A bartender, Doug, gets Ted and Barney involved in a fight with a group of guys sitting in the gang's favorite booth. Marshall and Lily try to warn them off, but Barney vows to join in when Robin reveals that she thinks fights are sexy. Ted joins in as an experience he thinks he should have sometime in his life. When they arrive in the back alley, Doug has knocked outthe guys single-handedly. Ted and Barney try to give him credit, but he insists they were in the fight as well. Afraid of appearing unmasculine, they take the credit after Barney creates "battle wounds" by blackening his own eye and punching Ted in the nose. They earn the admiration of everyone except Marshall, who claims that he used to fight with his brothers and Ted and Barney wouldn't stand a chance. Ted and Barney laugh it off, believing it to be gentle horseplay. Ted and Barney are sued by the losers of the fight. They admit to Marshall and the others that they had no role in the victory. Robin, who had been extremely attracted to Barney, cancels a date to a hockey match. Marshall gets the boys out of the lawsuit with their admission of no involvement. Doug is now the only person named in the suit and he plans to pulverize Ted and Barney for their betrayal. Barney runs away in fear. Doug brings up Stella leaving him and Ted punches Doug, who subsequently knocks him out cold. Marshall proves his earlier stories of fighting prowess by knocking out Doug with one blow; as it turns out his childhood fights with his brothers weren't gentle as the gang believed, but rather vicious brawls. Barney returns to find both Doug and Ted on the floor in pain. At school, Lily struggles with two kids in her class who are also fighting. First, she has Marshall come to class to preach pacifism, but the kids call him a wuss. She later has Ted come to class after he has been hit by Doug to preach the consequences of fighting. The kids are still unmoved. Marshall is shown with Lily at his mother's house 3–5 years later for Thanksgiving and he pulls out a lightsaber to carve the turkey.
Critical response
Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club rated the episode B+. Michelle Zoromski of IGN rated the episode 8.2 out of 10. Television Without Pity gave the episode a rating A.
