How I Met Your Mother/Milk

Milk
Season 1, Episode 21
Airdate	May 8, 2006
Production Number	1ALH20
Written by	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas
Directed by	Pamela Fryman
Stream
← 1x20 Best Prom Ever	1x22 → Come On
How I Met Your Mother — Season One

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Milk is the twenty-first 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: Eric Allan Kramer (Bob Rorschach)

Co-Starring: America Olivo (Beautiful Woman), Nate Torrence (Butterfield), Charlene Amoia (Waitress), Brenda Isaacs-Booth (Tracy)

Uncredited: Bob Saget (Ted of 2030 (voice)), Carter Bays (Fake Paramedic #1), Craig Thomas (Fake Paramedic #2)

Plot Overview

Ted is excited when a matchmaking service claims to have found his soul mate, but he must postpone his date to help Lily, who has a surprising revelation.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Wedding: Because the place that they dreamed of having their wedding opened up, Lily and Marshall's wedding has been bumped to being only two months away.

Characters

• Marshall: The whole reason that Marshall was hired as an intern at Barney's firm wasn't so he could get some law experience, but so he could be Barney's executive mischief consultant.

• Ted: This episode marks Ted's 28th birthday. Given that the episodes run at approximately the same time as the viewer's time, this would place Ted's birth date somewhere in the area of May, 1978. He decides to let fate bring the girl of his dreams to him. But he just winds up falling back in love with Robin.

• Lily: Lily has been having intense second thoughts about marrying Marshall, to the point where she has been getting insomnia. Lily found an art fellowship, which she had an interview for and got in. However, she only wanted to test her skill and decides not to go.

Referbacks

• 1x07 - Matchmaker: Ted signed up with Love Solutions, a dating service, earlier in the season as a scam with Barney. The experiment wound up as a failure until a match was found in this episode.

• 1x17 - Life Among the Gorillas: Marshall began working at Barney's firm four episodes ago. Incidentally, the episode aired about two months ago in March.

Future Ted: But he needed money for the wedding, so he'd been interning at Barney's firm for two months.

Trivia

The Show

• Music: The song that plays as Ted is getting out of the news van is Mother of Pearl by Roxy Music.

Behind the Scenes

• Ratings: This episode scored a rating of 5.2 with a share of 8 in Neilson ratings. It was the 4th most watched show overall.

Allusions and References

• Pixies: The Pixies are an alternative rock band from Boston who are known for playing a style of music that closely resembles what would become grunge. The band is made up of Frank Black (singer/guitar), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Dave Lovering (drums) and Kim Deal (bass). Kim has also played with the Breeders before the Pixies reunited in 2004. The Pixies' most well known song is "Where is My Mind?" which was played at the end of Fight Club.

Ted: And she plays bass guitar like Kim Deal from the Pixies.

• Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth was, like the Pixies, an alternative rock band who formed in the 1980s. The band is commonly associated with "post-punk" rock groups, but has often experimented with varying genres and styles of music. Kim Gordon, who plays bass in the band, also coincidentally co-directed the music video for "Cannonball" by The Breeders.

Marshall: Or Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth.

• I Know What You Did Last Summer: Lily makes a reference to the slasher movie I Know What You Did Last Summer when she mentions the drifter with a hook for a hand. In the movie, a group of teenagers hit a drifter with their car and are slowly killed off one by one by what appears to be a fisherman with a hook for a hand.

Lily: Is that a drifter with a hook for a hand?

• Star Wars: Ted wanting to name his children Luke and Leia is a reference to Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa from the original Star Wars trilogy. The two are twins separated at birth.

Ted: I swear on Luke and Leia.

• Super Bomberman: Bomberman is a series of games centered around a man in a maze who must defeat his enemies and escape by placing bombs. The game has grown into a franchise that has over 20 games in its stable. Lily says that she set the high score on Super Bomberman, which was a version of the game released on the Super Nintendo. But, because the controller she was using is black, it's likely that she was playing Saturn Bomberman for the Sega Saturn.

Lily: ...Setting the high score on Super Bomberman.

• Tony the Tiger: Originally invented in 1952, Tony the Tiger is the cartoonish mascot tiger for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. In advertising for the cereal, Tony can often be heard saying the catchphrase, "They're g-r-r-reat!" He was originally voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft until Ravenscroft's death in 2005. He has since been replaced by Lee Marshall.

Ted: I bet it looks g-r-r-reat!

Quotes

• Ted: Marriage is big. You're allowed to freak out.

Lily: But why am I the only one? How come Marshall isn't doing anything crazy?

(Cut to Marshall in Barney's office in front of a white board)

Marshall: So, all we need is one large shipping box and 100 white mice.

• Robin: Need a ride, cowboy?

Ted: Sorry, I don't get into vans with strangers.

Robin: Too bad, I've got candy.

Ted: (overjoyed) Candy?!