Trama

Ted tries to get rid of everything he received from other women at Robin's request, but getting rid of the stuff Robin received from other men won't be as easy. Meanwhile, Barney gets revenge on Lily for making him attend her terrible play.

Robin comes to the realization that many of Ted's possessions are gifts from old girlfriends, which makes her feel uncomfortable since now when she looks at them, all she can picture are his old girlfriends and them mocking her for what they may have had with Ted that she doesn't. Based on the vote of the majority of their friends, Ted agrees to get rid of those possessions to please Robin. But Ted feels cheated when he learns that Robin, who had previously stated that she has kept nothing from her old boyfriends, has indeed kept very important possessions from them: all her dogs. Like Robin, all Ted can now see when he looks at the dogs are all Robin's old boyfriends. Will Ted ask her to get rid of the dogs and if so, will she? Meanwhile, Barney doesn't appreciate that Lily expects her friends to attend her performance in an amateur play. After watching it, Barney tells her exactly what he thinks: he hates it. Lily is angered since friends are supposed to provide support. So Barney decides to stage his own one man play which he expects Lily to attend and compliment him on like good friends are supposed to do.—Huggo

Ted has been confusing his memories of events with Robin with those involving his previous girlfriends (like having romantic evening dinners, watched Van Helsing, Went to Maui). To hide this, he lies that he shared all of these experiences with his sister, so Robin does not get jealous. When he tells her this, she claims that he doesn't need to hide his exes, as they are both mature adults. But then she calls Ted a jerk for pointing out a girl that he made out with 3 years ago. She gets upset upon learning that most of Ted's possessions are from his ex-girlfriends (including the sweatshirt she is wearing). The moisturizer in the bathroom, phone booth, the lamp and the sweatshirt.

Marshall asks Barney if he chose a mermaid (top half human, bottom fish) or inverted mermaid (top half fish, bottom human) to date. Ted goes with top half fish.

Robin insists that Ted get rid of those things, upon which they ask Marshall, Lily and Barney for advice. Ted argues that the stuff left behind doesn't remind him of the girls he went out with, only the good times he had with them. For Robin all she now sees in the apartment is images of Ted's exes taunting her about all things he hasn't don't for her. Only Marshall sides with Ted, which means that Ted has to throw them away. This is the same way the gang decided the 2005 landmark case of Lily vs the Marshall's Joey Buttafuoco pants. They didn't look any better with combat boots either.

Here, Lily persuades the whole group to come to watch her in a friend's Off-Off-Broadway play (which was up 8 flight of stairs), despite protests from Barney (he compares asking someone to watch you in a play, to asking them to give a ride to the airport, crash on your couch, helping you move.. all the things for which professional help is available). When everybody comes to see Lily's play, they hate it (the building smelled like an old urine factory and the play was 3 hrs long), but only Barney confesses that the play was awful. Upon this, Lily tells that friends are supposed to be nice to each other and that if he were to be in a show, she would say only good things about it. Robin and Ted reach Ted's apartment and confess to each other that Lily's show was indeed horrible. Robin enters his apartment to find that it has been nearly robbed, only to learn from Ted that he gave all of the missing items to his ex-girlfriends.

Everything is OK between Robin and Ted now, until Ted learns that all her dogs are gifts from her previous boyfriends. Robin counters that things with a heartbeat can stay. Now Ted flares up and demands that Robin should give up her dogs too. But this time, nobody agrees; however, an uncomfortable Ted sees Robin's ex-boyfriends' faces whenever he sees her dogs, and Robin begins to notice this (Ted runs away in the middle of sex, when the dog enters the room and starts to snuggle with Robin). Robin decides to give them away and tells about her decision to Lily. On learning that Robin gave away her dogs, Ted is a bit hesitant to let her in his apartment. Robin enters and finds that Ted has reclaimed his missing possessions from his ex-girlfriends. After a heated argument, they somehow make a decision to move in together. On announcing this to the rest of the gang, Marshall and Lily are excited, while Barney slaps his forehead.

Barney takes up Lily's challenge and makes his own show named Suck It, Lily, clearly intending to rile her up. He produces a terrible show which involves repeating the word "moist" (which Lily is shown to hate earlier), squirting water through a water gun at the audience (especially Lily). Lily buckles down and admits to Barney that he has won and she has nothing good to say about his show. The rest of the gang prepares to leave, but Barney manages to make them watch the second act, which turns out to be so much worse that Marshall is forced to use his second slap to make Barney stop.