6th episode of the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother

"Baby Talk" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and the 118th episode overall. It aired on October 25, 2010.

Plot

Marshall and Lily visit Stuart and Claudia, who are having trouble naming their newborn baby. When Claudia and Stuart leave the room, Marshall and Lily both come up with names for the baby, although the names are different. They both decide that to solve this problem, they would both come up with names and present them to the other later on. Marshall comes up with boy names that Lily rejects because of her past experiences with trouble-making kindergarten boys and Lily comes up with girl names that Marshall rejects because of his experience with a hot girl and a stripper. A future fantasy has an older Barney hitting on and subsequently marrying their daughter. Marshall, worried that it might be a girl, consults his father on how to ensure that it will be a boy while Lily has been searching for ways to make sure it will be a girl. When they found out, they realize that they have no control over the gender and decide to give him/her the gender-neutral name Jamie. Lily rejects the name later because of a troublemaker named Jamie.

Becky, Robin's new, overly cheery co-anchor at Come On, Get Up New York! reveals that she is dating Ted. Robin takes issue with Ted dating a girl who uses baby talk, while Ted, Barney, and Marshall defend girls using baby talk as a way for men to feel more manly and protective. Robin states that women would never fly with a man using baby talk, and Barney tries and fails the baby talk play. Robin discovers Ted finds dependent girls attractive and was put off by Robin's independence and assertiveness. Robin asks Barney if he felt needed during their relationship; Barney reassures her, saying he thought her independence was awesome. Robin then pointed out a crazy woman in his apartment—she had approached Barney as he was indulging himself in ice cream, and seduced him after he responded to her in a childish manner. Barney asks Robin to help him get rid of the woman, and the independent Robin grabs Barney's decorative sword and heads into the bedroom.

At the end of the episode, Ted and Becky are in a park, and as Becky licks an ice cream cone, Ted notices her shoe is untied and bends down to tie it. He then notices a nearby father tying his daughter's shoe and breaks up with Becky.

Critical response

DeAnn Welker of Television Without Pity gave the episode a score of A−. The A.V. Club's Donna Bowman gave the episode a B+ rating. Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a rating of 7.5 out of 10. Chris O'Hara of TVFanatic.com gave the episode a rating of 5 out of 5.