8 TV Mysteries You Didn't Know Were Revealed

3. How I Met Your Mother - The Pineapple Conundrum

how i met your mother pineapple
CBS

'The Pineapple Incident' was only the tenth ever episode of How I Met Your Mother, but it threw up a mystery that would run through all nine of the show's seasons.

In this outing, we had an opening few minutes where Ted hits the bar hard - five shots of Carl's Red Dragon tipple, to be precise - then blacks out. When he wakes up, he finds an unknown brunette in his bed, a pineapple on his nightstand, and has a sprained ankle and a burnt coat.

From there, we'd see Ted speak to his buddies to retrace his steps. He'd learn that the brunette is a girl named Trudy, that he injured his ankle falling off a table while singing karaoke, and that his burnt coat was caused by a Barney who thought Ted was on the phone to Robin.

But that pineapple? Man, that was the one story strand left unsolved.

This incident would be referenced sporadically throughout the rest of the series, often by Marshall, yet HIMYM wrapped up without giving a solid answer to this poser.

After the show finished, though, BuzzFeed was given exclusive access to a deleted Season Nine scene that finally gave closure to this most unresolved of plot threats. It was revealed that drunk Ted found the pineapple outside the Captain's townhouse and took it home - with the Captain somebody who leaves pineapples outside his properties as a symbol of hospitality.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.