How I Met Your Mother: Barney's 10 Most Brilliant Plays

3. The Scuba Diver

I mentioned before that "The Playbook" (S5E8) featured The Lorenzo Von Matterhorn, which was not only a successful play in its own right, but was also part of a larger, more complex play. That play is called The Scuba Diver. After Barney slept with Lily's co-worker, Lily got so mad that she stole the Playbook and threatened to put it on the Internet if he tried any more of his schemes. Barney then showed up in a scuba suit and said he was going to perform The Scuba Diver. Lily was then prepared to follow through with her threat, but after Marshall tells her there's no play in the book called The Scuba Diver, the gang immediately rushes down to the bar to see how it happens. Barney says he ripped the page out of the Playbook just in case and in anger, Lily approaches Barney's target, Claire. The gang then tells Claire all about the events surrounding the Playbook and when Claire asks what The Scuba Diver involves, Marshall says they have no idea. Claire suggests just asking Barney about it. Barney at first begins the play, claiming that he trains bomb-sniffing dolphins. But then he stops and delivers a speech about how his break-up with Robin was hard on him as well and he's using the Playbook to try and keep his mind off it. Lily then stands up for Barney, saying that despite his plays, underneath it all he's actually a really good guy. Once Barney and Claire leave the bar, Lily gets a text message from Barney, telling her to look under the table. There they find The Scuba Diver play. Showing Lily the Playbook and sleeping with her co-worker was all part of Barney's plan to get Lily to inadvertently help him run a play.