Jenkins

"Jenkins" is the 13th episode of the fifth season of the CBS situation comedy How I Met Your Mother and 101st episode overall. It originally aired on January 18, 2010. The episode hit a season high with 10.52 million viewers and high overall ratings. The episode is directed by starring actor and first-time director Neil Patrick Harris. Plot Ted and Marshall walk into a college bar, and Ted is worried about meeting his students there. Marshall goes to the bar often to maintain his skeeball high score. Marshall tells him that Jenkins, a particularly quirky co-worker who has been the subject of a number of funny office stories that Marshall has told the group about, will be joining them. Because Marshall neglected to mention Jenkins's gender, Ted pictures Jenkins as a goofy fat man, and is therefore taken by surprise when Barney announces his intention to sleep with Jenkins. He finally gets the resolution when Jenkins arrives and turns out to be a beautiful woman. Marshall begs Ted not to tell Lily, since he is afraid that she would be jealous when she finds out Jenkins' real gender, since some of the things that Jenkins had done were crazy (peeing out of a cab window, taking off her shirt as she dances on the table, etc). The next day, Lily unexpectedly shows up at Marshall's workplace, and finds out that Jenkins is a woman. However, she is not jealous or upset that he neglected to tell her Jenkins' gender. Ted and Robin theorize that in every relationship, one person is a "reacher", and one is a "settler", who settles for the less attractive partner. Marshall at first is offended and says that he did not "settle for Lily", but is upset when he realizes that Ted and Robin define him as a reacher. Marshall later asks Lily to classify herself and she says that she is a "settler", upsetting him even more.