
The Value from How I Met Your Mother: Season 3
A Look into the Lessons and Wisdom from Season 3 of HIMYM
*Contains spoilers to season 3 of How I Met Your Mother
“I’m not ready,” Ted says to Barney, explaining that he’s not ready to jump back into the dating life following his breakup with Robin. That’s where season 3 starts — showing how Ted and Robin are after the breakup.
It also alludes to the biggest theme of season 3: development/growth. As Future Ted puts it in the season opener “Wait for It”: “Kids, there’s more than one story of how I met your mother. You know the short version, the thing with your mom’s yellow umbrella. But there’s a bigger story, the story of how I became who I had to become before I could meet her.” He adds how that story starts “here” following the breakup.
Development/growth
Something great that distinguishes TV shows from movies is the length, because the audience truly gets to watch the characters that they love develop and change. It makes moments in the show more real, insightful, and emotional. Some shows sadly don’t display this accurately enough, but HIMYM stands out with 9 seasons devoted to greatly developing all characters. Let’s take a brief look at how the legendary friend group grows in the season:
Marshall and Lily — Following their marriage, Marshall and Lily start to progress more as a couple now. Probably the biggest step for them in this season is that they buy an apartment unit, becoming home owners (“Dowisetrepla”). Individually, Lily struggled early with debt, but begins to sell paintings and spend/shop less to make up for her mistakes. Marshall starts to think more and realize what he wants to do as a career in his life. It’s been known that he didn’t enjoy his job as a corporate lawyer, which made it great when he finally quit.
The best part about these experiences though is how well one supports the other. Marshall supported Lily following her passion and selling paintings: “Thank you for believing in me” (“Everything Must Go”). Lily does the same for Marshall after he quits in “The Chain of Screaming”:
“Marshall, our future isn’t money or an apartment. And it’s definitely not you being miserable at that horrible job. I’m just happy to have my husband back. We’ll figure the rest out. I love you.”
Marshall and Lily grow immensely both as a couple and individuals while supporting and loving each other along the way. It’s great to look at in season 3 because it leads to more development throughout the series, and there’s much more to come from them.
Robin — As a career orientated person, it’s nice to watch Robin break out of her shell and dive more into relationships, especially relationships that challenge her. Two particularly that we see are one in which a temporary boyfriend has a son and the other, a one-night stand with Barney (one of the more significant moments in season 3). Robin has been known to also hate kids, but she agreed to let Lily set her up with a father of one of her kindergarten students (“Little Boys”). While the relationship didn’t last long, she still took a chance and started to like kids more as a result. Future Ted reveals at the end of the episode that Robin developed a great relationship with his kids; that one step maybe helped her to get to that point.
A one-night stand might not sound like it is a great developmental occasion, but there has been a lot of references to Barney and Robin getting together since season 1, making it seem like something special could happen as a result of this. The aftermath also forces Robin and Barney to talk about the event. Nevertheless, from this pain/struggle, both characters develop, especially Barney.

Barney — The aforementioned one-night stand is significant for Barney because he and Ted temporarily stop being friends, best friends. Though originally displayed as a stoic, uncaring, and a selfish character, Barney starts to be seen as vulnerable and extremely loving, particularly following his hook up with Robin. He works hard to get Ted’s friendship back, and, maturely, gives Ted space after he requested they not be friends since Robin is Ted’s ex-girlfriend. It takes both of them getting into frightening car crashes for them to finally make up (“Miracles”):
“Ted, can we be friends again?” “Barney, come on, we’re more than friends. We’re brothers.”
Both them splitting up as friends and coming back together are emotional scenes because their relationship is one we’ve grown to love for over 2 seasons. We see it is a real, imperfect friendship, similar to actual life.
Prior, in a conversation with Robin, Barney figures out why he is quickly trying to “rebound” to find another friend, to fill the “void of losing Ted” (“Rebound Bro”). Throughout the season, he additionally cries twice, discusses his real and embarrassing virginity story, and has a heart-warming apology to someone he thought he slept with and forgot — all things we haven’t seen from him (except crying, but still a vulnerable aspect not displayed early). Barney continues to develop as his true self with true emotions in the series, and season 3 does an excellent job of beginning the vivid process. He’s an exceptional character to observe.
Ted — Finally, we’re introduced to a much different Ted from before, one who is single and not pursuing Robin. So, he’s a little more “human” with visible flaws (at least compared to what he’s been in the past), and this is especially true to his dating life. For the first several episodes, Ted is seen dating/hooking up (or trying to with) several women, almost a new girl each episode. While uncharacteristic of Ted, it does actually lead him down the right path, the path to meeting the infamous mother.

As a result of one of his hookups, Ted ends up with a butterfly tattoo, which he of course wants to get removed. After finding the best tattoo removal doctor in the business, he ends up having a crush on his doctor and pursuing her, Stella.
Further into the season and story, Ted really starts to fall for Stella. After getting into that car accident and explaining that everything he loved flashed before his eyes, he decides he loves Stella, which prompts him to ask her to marry him as the season ends. He wouldn’t have gotten to that point if he wasn’t broken after his breakup and made some mistakes. Ted grows significantly in season 3, and now he’s set up to grow even more.
He further needed to struggle to grow because he apparently almost crossed paths with the future mother. Future Ted explains how if she would have seen him then, “I don’t think she would have liked me. Heck, I don’t think I liked me” (“No Tomorrow”). There’s a reason this struggle and self-lost happened. He continues: “But that’s okay. Tomorrow had arrived. I didn’t know it yet, but my luck was about to change.”

My Top 3 Season 3 Episodes
- The Goat (Episode 61)
- Miracles (Episode 64)
- Slapsgiving (Episode 53)
My Top 3 Season 3 Quotes
- “The overwhelming odds have it ending badly. And when that happens, it’ll be for one of a million possible reasons. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try.” — Ted Mosby (“The Platinum Rule”).
- “When someone’s bad habits are pointed out to you, it’s hard to ignore them. But if you love them enough, those bad habits are easy to forget.” — Ted Mosby (“Spoiler Alert”).
- “I can’t ask him to make himself miserable because of a mistake I made. It’s my problem; I’ll figure it out.” — Lily Aldrin (“I’m Not That Guy”).
Season 3 was an exciting and surprising season, but definitely not my favorite. Developing in a show like this is expressive and real, continuing to make the show legendary! Big plot points happened for even bigger to fall later — the best moments are ahead. So, thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll continue. Here are other articles relating to HIMYM:
