- Barney runs into problems when he displays his cell phone number during the Super Bowl, Ted asks Marshall and Lily to arrange a marriage for him, and Robin thinks that her co-anchor has asked her out on a date.
- There's a fine line between love and hate, which is evident for the gang in the lead up to Valentine's Day 2010. Ted uses the analogy of the picture that seen one way looks like a duck ("love" in most of their minds, except for Marshall), and seen another way looks like a rabbit ("hate"). To Robin, her co-anchor Don is a rabbit, so she is perturbed when she thinks his invitation to a Valentine's Day party at his place is a date. To Ted, all he can see around him are rabbits. He feels he doesn't have any problem attracting women, but it's choosing the duck with which he has the problem. So he decides for this Valentine's Day, he's going to leave the choosing of his duck to who he sees as the ultimate duck choosers, Marshall and Lily (since they both found each other). And Barney thinks that his self-advertising sign with his phone number shown during the Super Bowl is a certain way that he will have his choice of a duck for Valentine's. His problem may not be finding a duck, but thinking that there's a better duck out there.—Huggo
- When Lily and Marshall forget to fix up Ted on a blind date for Valentine's Day, they use one of Barney's many discarded girls to see if they may become Ted's future wife. Meanwhile, Robin's obnoxious colleague invites her to a party at his apartment.—CBS Publicity
- Ted, Marshall, Lily, and Robin hang out at Ted's apartment to watch Super Bowl XLIV, where the camera catches Barney holding up a sign in the crowd asking women to call him. It pays off as his phone keeps ringing with women on the other end. He hires Ranjit (Marshall Manesh) as his personal driver. Robin also reveals that she accepted an offer from her colleague, Don Frank (Benjamin Koldyke), to go on a Valentine's Day date with him, while they were on the air. Ted is offended as Robin had plans with him to clean the apartment on Valentine's day. It is revealed that Don actually asked Robin to attend a party at his house on Valentine's day and Marshall theorizes that Robin wanted to be asked out on a date by Don.
The gang debates whether Robin is attracted to Don using the duck-rabbit illusion. This leads to one of the most intense fights ever among the group, with Marshall supporting rabbits as an object of desire (People carry around rabbit's foot for good luck), and Ted, Robin, Lily and Ranjit supporting ducks as objects of love & desire (Ducks are delicious, Rabbits taste like game. Comforters are made of duck hair). Ranjit even falls back into his native language to yell at Marshall. Marshall eventually concedes the point ("duck's good; rabbit's bad"). Ted is sure Don = Donald = Donald Duck and Donald Duck never wears pants, just like Don. So, Don is a Duck.
Given the success of Ranjit's arranged marriage, Ted decides to let Marshall and Lily pick the perfect bride for him during a double date on Valentine's Day itself. Ted says Marshall and Lily are the best pickers he knows as they picked each other. Only Marshall & Lily totally forget about their task and their last minute attempts to get Ted a date, result in Marshall being maced in the face. Ted joins Robin on her date at Don's apartment (as Robin didn't want to go there alone), as Don said there would be a party. Ted leaves when they see Don on the couch naked and realizes there was no party. Don says he was trying The Naked Man. Robin confronts Don and he admits he is interested in her but didn't know how to say. However, she sees him with a large pair of rabbit ears.
Meanwhile, Barney's having problems with his pickup phone. When he is about to bed one woman, an even hotter woman calls the phone. This causes him to ditch the woman and have Ranjit drive him back to MacLaren's on three separate occasions (hot lady bullfighter, gold medalist Japanese figure skater, a hot chick). In the fourth incident (involving a hot chick named Natalia (Bar Paly)), Barney throws the phone in the dumpster so he can concentrate on the woman. As he was about to seal the deal, he could hear the phone ringing in the distance (in the manner of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart) and gets it again at the dumpster. Marshall and Lily later hide the phone inside the piano at Ted's apartment. Ted and Robin, who agreed to clean up the place for the day, find the phone and Ted answers.
Ted goes on the double date with Marshall and Lily, who have fixed him up with Natalia (Bar Paly). Despite their compatibility, Ted continues to answer the phone, which results in another encounter at MacLaren's, wearing aviator sunglasses and sitting across from another woman. Seeing Ted on the line, Barney tries to get it from him, but Ted passes it to Marshall and Lily, who drops the phone in a pitcher of beer.
Back at the apartment, Ted and Robin lament about their single status, but later agree to clean the bathroom.
While preparing for another episode of Come On Get Up, New York, Don apologizes to Robin for his unprofessional behavior (he married in college and got divorced 3 months ago, so had no clue how to date other women) and praises her news anchor skills. He also tries to improve his work ethic by getting coffee for Robin. She realizes that he is wearing pants (which he never does), and the next time she looks up she imagines a duck bill on his face.
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