How I Met Your Mother S03E16 – Sandcastles in the Sand
Robin reunites with an old boyfriend but not everyone sees him the same
way she does. Barney tries to find out about a second music video by
Robin Sparkles.
The episode begins with montage pictures of Robin, as Future Ted explains how much she has changed since her days as a Canadian teen pop star (as portrayed in Slap Bet). At the bar, Robin announces that her former boyfriend, Simon,
plans to meet up with her later on at the bar. Robin tells the gang the
story of how Simon broke up with her: He waited until she had loaded
all of his band's equipment into their van to tell her that he was
leaving her for Louise Marsh, whose parents had a pool.
The group agrees that every time old friends come together, there
is a clear winner and a clear loser. They begin to tally the points for
Robin and Simon's reunion. Robin receives two from Barney for her breasts, one from Ted for Simon still living with his mother, one from Lily because Simon never became a rock star, and a final one from Marshall
because Simon now works at a water park that doesn't even have a wave
pool. Robin says there is no way he could come back from this 5-0
deficit, unless he got more attractive. Simon walks in and it is
immediately clear that Robin should be the winner: he is balding,
overweight, and wearing clothes that weren't even in style back in the
80's when he got them. While the whole group looks excited as to how
much better Robin has done in the time since she and Simon were
together, the camera pans to Robin, who is giggling uncontrollably and
obviously still smitten.
After watching Robin's reunion with Simon, the group retires to The apartment
and begins criticizing the way Robin handled the meeting. Several
flashbacks follow, including Simon's refusal to pay $4 for a beer, and
instead pulling one out of his cargo pants; his bragging about his job
at a water park; his claim that his band, The Foreskins, are about to
take off; and ending with the story of how Simon and Robin met — he
starred in her second music video, "Sandcastles in the Sand." Upon hearing this, Barney instantly leaves, claiming that he will not sleep until he has found this video.
When Robin attempts to defend herself, the group discusses how
being around someone from your past can cause you to revert back to the
person you were when you knew them, a phenomenon Marshall dubs
"revertigo." Marshall and Ted tell Robin that Lily suffers from this
more than anyone else; to prove it, they have Lily invite her high
school friend, Michelle, to hang out with them. Michelle, who is almost done with her dissertation to get her Ph.D. in behavioral psychology, later states that the psychological term for revertigo is associative regression.
The group is hanging out MacLaren's the next day, when Robin tells them how Simon came to her apartment
the night before claiming that breaking up with her was the biggest
mistake of his life, and he asks her out on a date, which she accepts.
The next night, Simon demands that Robin play a demo of his band on the
news the following day at work. Immediately after this, Michelle
arrives, and Lily immediately begins speaking in the most unrealistic
but highly amusing urban style imaginable. The group continues to
discuss other members' "revertigo", which includes Ted's high school
friend, Punchy.
In another scene almost identical to the story Robin tells at the
beginning, Simon once again breaks up with Robin in the back of his van —
once again for Louise Marsh, whose parents have put in a jacuzzi. Robin
tells the rest of the group and they all do their best to console her,
but are ultimately unsuccessful and 
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