Sherri Shepherd guest stars as an airplane passenger on the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother sitting alongside Marshall and Marvin who are on their way to the wedding. When Marshall's mother posts a picture leaking the news of his judge appointment, he loses his cool and both he and Shepherd's character are removed from the plane and left with few options of getting where they need to go. Ted and Lily set off on their road trip to the wedding, but Lily boards a train when she can no longer take Ted's annoying detours. On the train she sits across the aisle from the mother and the two end up meeting. Lily realizes Ted's annoying act may have been intentional, so that he could arrive first and blow up the wedding. She was wrong though and the two of them check into the hotel. Robin and Barney discover they have a cousin in common on their drive out the wedding location. After fearing they were related, they learned there was no blood connection after all.