How I Met Your Mother: 3.19 ‘Everything Must Go’ Recap
May 13, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: May 12, 2008
This episode is all about Lily and Marshall selling some of their stuff to raise the funds they need to get the slanted floor in their new apartment fixed, as well as Barney and Abby (Guest Star Britney Spears) getting revenge on Ted for dumping them both.
When still-jobless Marshall learns it’s going to cost $1500, much more than the estimate, to repair the floor in his and Lily’s new apartment, he decides she needs to sell some of her expensive clothes online since his dowdy clothes aren’t the kind of things people would actually pay money for.
After setting up lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com (a real website that I’ve been unable to access — must be a lot of server traffic), Lily — reluctant to get rid of her nice clothes, no matter how eager Robin is to buy them — comes up with the alternative plan of selling three of her colorful, abstract paintings for $500 each within a week.
She has no success at first because, as Marshall is scared to admit to her, they’re not like “real” paintings by “real” artists. Thus, Lily is almost ready to give up when a G-CWOK (gay couple without kids) saves the day. They happen by and buy one of her paintings for the entire asking price.
Lily calls the G-CWOK later to see if they would be interested in looking at more of her work, at which time she learns they trashed her painting because they only wanted the rare, expensive frame that came with it.
Marshall pays the G-CWOK a visit afterwards to get the painting back, which leads to the revelation that a veterinarian retrieved it from the dumpster, hung it on a wall in his office, and discovered dogs love it, although it makes birds suicidal. At the end of the episode, the vet buys four more paintings from Lilly, yielding a profit of $2000, $500 more than the couple needs to fix their apartment floor.
Meanwhile, Barney tracks down Abby when he has another slap incident in the bar, and the two bond in a cab over their mutual supposed hatred of Ted. After they sleep together again, Ted-centric pillow talk gets Barney all into the idea of exacting revenge on Ted by pretending they’re a serious couple.
Barney goes so far as to fake a marriage proposal with a candy ring in front of Ted and Marshall at the bar, but gullible Abby thinks he’s genuine. In reality, she’s still obsessed with Ted, which allows Barney to finally get out of the “relationship” by telling her he can’t marry her because Ted, who spends the entire episode trying to prove he looks good in his red cowboy boots (only the G-CWOK agrees), still likes her.
If nothing else, this episode demonstrates once and for all why the HIMYM people should not bring Spears back on the show again. She was okay the first time on “Ten Sessions” because her lines were limited and the whole Abby role was novel. Her wooden, off-kilter performance on this episode — that vacant expression was actually kind of scary, even if Abby is supposed to be a ditz — clearly shows she doesn’t have what it takes to be a regular presence, though. She’s way out of her league with this cast.
