Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Ted and Stella get engaged, but they disagree about where to live: she plans to stay in New Jersey with her daughter Lucy, while Ted assumes they will move to Manhattan. Their wedding is moved forward to Shelter Island, and former partners complicate the ceremony. Ted invites Robin, while Lucy’s father Tony also attends. Stella leaves Ted at the altar to return to Tony. Ted and Stella never marry; later, he faces both of them again.
At Goliath National Bank, Barney tries to recruit Marshall, while Ted loses his architecture job and starts a small design firm from the apartment he shares with Robin. Ted’s assistant PJ begins dating Robin, making the arrangement awkward. Barney’s feelings for Robin grow, though he hides them from her and Ted. When Ted later encounters Stella and Tony, Tony tries to make amends and helps Ted obtain an architecture teaching job. Ted considers the teaching offer he initially rejected.
By Ted’s thirty-first birthday, he is consumed by a commission for a restaurant shaped like a cowboy hat and refuses to celebrate with his friends. Marshall prepares to leap between rooftops, while Barney plans to tell Robin that he loves her. Robin has overheard Barney discussing his feelings with Ted and, following Lily and Marshall’s advice, tells Barney she loves him first. He initially backs away, then learns she heard his conversation; Robin admits she was trying to “Mosby” him, and they confess their feelings and kiss. The friends make the rooftop leap, and Ted accepts the professor job.