15 Best How I Met Your Mother Episodes
12. No Tomorrow (Season 3, Episode 12)
"My luck was about to change."
No Tomorrow is an episode that stands as a turning point in Ted's journey to meet the woman of his dreams. Going to a Saint Patrick's Day party with Barney, Ted gets drunk and starts to act out-of-character. Using someone else's bar tab, kissing a married woman and taking Barney's questionable advice, he spends the night living in the moment, not worrying about the next morning.
He gets punched and loses his phone, but in the end the biggest slap in the face he receives is from Marshall, who shares some accidental voicemails with him and proves that Ted was out of order during the party. Put in his place, Ted laments about how his future wife was at that party, and he's glad they didn't meet because he wasn't ready to yet.
The episode doesn't paint Ted in the best light, but that's exactly the point - he's not meant to be endearing, he's meant to be flawed and represent how everyone grows from their mistakes, and it's pretty powerful to watch.