50 Best How I Met Your Mother Episodes Ranked

For nine seasons, Ted Mosby recounted the lengthy tale of how he eventually met the mother of his children on the popular sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." Joined by his longtime Marshall Ericksen, Lily Aldrin, Barney Stinson, and Robin Scherbatsky, Ted searches for true love as he enters his 30s and progresses in his career. And amidst all the jokes about the trials and tribulations of the dating scene, "How I Met Your Mother" always brought plenty of emotional depth for its story and characters as they navigated life.

With the spinoff series "How I Met Your Father" having successfully launched on Hulu, here's a look back at the series that started it all. From long-running slap bets to Barney's increasingly outlandish strategies to seduce any woman that crossed his path, "How I Met Your Mother" is packed with fan-favorite moments. Here are the series' best, standing as the most memorable in Ted's longstanding quest to find the woman of his dreams.

By "How I Met Your Mother" Season 3, Barney's patented Bro Code had become a hallmark for the character and a major fan-favorite element of the show. As the season continued, Barney shared the code's ultimate axiom in the episode "The Platinum Rule" as he advised Ted's latest romantic endeavor. With Ted strongly considering dating his tattoo removal doctor, Barney reveals that the eponymous rule forbids people who see each other regularly from dating. By Barney's reasoning, should such a romance fail, the regular interaction would become unbearably awkward for the former couple.

"The Platinum Rule" provides another excellent showcase for Sarah Chalke's recurring character Stella Zinman. Of all of Ted's paramours over the history of the show, Stella holds a particularly special place. More so, the episode further expands on the lore of the code upon which Barney has sworn his life, leading to him debating its merits with Ted in absurd detail.

With Ted often depicted as being single-mindedly hung up on a sole love interest at a given time, it's easy to forget how he navigates the dating scene. This distinction includes how well Ted and Barney work together as wingmen, trying to pick up women for their respective pursuits. The dynamic between the two friends is explored in full in the Season 4 episode "Three Days of Snow."

The episode traces three different storylines unfolding as an enormous blizzard passes through New York. As Ted and Barney host a party for a visiting college marching band, Marshall and Robin set out to pick up Lily from the airport as she returns from a trip. Comedic panic ensues as one of Marshall and Lily's enduring relationship traditions is threatened by complications from the heavy snowfall, with Robin providing her own outside observations. These character pairings work well, showing how naturally the actors are able to play off each other in these varying scenarios.

Marshall has always been a character capable of finding joy in the small, everyday pleasures that life has to offer. That comes to play in "The Best Burger in New York." Though Marshall finds himself jobless at the start of Season 4, he decides to cheer himself up by locating the best burger joint in the city. Unfortunately, Marshall can't quite remember where this fabled establishment is, leading his friends on a merry search for it.

The Marshall-driven episodes have a more innocent sense of fun about them, befitting the character's nature, and that works wonders here. "The Best Burger in New York" also comes with the running gag of Robin simply trying to eat, following a lengthy cleanse, only to be dragged elsewhere before she can eat. "How Met Your Mother" doesn't always capitalize on its New York setting, but this episode really leans into how much fun the environment can be.

With nine seasons and over 200 episodes, it's remarkable how much enduring continuity for "How I Met Your Mother" is borne specifically from the pilot episode. Kicking off the series, the pilot quickly establishes all of the main character's dynamics, with many of the recurring jokes permeating through the series introduced here. Some shows change a lot from their pilot but "How I Met Your Mother" lays a particularly strong foundation out the gate.

The series begins with Marshall finally proposing to Lily after years of dating. This leads Ted to become more serious with his own romantic pursuits, searching for true love. He soon meets the enigmatic Robin, who could be the woman of his dreams. All the key players for the majority of the show come together but, as the episode's denouement confirms, the mystery is only just getting started.

Marshall and Ted have an undying love of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, with the aptly titled Season 7 episode "Trilogy Time" honing in on this. The guys are revealed to have a tradition every three years where they binge the first three "Star Wars" movies. As Ted and Marshall revisit the iconic space opera franchise, they fantasize about how their lives will be in the next three years.

These alternate futures provide amusing glances at how each of the characters will end up, while cementing the timeline upon which Ted will meet the long-promised mother. A lot has been said about Ted and his perpetual bachelorhood becoming a bit wearying in the latter seasons, but "Trilogy Time" utilizes this well. And any occasion that "How I Met Your Mother" gets to indulge in humor about flatulence is certainly a welcome one.

One of the running jokes throughout "How I Met Your Mother" is Robin constantly getting grief by the gang for being Canadian. Robin's status as a New Yorker is called into question once again in the Season 6 episode "Subway Wars," where she's given three challenges to become a true New Yorker. This comes as the gang debates what's the fastest way to reach a restaurant, with each taking an individual transit method to get their first.

What "Subway Wars" does so well is split up its core ensemble in reaching a common goal, as each member of the gang runs into their own complications in reaching the restaurant. Additionally, the three Herculean challenges given to Robin unfold over the course of the episode, to mounting comical effect. As fun as it is to see the core ensemble play off each other, "Subway Wars" is a strong reminder they can individually carry themselves in a thrilling race.

"How I Met Your Mother" Season 4 was a particularly tumultuous one for Ted's personal life, from being left at the altar to getting fired, with all other manner of mishap along the way. Despite this, Ted remarks that it was the best year of his life, and that all comes to fruition with the Season 4 finale "The Leap." As Ted works late nights to salvage his architecture career, Marshall plans a surprise birthday party for his friend on the apartment's roof.

For a season that put Ted through the wringer, "The Leap" really stands as a triumph for the protagonist as his resilience and friendships win out. This isn't to say that Ted doesn't earn some additional bumps and bruises along the way, but we would expect nothing less of Ted Mosby. The episode also offers some overdue character growth for both Barney and Robin that will inform each of them for seasons to follow.

In an age of text messages and online dating, one of the big debates is how long someone should wait to respond to avoid looking desperate while maintaining interest. This principle comes into question in the Season 4 episode "The Three Days Rule," with Barney instructing Ted to refrain from following up with a woman right away. This leads Ted to carry on a text conversation with the woman in question, with Robin reminding him to temper expectations accordingly.

"The Three Days Rule" is an episode that resonates with modern audiences particularly well years after its initial broadcast in 2009. Ted has built up an idealized version of his would-be paramour, benefitting from the distance and his own vivid fantasy. This offers a greater glimpse into Ted's idealized romantic partner while setting him up for a harsh reality check that modern, online dating savvy audiences may be all too familiar with.

By its very premise, "How I Met Your Mother" is predicated with the expectation of its main characters becoming parents and recounting their adventures to their children. This setup is completely subverted in the Season 7 episode "Symphony of Illumination," with a story that largely centers on Robin. After Robin and Barney believe they have conceived a child, Robin imagines herself narrating her own history to her children.

This, of course, all proves to be an elaborate fabrication — Robin learns she is biologically unable to have children at all. Robin was introduced as a character who planned to focus on her career instead of raising a family, but this episode reminds audiences just how vulnerable she is underneath that bravado. It's one thing to decide not to have children and another thing entirely to be incapable of doing so, and "Symphony of Illumination" is an absolute heartbreaker of an episode. And yet, for all the tragedy, the episode also underscores how much Ted cares for Robin, especially at a moment when she needs it the most.

A prominent celebrity cameo can make or break an episode. Fortunately, "How I Met Your Mother" has managed to incorporate its cameos to feel more than a mere gimmick. Season 6 brings Katy Perry into the fold portraying Honey, the incredibly naïve cousin of Ted's friend Zoey. Naturally, Barney sets out to woo Honey while Ted contemplates if there's more to his friendship with Zoey than he initially thought, with Marshall providing long distance support.

Though Zoey and Ted's romance is one of the shorter lived relationships, the start of their courtship is undeniably sweet. And Perry proves she has acting chops that can more than keep up with the main cast, and she's not afraid to poke fun at herself. "Oh Honey" is a particularly solid episode in Season 6, with Perry giving the proceedings a welcome shot in the arm playing off her veteran co-stars.

Some of the best episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" involve the gang revisiting their history together, and the Season 4 episode "Intervention" is a great showcase for this. As Marshall and Lily prepare to leave their longtime apartment to start their own home as a married couple, Robin is ready to move to Japan. This leads Marshall and Ted to debate who should pay for their apartment's security deposit, reminiscing about damage done to the unit during their tenure living there.

This trip down memory lane involves the gang recalling moments that they staged interventions for each other. In true "How I Met Your Mother" fashion, these involve interventions to stop relatively silly concerns, from Lily constantly using a British accent to Barney's magic tricks. However, by the end of this, genuine concerns between the characters are raised, reminding audiences just how much they are truly invested in the gang.

Barney is a character that the others, and by extension the audience, are never quite sure how much they should take seriously. Always one to employ guile and wanton manipulation to get what he wants — or to play an elaborate gag — Barney keeps everyone around him on their toes at all times. This duplicitous side to Barney provides most of the hilarity and narrative tension in the Season 1 episode "Mary the Paralegal."

Invited to an award banquet for Robin after she wins a prestigious honor at work, Ted finds himself in need of a date after breaking things off with his serious girlfriend Victoria. Barney sets up Ted with a date for the event, but it's unclear if the woman in question is a sex worker or a co-worker of Barney's. This leads to an entire episode of Ted and his friends debating whether his date is all that she appears, with plenty of red herrings and clues heightening the funny mystery.

While "How I Met Your Mother" introduced plenty of memorable love interests for Ted, one that looms especially large is Victoria. Halfway through Season 1, Victoria was introduced as a woman at a wedding attended by Ted, with the two hitting it off immediately. This leads to a grand mystery, as the gang sets out to discover who exactly this woman actually is.

"How I Met Your Mother" began with Ted constantly pining for Robin, only for complications to arise every step of the way, preventing their potential relationship from progressing. "Drumroll, Please" presents the possibility that true love for Ted lay elsewhere, and Victoria's introduction opens that interesting direction through actor Ashley Williams' natural chemistry with series star Josh Radnor. Ted's journey began very much in the shadow of Robin, but Victoria led the character to a far more interesting path moving forward.

Just as its preceding episode chronicled the lead-up and private wedding ceremony between Marshall and Lily, the "How I Met Your Mother" Season 2 finale revolved around its subsequent reception. "Something Blue" has Barney realize Ted and Robin are holding a big secret in the midst of the effusive celebrations. This leads to one of the most bittersweet episodes of the series, as Ted and Robin quietly admit their storied romance has finally come to an end.

On one hand, Robin was never going to be the long promised mother to Ted's children — this was telegraphed from the series premiere. On the other hand, so much genuine chemistry between the couple and goodwill had been shown across the first two seasons that it's legitimately heartbreaking to see them split. "Something Blue" is an episode that sets the stage for the long game behind the series, with a spoonful of sugar to help that bitter medicine go down.

One thing "How I Met Your Mother" fans can largely agree on is that the show's ninth and final season is its weakest. From dead-on-arrival running jokes only getting worse as the season continues to the main story being set over the course of a single weekend, Season 9 is a mess. Having said all that, there are still some bright spots in the season and the episode "The End of the Aisle" is certainly one of them.

Beginning approximately thirty minutes before the start of Barney and Robin's long awaited wedding ceremony, "The End of the Aisle" addresses Season 9's longstanding core conflicts. From the matrimonial couple dealing with the last of their pre-ceremony anxieties ,to Marshall and Lily reevaluating their own marriage, the emotional stakes of Season 9 are fulfilled here. And through it all, Robin finally gets her own meeting with Tracy, leaving only Ted to make her fateful acquaintance as the series' endgame looms on the horizon.

Just as "The Magician's Code" rekindled the romance between Ted and Victoria, her return into his life was presaged earlier in Season 7 in the episode "Ducky Tie." While making amends for how disastrously their past relationship ended, Ted is also driven to reevaluate his friendships with Robin and Barney, given their intertwining history. This core trio believed they had overcome their interpersonal tension, but "Ducky Tie" sets the stage for this to resurface as the series moves towards its finale.

Of course, as Ted's subplot takes him on a more reflective path, Marshall and Lily find themselves caught in a contest with Barney to give the episode a more comedic main story. Barney gets obsessed with changes to Lily's body from her pregnancy, prompting a bet with her and Marshall over a particularly ugly tie. While Barney is a fan-favorite character for the show, its always nice seeing the overconfident character falter, and "Ducky Tie" features a well deserved comeuppance.

Barney Stinson is an unrepentant lothario — it's the defining feature of his character for most of "How I Met Your Mother." For Barney, it's all about hooking up with as many women as possible, and that drive informs his central role in the Season 5 episode "Perfect Week." As Barney tries to hook up with a different woman every day for a single week, the rest of the gang endures a particularly terrible week themselves over the same period.

If "Come On" is an illustration on how "How I Met Your Mother" mixes victory and defeat on more emotional terms, "Perfect Week" plays this contrast for laughs. The gang initially believes their recent spat of bad luck is inversely correlated to Barney's amorous winning streak. However, as the episode progresses, the gang realizes the key to breaking their bad week is in seeing Barney actually succeed, giving him an impromptu crew of wingmen.

Though Season 7 gave both Robin and Barney their own respective serious relationships, the two drifted back into each other's arms early in the season. This comes to a head in the episode "Tick Tick Tick," with the two deciding to confess to their significant others while stuck on a boat together the following evening. Of course, this plan does not go as intended, with its own set of complications and betrayal of trust along the way.

Undercutting these emotional stakes is a subplot following Ted and Marshall attending a concert with Lily. After smoking marijuana together (which, in "How I Met Your Mother" parlance is substituted by eating a sandwich), the two go on their own cognitively impaired adventure. "Tick Tick Tick" provides a solid amount of character growth for Barney, and Neil Patrick Harris delivers one of his finest performances in the series.

One of the most curious stretches for "How I Met Your Mother" is the start of Season 2, with Marshall and Lily remaining broken up. It was only a matter of time before they reconciled, and that finally takes place in "Swarley" following Marshall's brief attempt to reenter the dating scene. This romantic reconnection follows "How I Met Your Mother" introducing the concept of the "crazy eyes."

Ted, Barney, and Marshall each embark on dates with women possessing eyes that hint at hidden mental instability, responding to each portend accordingly. This comes as Barney earns an unfortunate nickname while Lily becomes despondent over Marshall dating again. There is some funny, true-to-life dating advice to be had in "Swarley," but more than that, the episode finally brings back its ultimate couple back together as Season 2 kicks into high gear.

One of the longstanding plot threads in "How I Met Your Mother" was the slap bet, which saw Barney serving as the recipient to a set of slaps from Marshall. Though two slaps had already been delivered, the fanfare surrounding this bet truly began in the Season 3 episode "Slapsgiving." As Marshall and Lily host their first Thanksgiving as a married couple, Barney must contend with the promise that he will receive a slap by the end of the evening.

"Slapsgiving" is such a celebrated episode in the series that "How I Met Your Mother" would produce two sequels to it as the slap bet continued. However, whereas future Slapsgivings felt derivative, the first one cements its place in the show's mythos. And more than simply relying on tension between Barney and Marshall, "Slapsgiving" reminds audiences that Ted and Robin could still play off each other well, even after their failed romance.

Though Ted found love with Victoria, this fledgling romance was tested halfway through Season 1 in the episode "Game Night." The gang assembles for a series of games orchestrated by Marshall, who presides over the evening's activities due to his undisputed mastery over all established games. This leads to each of the gang sharing, as part of one of Marshall's drinking games, the most embarrassing moments of their respective lives to each other, told through a set of flashbacks.

"Game Night" offers a surprise look into Barney's background and the smooth-talking, sharply dressed persona he had built for himself. Every hero and villain deserves a good origin story and, with Barney occasionally acting as both, his mysterious past finally stands revealed. This backstory is juxtaposed with the gang's other awkward anecdotes, including unseen details behind Ted's disastrous first date with Robin, with a tense fuse lit between him and Victoria.

From slap fests to awkward family get-togethers, Thanksgivings were always a standout occasion in virtually every season of "How I Met Your Mother." One of the last truly spectacular Thanksgiving episodes occurs in the Season 6 episode "Blitzgiving." The episode has Ted finally take on host duties to have his friends over for the holiday, only for complications to arise. Ted develops a growing fear that he has become the fabled figure in the friend group to just miss out on every major moment, nicknamed "the Blitz."

As Ted tries to fight this perceived curse, the past holder of the curse resurfaces, portrayed by guest star Jorge Garcia. Garcia plays off the core cast well, as does other guest star Jennifer Morrison, foreshadowing her character Zoey's impending romance with Ted. The jokes fly fast and furious in "Blitzgiving" and the cast is at the height of their powers making sure they land.

One of the most celebrated episodes in "How I Met Your Mother" is the Season 1 episode "The Pineapple Incident," serving as the perfect comical showcase for Josh Radnor. Ted is a character that often drives the series' overarching story forward, but "The Pineapple Incident" presents the character with an unrelated side mystery. After a night of blackout inebriation, Ted awakens the next day with a list of surprises, including a female companion and a fresh pineapple sitting on his nightstand.

Drunk Ted is a welcome change of pace from the usual iteration of the character, overthinking virtually every aspect of his life. Operating like a twist on the thriller "Memento," Ted pursues the various clues around him in an attempt to piece together what exactly transpired while he was drunk. "The Pineapple Incident" became a benchmark for what the series could be, with its unique storytelling style, and one that was subsequently referenced repeatedly — including in "How I Met Your Father."

There are fans that want to see Ted and Robin succeed as a couple and there are fans that want to see Barney and Robin make it work. The later seasons of "How I Met Your Mother" really build an argument for wanting the latter relationship to thrive, though they would face their own complications along the way. The long road to their presumed romantic reconciliation was finally set in the Season 8 episode "The Final Page: Part 2."

Though Robin assumed Barney was attempting to woo her co-worker Patrice, the episode presented the twist that Barney was vying to reconnect with Robin all along. "The Final Page" demonstrates "How I Met Your Mother" at its most romantic, with Robin and Barney get back together. This development is now all the more bittersweet in knowing how the series would end, but the episode is a testament to amorous triumph and having one's faith pay off.

Just as "How I Met Your Mother" delivered a legen -– wait for it –- dary centennial episode, it similarly crafted a standout story to commemorate its 200th episode. After years of just missing out on seeing the mother and offering plenty of clues, the pieces of the puzzle finally came together in the Season 9 episode "How Your Mother Met Me." Told entirely from Tracy's perspective, Ted's true love reflected on the steps that led her to that fateful wedding weekend in Farhampton — where she met him for the first time.

In many ways, actor Cristin Milioti was given the impossible task of portraying a character that had been built up with stratospheric expectations over the years. And yet, Milioti more than proves she's capable of creating such a fully formed character in her own right in this episode, not just as a romantic foil for Ted. Of all of Season 9's faults, Milioti's performance is not one of them, and she gets overdue time to shine in the spotlight here.