tells him she's engaged. The Captain reveals that he is actually looking for Lily and had gotten her mixed up with Robin.

Lily tells the gang that Robin had been severely drunk at the gallery opening (the result of a long meeting at work followed by several shots at the bar) and as a result, was flirting with the Captain. Lily complimented an elephant painting, making the art consultant very uncomfortable. When the Captain showed Lily the masterpiece he had acquired in the bedroom, Lily felt that the elephant painting would look better in the room. He dismissed her opinion because she was a kindergarten teacher; Lily took those words to heart, and in retaliation, stole his ashtray.

Marshall and Lily argue (having asked the others to leave after telling Lily's side of the story), causing Lily to admit that she is not returning the ashtray because a "kindergarten teacher" is all she is. After months of keeping it from him, she finally admits her regrets about not using her art degree and instead becoming a mother. Though Marshall reassures her that she will be able to pursue her art career again some day, Lily worries that there is a certain point where this stops being true.

Meanwhile, Barney repeatedly attempts to insert himself into Ted, Robin, and Lily's story. When his friends become fed up with him, he reveals that while everyone else has something they are passionate about, Barney feels the only thing that makes him stand out is being involved in crazy stories. Ted and Robin invent a part of the story where Barney seduces the Captain's art consultant using a play from "The Playbook" so Barney is included.

The next morning, Lily meets the Captain at his apartment to return the ashtray and finds out why he needed to see her – after that gallery opening, he bought the elephant painting and hung it in his bedroom, finally agreeing that it was a nice touch. He is now selling it for $4,000,000, after the artist had become a star in the last year and a half. To make it up to Lily for his harsh words to her, he offers Lily a job as his new art consultant. When Lily asks what happened to his old art consultant, the Captain mentions that she left the party early that night after meeting a royal archduke at the gallery (with the tag showing Barney seducing the consultant at the gallery using "The Royal Archduke of Grand Fenwick" play he made up when Ted and Robin inserted him into the story, revealing that Barney really was there all along). The episode concludes with the gang celebrating Lily's new job.

Critical reception

Farihah Zaman of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B.[1]

gollark: I also got a wordcoded one (containing "slog") so yay.
gollark: I've finally gotten round to grabbing the new eggs and looking at them. The adults seem rather cool.
gollark: Existential... dread... eggs?
gollark: I don't think the issue is client-side, at least.
gollark: Works for me on mobile, at least.

References
  1. Zaman, Farihah (February 19, 2013). "The Ashtray". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
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