- When Barney tries to bond with his father, he asks the gang to help make his life seem more exciting by lying about their own lives. Meanwhile, Robin runs into a guy she has a crush on.
- Barney, still dismayed at his father Jerry's straight-laced suburban lifestyle, wants to show him that the old, crazy, "never stop partying" Jerry had a better life. He wants to show his father that his own life as a crazy Jerry clone is awesome. He enlists his friends' help to show Jerry that life in the fast lane is the way to go. Giving them each a new more exciting persona, Barney and his friends take Jerry out for a night of clubbing. How far will Jerry go in order to be the dad that Barney wants? Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily make a bet at the club on who can get five telephone numbers first. And Robin runs into an old secret crush there. Being single now, she wants to start something up with him. But in the Barney-issued persona of being Ted's girlfriend, can Robin get Ted to get out of character to allow her to hook up with her crush? Ted finding a little more about her crush may provide the answer.—Huggo
- The episode starts with Barney and his father, Jerry, parting in 1983. Jerry last words before he left were "Never top partying" and this became Barney's motto for life. Back in the present, Barney is disappointed in Jerry's normal suburban lifestyle, and decides not to pursue any further contact. However, Barney is surprised by a call from Jerry, who invites Barney to go fishing with him and his son JJ. Barney declines and tells the gang he resolves to take his dad out to lead him back to his old "party hard" lifestyle. He creates alternate identities for the group so as to impress Jerry: Marshall is a playwright in an open marriage with Lily, while Robin and Ted are dating. Robin is a professional scotch taster.
The next night, the group meets Jerry at MacLaren's where, after a brief discussion on which club to head to, they decide on one called Hopeless. Jerry is reluctant to get drunk, as he is going fishing with JJ the next day, but finally agrees and begins downing several shots. Jerry and Barney begin having a great time, eventually roaming the streets of New York and pulling various pranks, such as picking a fight with a heavyset biker and yanking out a parking meter.
Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily make a bet to see who can pick up five numbers from people at the club the fastest, with either winner getting to have sex in the bathroom. Lily ends up winning, though Marshall claims to have "won the race" of the prize. Robin runs into an old crush of hers at the club; before she has a chance to ask him out, Ted claims to be dating her, to keep up the ruse for Jerry. Robin had met the man several years before at a clothing store; Ted realizes he and Robin had been dating at the time, and promptly decides to announce to everyone in the club that he and Robin are to get married, thus ruining any chance Robin has with the man. Robin points out Ted had bought his red cowboy boots that day because another woman had told him he would look good in them, and tells him to get off his high horse. As Marshall, Lily, Ted and Robin are heading home, Lily says that she is sorry that Robin's secret crush didn't work out. Robin replies that it is okay, and maybe it wasn't meant to be. Lily asks her why she is smiling, and she says she doesn't know. Just as Robin and Ted are entering their building, Robin's crush passes by and is talking to someone on his cell phone saying that he met "that" girl again and that she is engaged to Ted. Future Ted hints there would be more between them later.
Barney and Jerry are eventually arrested after Jerry throws up on a police car. As they sit handcuffed on the curb, Jerry reveals that he was in fact never drunk, having only pretended to take the shots, while the various pranks really didn't happen (due to Barney's drunkenness, he couldn't tell Jerry was pretending, and it was Barney who had thrown up.) Jerry wanted to hang out with Barney while at the same time showing him, he can't keep partying forever. However, because Jerry is also an aspiring magician, like Barney, they manage to free themselves from the handcuffs, and head back to Jerry's house (getting a ride with one of Jerry's driving students) so that he can make it on time for the fishing trip. On the ride back, Barney asks Jerry how he managed to settle down and live a "normal" life and confides that someday he too wishes to settle down. Jerry tells him he won't reveal his secret but says he must first meet the right girl. Barney says that maybe he has already met the right girl.
Although he declines at first, when Jerry produces a memento from their last day together when Barney was a kid and expresses how much it meant to him over the intervening years, Barney decides to go fishing with Jerry and his son, though later on the boat (wearing on his suit's lapel the "Legalize It" button Jerry had held onto all those years) he sighs and says, "This sucks!"
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