Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Ted returns to the Goliath National Bank headquarters project and clashes with Zoey Pierson, an activist trying to save the Arcadian Hotel. Zoey is married to the Captain when they meet; she and Ted grow close, and she leaves her husband before they begin dating. Ted designs the new building while Zoey leads the campaign to preserve the old one. Marshall leaves GNB for environmental law and joins Zoey’s legal effort. Ted ultimately testifies against landmark protection; he and Zoey break up, and the Arcadian is demolished.
Marshall and Lily decide to try for a child, but an early positive test proves false. Later, fertility testing brings good news, then Marshall’s father suffers a fatal heart attack just after Marshall receives that news. Marshall travels home for the funeral and struggles with his father’s last words. Lily supports him through the grief. Barney writes to his biological father, Jerry, then meets him and struggles to reconcile his childhood image of his father with Jerry’s present family life.
After the Arcadian dispute, Ted and Zoey separate, and he considers getting back together with her. His friends stop him, and he moves forward. In a September flash-forward, Lily believes soup has made her ill and tries to stop Marshall eating it. Her nausea turns out to be pregnancy. A separate wedding scene reveals Barney as the groom when Lily calls Ted into the church to check on him. The bride is not identified; this wedding belongs to a later point in their lives.