A man once said, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." That man was Kaiser Soze.

Well, How I Met Your Mother's very own usual suspect pulled off his greatest trick tonight on "Ducky Tie." For the years of training Marshall like Pavlov's dog, to the time spent across the river in Hoboken to hone his knife skills, I tipp my cap to Barney Stinson. Also because I'm sure he could fling a a piece of kobe beef into it on command.

The whole unraveling of the master plan with its twists and turns would have given M Night Shyamalan goose bumps. As if that wasn't enough Stin-sationalism, the Twitter jokes using slashtags were legendary as well. I was shocked, though, that Robin noticed Lily's breasts before he did, but perhaps it was all part of the plan. 

At first I was worried Marshall wrote a check Lily's body couldn't cash, but there was no default in the Lily-Fed as she was more than willing to live up to her obligation so long as Barney was also. The back and forth negotiation of the terms of the bet was one of the best exchanges on the show that I can recall and was definitely my favorite quote of the episode, all of which can be found here.

While the terms of the wager were being drawn, I loved how Robin kept segueing back to the Ted and Victoria story and how excited Ted was each time to continue making a long story longer, but still entertaining.

Robin was great tonight, whether it was smoothing things over for Ted at the Architects Ball, playing off Lily's loathing of Barney or throwing crackers at the Ducky Tie as the aforementioned wore it after losing the bet. She did try to get serious at one point  and reference that she wasn't doing so well with regard to past love, but then she noticed Lily's "cans." It served as a fresh reminder of the feelings she still has for Barney, however.

Victoria was right, the whole three amigos arrangement won't last, but she was mistaken about one thing: Ted does not end up with Robin, Barney does. Or at least that was the clear direction we were pointed in tonight, but it could of course be another head fake from the C&C Misdirect Factory. I have never been more confident, though, that the dynamic duo of Suitman and Robin will become a happily wedded reality after all, through sickness and health, for richer or poorer... hallelujah, holy sh-t, where's the Tylenol.

All the dinnertainment got me craving some MSG and now I have a headache, so I'll cut it off here. I hope you enjoyed the call back jokes like the "bang Bang" song as much as I did and weigh in on your thoughts about tonight's little wink wink, nod nod, from the show's writers.