Marshall Eriksen

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Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character in the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother, created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas and portrayed by Jason Segel.

Character profile

Marshall is an easy-going, naive optimist from St. Cloud, Minnesota. At the start of the series, Marshall lives with his best friend Ted Mosby and his long-time girlfriend, Lily Aldrin; he proposes to her in the pilot episode, which inspires Ted to get married and settle down. Marshall is an avid Minnesota Vikings fan, expressed and shown on various occasions, specifically in the episode "Little Minnesota", where Marshall takes Robin to a Minnesota Vikings themed bar, while he dons a Jim Marshall jersey, presumably an homage to his name.

Born in 1978 and of Scandinavian descent, Marshall met Ted and Lily during their freshman year at Wesleyan University. Ted was his roommate and Lily lived in the same hall as they did, which led to their eventual relationship. He is a Columbia Law School graduate, and throughout his time at law school, Ted refers to him as "the kid". Even though he stands at 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), he is the shortest male member of his family. Marshall became a lawyer because he was interested in environmental protection laws. Ultimately, he accepted a job at a corporate law firm where his only client is an amusement park riddled with various safety violations. He later joins the legal team at Goliath National Bank, where Barney Stinson also works. Later, in season 6, he quits his job at Goliath National Bank to work at an environmental law firm, just like he wanted to do when he graduated law school.

He and Lily have a solid, loving relationship, but it has been tested at various times throughout the series. In "Come On", Lily, who has been having cold feet about their approaching wedding, announces that she has been accepted to an art fellowship in San Francisco and leaves to find out who she is outside of a relationship. Marshall is devastated and spends the next few months in a deep depression. When Lily returns to New York and asks him to take her back, he refuses, his pride still wounded. They eventually reconcile and resume their engagement in "Swarley", and get married, albeit with some complications, in "Something Borrowed". Lily is also the only person that Marshall, a lawyer, "a person who argues for a living," ever gets tongue-tied with; every argument he has with her ends badly for him.

It is seen that while Marshall enjoys being in a relationship, he misses being a wingman with his single male friends Ted and Barney and occasionally complains about not involving him in their adventures, as seen in Definitions. He is known to think of himself highly, in regards to his appearance, as evidenced in "Spoiler Alert", where he thinks of himself as a young Harrison Ford, and in The Yips. He is also considered to be a catch amongst members of the gay community, and he acknowledges that, as seen in Single Stamina and Everything Must Go. He is deeply devoted to his family, which occasionally annoys Lily. She jokes that in his mind, the ideal woman would be his mother. When his father died in season 6, Marshall came to live with his mom for a small period of time to help her. He regressed to living as though he was a child again, which was seen in Desperation Day.

Marshall is fascinated with the paranormal, specifically Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster, both of which he believes are real. In the episode "We're Not From Here" there is a picture that says a New York lawyer had caught the Loch Ness Monster, presumably Marshall. He is also fascinated in the existence of aliens. He can play the piano fairly well, as seen in the episode "Slapsgiving", where he performs a song after slapping Barney. In the episode "Sweet Taste of Liberty", he claims that he has never fought anyone before, but proves he is a formidable and experienced fighter in the episode "The Fight", having survived several brutal fights with his brothers. When nervous, Marshall is prone to blurting out the thing he least wants known.

It is revealed in "Last Cigarette Ever" that in the future, he and Lily have a son. In early 2011, after being told Marshall and Lily are capable of having a baby, Lily tells Marshall that his father had a fatal heart attack, which shakes Marshall to the core. Marshall and his friends agree his dad's last words towards him were "I love you", but they were actually about a foot cream. During his father's funeral, Marshall says in his eulogy that the last words his father ever said to him were "...rent Crocodile Dundee III..." His father's death causes him to change perspective on his life, which leads to him quitting his job at GNB and pursuing a career in environmental law, as well as attempting to start a family with Lily.

In the season six finale, Marshall is given a job interview with a local law firm, but Lily gets food poisoning from a restaurant they had lunch at, and fears he will start having symptoms as well. He blows off the interview and sleeps through the night without getting sick. The next morning, Lily reveals to him that she was sick only because she is pregnant. In the "The Naked Truth", Marshall is given a job offer from Garrison Cootes, head of the largest environmental law firm in the nation. The company must first complete an extensive background check, which worries Marshall, as an online video of him streaking in college may endanger his chance at the job. He tries to convince the downloader, Pete Durkensen to delete the video, but ends up getting drunk and filming another video of him naked, after the two play a drinking game. However, Cootes is not concerned when he finds the video and Marshall is hired. Later, in the Mystery vs. History, while decorating the nursery for their new baby, he and Lily are tempted by Barney and Robin to find out the sex. They do, in the end, find out that they are having a boy.

In "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns", they inherit Lily's grandparents suburban house in Long Island and consider moving. In Disaster Averted, we learn that Marshall and Lily's son was conceived during Hurricane Irene in Barney's bathroom. They permanently move to Long Island in 46 Minutes, and Lily's estranged father moves in with them after coming to see her after learning of her pregnancy. Together the three of them hold a house-warming party in The Burning Beekeeper". During the party, Marshall's boss Garrison Cootes informs Marshall that they will soon be heading back to the office for more work. Marshall explains the long hours he works result in not having time to spend with his wife, and asks for the night off. Cootes refuses, and Marshall quits out of desperation. Later however, when Cootes is caught on fire wearing Lily's father's beekeeper outfit dosed in kerosene, he changes his mind and Marshall takes back his resignation.

In a later episode entitled No Pressure, Barney finds out while snooping through Marshall and Lily's bedroom that they have been placing bets on their and their friend's lives, such as "Robin will never return their hairdryer," or "Ted will go bald," and "If he goes bald, will pull it off." It is also revealed that they once made a sex tape early on in their engagement, but kept it hidden so no one would find it. Barney does find it and is about to watch it until Lily and Marshall list of things they will do in the video, which disgusts him and he breaks the tape. In the next episode, "Karma", Robin is living with Lily and Marshall after moving out of Ted's apartment. She finds out that they are completely bored of the suburbs and are only living out there for a better environment for their child to grow up in. When she explains this to Ted, he decides he needs a change in his life and removes his name from the lease of his apartment, but leaves Marshall and Lily's, making them the owners.