How I Met Your Mother/Mary the Paralegal

Mary the Paralegal
Season 1, Episode 19
Airdate	April 24, 2006
Production Number	1ALH18
Written by	Chris Harris
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Stream
← 1x18 Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M.	1x20 → Best Prom Ever
How I Met Your Mother — Season One

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Mary the Paralegal is the nineteenth episode of the first season of How I Met Your Mother.

Starring: Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby), Jason Segel (Marshall Eriksen), Cobie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky)

with Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson)

and Alyson Hannigan (Lily Aldrin)

Guest Starring: Alexis Denisof (Sandy Rivers), Erinn Bartlett (Mary), Robert Michael Morris (Vampire Lou)

Uncredited: Bob Saget (Ted of 2030 (voice))

Plot Overview

Ted needs a date to take to Robin's awards banquet, so Barney hooks him up with Mary, who may be a call girl.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Robin: Robin won a local media access award for one of the television segments. She also denounces Ted as her friend, but it's unlikely that her comment will stick.

Referbacks

• 1x18 - Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M.: Several references are made to Ted's fiasco with Victoria, which occurred in the previous episode when he told Robin that they broke up, even though they weren't.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• The Empire Strikes Back: Empire is the second movie in the original Star Wars trilogy, the fifth chapter overall. Mary refers to a scene in the movie where Vader's helmet is lowered onto his body before he exits his meditation chamber.

Mary: You know that scene in Empire when they lower the helmet on Vader's head?

• Edward R. Murrow: Edward R. Murrow was a pioneering radio and television reporter who most notably fought back against McCarthyism when it was at its height. Murrow was the host for several CBS television shows like Person to Person and See It Now. At the time that this episode aired, he had recently gained new popularity when a movie based on his fight with communism, Good Night and Good Luck, won an Academy Award.

Ted: And now you're trying to make me jealous by waving Edward R. Moron in my face?

• Legally Blonde: Legally Blonde is a movie starring Reese Witherspoon as a blonde sorority girl who follows her ex-boyfriend to law school in order to get him back and later discovers that she has more of a legal mind than she had previously thought.

Robin: And Paralegally Blonde isn't here with her low-cut dress to make me jealous?

Quotes

• Barney: Oh, gross? Do you have some puritanical hang up on prostitution? Dude, it's the world's oldest profession.

Marshall: Do you really think that's true?

Barney: Oh, yeah. I bet even Cro-Magnons used to give cave hookers like an extra fish for putting out.

Marshall: Ah ha! So, the oldest profession would be fishermen. Kaboom! You've been lawyered.

• Barney: The companionship business is the growth industry of the 21st century! You do realize that one out of every eight adult women in America is a prostitute?

Marshall: You just made that up.

Barney: Withdrawn.

Marshall: Lawyered!

• Barney: You want to judge a fellow human being based solely on one external characteristic? That's racism and I do no not drink with racists. Good day! (Barney stands and stares at Ted)

Ted: ...You're just waiting for me to speak so you can inter—

Barney: I said good day! (storms off)