The second season of the American television comedy series How I Met Your Mother premiered on September 18, 2006 and concluded on May 14, 2007. It consisted of 22 episodes, each approximately 22 minutes in length. CBS broadcast the first three episodes of the second season on Monday nights at 8:30 pm in the United States, the remaining episodes were broadcast at 8:00pm. The complete second season was released on Region 1 DVD on October 2, 2007. In the United Kingdom it aired on E4 from October 2, 2009 weekdays at 7:30pm.
The gang tries to help Marshall get over Lily. Barney takes him to a strip club, and Ted takes him to a Yankees game. Marshall finds a credit card trail that leads to Lily's hotel in the city, but the guys try to keep him from going to see her.
Barney teaches Marshall how to pick up women. When things start to go sour for an awkward Marshall, Barney steps in and wins the women over... for himself. Lily returns from her art experience. While helping her look for a new apartment, Ted gets sick of hearing about Lily's amazing summer in San Francisco.
When Ted, Robin, and the gang spend the weekend with his parents, Ted is stunned when a family secret that changes things forever is unveiled at brunch. Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily find it difficult to control themselves when they are forced to spend time together with Ted's parents.
After Robin insinuates that Ted's job is boring, Barney sets out to convince his buddy otherwise. As the guys test out the pick-up line, "Ted Mosby, Architect" on the ladies, they realize it really works. But when Robin hears that Ted is parading around town picking up girls, she is hot on his heels to discover the truth.
Lily moves into Barney's apartment. It works well at first, as Lily gets rid of Barney's conquests by pretending to be his wife. Barney throws her out when he's disappointed to find that they slept in his bed together without having sex.
Barney takes it on himself to please Marshall's disgruntled law professor, while Lily gets a job at Ted's architecture firm and tries to teach his boss a big lesson.
Barney is mistakenly called Swarley at a coffee shop and his friends call him Swarley all day. Marshall starts dating a woman and they really hit it off, but Barney and Ted tell him he has to dump her because she has "crazy eyes".
Barney's brother James (Wayne Brady) visits and Robin, the only one in the group who's never met him, is surprised. But James has a surprise for Barney that he finds hard to accept.
Ted almost ruins Christmas for everyone when, still carrying around anger toward Lily over breaking the engagement, he calls her a horribly disgusting name.
Robin wants to tell Ted she loves him, but she can't make the leap. Meanwhile, her sister visits and brings her boyfriend, and Robin doesn't react well when her sister says she's ready to lose her virginity.
When Ted is constantly insulted by his former boss, who is now working for him on a project, he is told to fire the man, but he finds that a hard thing to do. Meanwhile, Barney offers Lily a lot of money to paint a nude portrait of him.
The group plans to watch the Super Bowl XLI when they are invited to a funeral on the same evening. They make plans to record the game and to not find out the score before watching it the following day.
After Robin gives Ted grief over keeping all of his gifts from ex-girlfriends, Ted decides it's time to give them all away. However, the tides change when he finds that Robin has been holding on to items as well. Lily tells the whole group to come to her play. After Barney tells her it sucked, she tells him she would compliment a play he performed in regardless of how bad it was – Barney decides to prove her wrong.
As Ted and Robin hit a new milestone in their relationship, Barney does everything he can to derail their happiness. To do so, Barney steals the rental truck Ted is using for moving day, including all the belongings inside of it.
Barney is chosen as a contestant on The Price Is Right giving him the opportunity to fulfill one of his life wishes: to meet Bob Barker, who he delusionally believes to be his father.
Lily and Marshall's wedding day arrives, but nothing goes as they had planned. Surprisingly, Barney steps in to save their once-in-a-lifetime moment. Meanwhile, Barney abuses the 'it's for the bride' superpower.
