How I Met Your Mother: Lily & Marshall's Iconic Move-In 20 Years Later

On November 14, 2005, the eighth episode of How I Met Your Mother aired on CBS, in which one of our favorite TV couples made their living situation official. While Lily Aldrin had already been crashing at Marshall Eriksen’s New York apartment for years before the events of the sitcom, only in “The Duel” did she move in for good.

This major step took Lily and Marshall’s relationship to the next level following their engagement, cementing their status as the best sitcom couple of their day. Cute, dorky, and deeply supportive of each other’s wants and needs, they’re everything other TV pairings aspire to be.

What’s more, barring the odd misstep, Lily and Marshall’s relationship has aged surprisingly well, in stark contrast to other parts of How I Met Your Mother. For example, Ted Mosby should have his very own list of TV’s creepiest romances. As for Barney Stinson, the less said about his behavior around women, the better.

Lily Moved In With Marshall In How I Met Your Mother 20 Years Ago Today

Having been together since college, Lily Aldrin and Marshall Eriksen got engaged in the pilot episode of How I Met Your Mother, prompting their best friend Ted to panic about the state of his own love life. However, they weren’t officially living together until the show’s eighth episode, “The Duel”, when they decided to add Lily’s name to the tenancy.

This step might have seemed like a relative formality, but it marked the beginning of a lifetime spent living under the same roof. It was arguably an even bigger commitment than the decision to get engaged, and would also lead to problems with Ted, such as the toothbrush-sharing debacle in How I Met Your Mother season 5.

Lily & Marshall’s HIMYM Romance Anchored The Show

From the very beginning of the sitcom, Lily and Marshall served as couple goals for their friend and sometime roommate, Ted Mosby. Although Barney Stinson and Robin Scherbatsky probably wouldn’t admit it, by the end of the show Lily and Marshall had probably become couple goals for them too.

Across various relationship episodes in How I Met Your Mother, Lily and Marshall grounded the show in realistic, imperfect, relatable romance. They served as the ideal antidote to Ted’s flights of fancy about “The One”, and Barney’s misogynistic indulgences. Without the two of them, the sitcom could have turned very ugly, long before it actually did.

While there are plenty of harsh realities in rewatching How I Met Your Mother today, Lily and Marshall’s relationship generally isn’t one of them. They’re still one of the small screen’s most inspiring romances, having been the undisputed cutest couple on TV in the late noughties.

Unlike so many of the love stories television has to offer, there was nothing pretentious or cliche about them as a pairing. All the ways Lily and Marshall continued to fall helplessly in love with each other throughout the series – besides a brief hiccup in the early episodes of season 2 – never ceased to be adorable.

Their boundless care for each other down to the smallest detail is the biggest redeeming feature of How I Met Your Mother’s somewhat dated view of romance. Compared to their sitcom contemporaries, they were a model relationship.

Release Date

2005 – 2014-00-00

Showrunner

Craig Thomas

Directors

Michael J. Shea

Writers

Chris Harris, Stephen Lloyd, Joe Kelly, Robia Rashid, Greg Malins, Chris Marcil, Phil Lord, Sam Johnson, Tami Sagher, Gloria Calderon Kellett

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  Neil Patrick Harris

  Barney Stinson