The Three Days Rule

"The Three Days Rule" is the 21st episode of the fourth season of the television series How I Met Your Mother and 85th overall. It aired on April 27, 2009.

Plot

At MacLaren's, Ted gets a phone number from a girl at the bar (Holli, played by Rebecca Budig), and after announcing his catch to the gang, says that he'll call her immediately. Barney nixes the idea, citing the "Three Days Rule" (waiting three days to call a prospective love interest). He claims the rule has its origins in Jesus' resurrection (who Barney claims also invented the high five).

Back at the apartment, Ted decides to text Holli (circumventing Barney's calling rule). After sending a fairly cheesy first text, he is pleased to get a reply 23 minutes later. The texts become flirtatious, and the two describe each other in various states of undress (revealing Ted's stunted laugh every time the idea of a naked woman comes into his head). The two text back and forth for the next two days, much to Robin's dismay. Then, Ted receives a message he thinks is intended for someone else, describing take-out and sex.

Down at the bar, Robin encounters Barney and Marshall, who happens to have a bag of takeout from the restaurant mentioned in the aforementioned text. Robin quickly finds out that the boys have been posing as Holli. Barney reveals Ted's premature mentions of love, marriage, and vacations in his texts (as well as an ignorance to the use of the term LOL). After sending a bunch of sexy messages, they encounter Stan (played by Kevin Michael Richardson), a night security guard who lunches at MacLaren's, and he gives them a beautiful and poetic message to send Ted to fool him into thinking that Holli loves him.

Robin returns to the apartment, and after Ted tells her that he may be falling for the girl, she tells Ted that it was Barney and Marshall. He decides to turn the tables on them, and sends them a text confessing that he had a gay sex dream about his "best friend." Back at the GNB office, the two argue about which one is most sexually attractive to Ted.

Back at MacLaren's, Ted starts describing a dream (leading Barney and Marshall to believe he is about to reveal his gay sex dream), but wastes a half-hour with a story about a dinner with famous architects. He then reveals he knows about their deception. Ted explains that he wants to meet someone who wouldn't be put off by his rapid romanticism, and at that moment, Holli shows up, saying she found Ted's immediacy romantic. They go out to dinner, but Ted soon finds out that Holli is every bit the romantic he is, but in a much more desperate fashion.

In the last scene, the gang encounters Stan at the bar, and he takes Robin out on a date, much to the dismay of Barney and Marshall.

Critical response

Donna Bowman of the AV Club gave the episode a B− rating.^[1]

References

External links

• "The Three Days Rule" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Three Days Rule" at TV.com