Warning: Spoilers ahead for HIMYF episode 8!
In HIMYM, Lily’s Aldrin Justice was her own form of punishment for others, which How I Met Your Father twists for Valentina. How I Met Your Father has already taken several in-jokes and gags from How I Met Your Mother and adjusted them to fit the new characters. Jesse’s musical talents recreate HIMYM’s song components, the gang already has a few Barney-like catchphrases, and now Valentina has her own version of Lily’s famous punishment.
Lily’s Aldrin Justice was first introduced in HIMYM season 2 when she went to work for Ted’s architecture firm under his rude boss, Hammond Druthers (Bryan Cranston). When Hammond “misbehaves” in front of Lily, she decides to punish him by taking something that’s important to him–a tactic she also uses with her kindergarten class. Aldrin Justice then makes its way into How I Met Your Mother a few more times, including references to Lily stealing from shops, taking Zoey’s toy turkey, swiping the Captain’s ashtray, and advising Tracy to steal her bandmate’s van.
How I Met Your Father episode 8 sees a slightly altered return of Lily’s Aldrin Justice in the form of Valentina stealing bags from her job. When preparing for Drew’s fundraiser that evening, Valentina and Charlie go into her work where her boss verbally abuses her. After already telling Charlie that she was going to donate a $15,000 bag from her office by “swiping” it, Valentina officially decides that she’ll be stealing the bag once her boss insults her again. Charlie mentions that saying she “swipes” expensive items from work is just a cute way of saying she’s stealing, which harks back to HIMYM when Ted and the gang would implore Lily to not steal others’ belongings simply because they “misbehaved.”
Similar to Aldrin Justice, Valentina takes the bag for the majority of the episode but ends up returning it when her boss realizes it’s missing. In every documented case of Aldrin Justice in HIMYM aside from the khaki pants Lily stole from a salesperson and gifted to Ted, Alyson Hannigan’s character would return the belongings she took. It usually took for Lily to realize the person she took from wasn’t actually deserving of the punishment, or that the consequences would be dire if she didn’t, as was the case with Druthers’ baseball. Valentina’s need to return the expensive bag wasn’t due to her boss apologizing, but because she realized how much trouble she could get into once he texted her that the bag was missing.
In a bigger twist, How I Met Your Father's Valentina had to get the bag back to her boss by stealing it yet again from someone who had bid $15,000 dollars on it. Charlie simply took the bag from the table and ran, with How I Met Your Father not revealing what consequences Valentina would face. To be fair, it doesn’t appear that Valentina has the same knack for stealing that Lily did in HIMYM, as the original series character mentioned a few times that the idea of shoplifting still appealed to her from time to time. However, the thrills of stealing do get to Charlie and Valentina by the end of How I Met Your Father episode 8, where both refer to each other affectionately as Bonnie and Clyde. While Valentina’s first use of Aldrin Justice didn’t pan out, it’s possible she’ll take from Lily Aldrin's HIMYM punishment playbook again in the future.
