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Recently, I watched the How I Met Your Mother episode, "The Poker Game"(S09E05), when my sister pointed me out this jarring inconsistency from approximately minute 09:56:

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Here, you could explicitly see Katie Holmes' character, Naomi/The Slutty Pumpkin, who Ted won't encounter again until Season 7. This scene was a flashback; but here's the inconsistency:

When did this particular scene take place, exactly?

It was mentioned to take place a good number of months, perhaps at the most a year, after Lily and Marshall's marriage, but prior to Ted's engagement with Stella, putting it somewhere in between the middle of Season 2 to the end of Season 3. However, the presence of The Slutty Pumpkin begs to differ. One might argue Ted didn't notice her, played for humorous effect, but then in this scene shouldn't Ted be wearing that sandwich-board like costume?

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    The episode itself says "6 years earlier", which would mean it's 2007. - My guess: the joke is that Ted's obsession with the "Thank You" note not only made him break his costume tradition, but also miss the Slutty Pumpkin.
    – Oliver_C
    Dec 16, 2013 at 14:09
  • Hmm, that's actually not a bad speculation. But surely, is it possible to miss a woman you're looking for standing a mere meter behind you?
    – Fikko3107
    Dec 16, 2013 at 15:21
  • @Oliver_C You should post that as an answer.
    – magnattic
    Apr 25, 2014 at 0:23

2 Answers 2

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From the episode "Band or DJ?" we know that Barney and Robin's wedding took place on

"Sunday, May 25, 2013".

The How I Met Your Mother episode, "The Poker Game"(S09E05) specifically states that the events of the Halloween party took place...

"6 years earlier"

which means that it was most likely Wednesday, October 31, 2007, assuming the party was actually held on Halloween.

New York skyline with the caption "six years earlier"

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    While this answers the question in the title and bold font, it doesn't seem to adress the broader picture so much.
    – Napoleon Wilson ♦
    May 24, 2014 at 17:52
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    Well, the whole point of the joke was that he was so obsessed with the "present" that he missed the slutty pumpkin completely. He did meet up with her again in 2011 and it was made clear that this was the first time they'd seen each other since 2001.
    – user7812
    May 24, 2014 at 18:13
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It is that most likely the producers shot this flash back scene back in season 7 as they had access to Katie Holmes being the slutty pumpkin in the backround during the production of the episode. They probably saved and later edited this clip into season 9 for the flash back footage, this can be confirmed by a few simple observations between the s7 episode and the s9 flash back, ted is wearing the same polar neck and marshal has the same hair cut the only difference between the s7 set and the s9 flash back set is a few minor changes ie light fixtures and the position of the drink table and some characters.

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