- The Captain asks Ted to help find out who stole Zoey away from him, Marshall withholds sex until he does something to help the environment, and Barney is reluctant to admit that he has a crush on Robin's friend.
- Zoey's husband, the Captain, doesn't know that Ted is the man for who Zoey left him. Intimidated by the Captain, Ted doesn't relish doing Zoey the favor of picking up a box of her belongings from her old apartment, but does it when she tells him that the Captain has left it with the doorman for her. So when Ted goes to pick up the box, he is dismayed to run into the Captain, who needs to talk to his good friend Ted about putting the man who stole Zoey away from him on the gangplank. Meanwhile, Marshall focuses his entire life on being good to the environment after watching a documentary on Garbage Island, this focus even to the exclusion of sex with Lily. Marshall finally opens up to his wife about why he has gone on this environmental bent. And Barney doesn't want to admit that his first date with Nora - his first ever date on Valentine's Day - resulted in him wanting another date with her. Robin tries to change that.—Huggo
- After Marshall sees a documentary about garbage, he becomes fixated on saving the environment. Meanwhile, Ted runs into Zoey's ex-husband, The Captain, and Robin forces Barney to admit he has feelings for Nora, the girl who made history as his first Valentine's Day date ever.—CBS Publicity
- At Hong Kong International Airport in 2021, Ted's flight to New York has been canceled. While arguing with an attendant at the departure lounge, he runs into Wendy the Waitress (Charlene Amoia). Future Ted describes how it happened.
At MacLaren's, Ted and Zoey tell Wendy the Waitress how they ended up together. Wendy later reveals that she was only asking "How's your meat" and not "How did you meet". Ted says Zoey was unhappy with her marriage to the Captain, and after a serious fight that ended with the Captain wanting a divorce, Zoey and Ted decided to give a relationship a try. Zoey asks Ted to get her personal belongings from the Captain's apartment. The stuff has been left at the lobby. Just as Ted comes to get the box, the Captain encounters him and at his study, says that Zoey left him for a mustachioed man, narrating a different version of his last argument with Zoey. Ted fails to get the box. He later returns to the apartment building, where the Captain claims that the doorman seduced Zoey. He threatens to harm the doorman, but Ted convinces him to let her go because they have nothing in common anyway. Before leaving the apartment with Zoey's box, he admits that he was the one for whom Zoey left the Captain. Later at MacLaren's, Zoey says that good things can come out of something bad.
Meanwhile, Barney reports to the gang that his laser tag date on Valentine's Day with Nora did not go well, despite her giving him her calling card which he later tears up. Robin catches Barney smiling whenever he mentions Nora and gives him a napkin with Nora's phone number so he can call her. Robin says that Nora is going with another guy, which seems to bother Barney, but he claims to Robin that he doesn't even like Nora. Robin says that Barney is smitten with Nora, but is afraid of being in a real relationship with a woman. Robin eventually dares him to sleep with her to prove he does not like Nora. Barney shows up at Ted and Robin's apartment, which infuriates Robin because she had been encouraging him to pursue Nora. However, Barney reveals he had actually come to ask for Nora's phone number; pleased, Robin gives it to him and tells him to go for it.
Lily is frustrated at home because Marshall is too fixated with watching a documentary about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to even think about sex. Her dry streak has been going on for 5 weeks 3 days. He creates a presentation for a new GNB environmental campaign which would cut their carbon footprint by half but would cost $12 million, but it is negatively received and Arthur Hobbs fires Meeker (Dan O'Brien), the only employee who liked the presentation. Marshall is spared as his father just died. Marshall comes home all dejected and is even more sad to hear that Lily threw out a set of 6 pack plastic rings in the garbage. He knows that the rings will make their way out to the ocean and trap a poor little bird in it. Lily catches Marshall in the dumpster trying to find a set of Tallboy O-rings. Marshall tells Lily that his father's death means that he will never see Marshall other than a corporate stooge and he fears that starting a family right away could force him to work at GNB forever. Lily asks him to save the planet first then start raising a family.
Marshall's obsession also angers Wendy the Waitress because his advocacy prompts MacLaren's to have her carry spent bottles to the recycling center every night, which results in her having back pains. Future Ted says Meeker was a MacLaren's patron who met Wendy the night he goes to the bar to confront Marshall over his dismissal. Wendy's bag of bottles breaks and Meeker helps Wendy pick them up.
The ending scene shows that because they both hated Marshall, Wendy and Meeker did end up together, being on their second honeymoon when they encountered Ted at the airport. Ted says he is already married with two kids, and his relationship with Zoey did not end well. Ted begins the story of how he met his wife starting from the wedding, but Wendy interrupts saying they have to go. Ted immediately calls Marshall about the encounter.
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