Lily Aldrin

Lily Aldrin is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by American actress Alyson Hannigan. She is the wife of Marshall Eriksen and the best friend of Robin Scherbatsky. Lily is a kindergarten teacher and amateur painter.

Character History
Lily grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She is the granddaughter of a woman named Lois and the daughter of Janice Aldrin, whom Lily describes as a feminist. The creators stated in commentary that there is no evidence to the contrary that Lily's grandfather is astronaut Buzz Aldrin - and like Buzz Aldrin, her grandfather is said to have fought in the Korean War. During her high school and college years, she is shown to have been a part of the goth subculture, with her hair dyed black.

She met Marshall during her freshman year at Wesleyan University in 1996 and dated him throughout college. The two became engaged in the fall of 2005, as portrayed in the series pilot. Towards the end of the first season, she reveals to Robin that she has been having second thoughts about getting married without having experienced much else of life before Marshall. Those doubts intensify, and she acts upon them, applying for a painting fellowship in San Francisco. She originally tells Ted that she had decided not to go through with the application, but Marshall finds out she did and was accepted. After arguing the point on and off, with several pause breaks in between for drinks, dinner at Red Lobster, and sex, Lily cannot promise Marshall that she would return to him after the three-month fellowship, and the engagement ends.

She later confesses that her decision to leave was a mistake, but it takes several episodes until Marshall re-embraces her and their romantic relationship. Soon after, they resume their engagement. Episode 10 of season 2 implies that within a year, Marshall and Lily will be married. They finally get married in "Something Borrowed," the penultimate episode of the second season. Lily chose to keep her own last name, instead of taking on Eriksen. Marshall expressed his disappointment but accepted Lily's right to choose.

In episode 21 of season 1, she says that Ted is her best friend. In episode 8 of season 4, Robin calls Lily her best friend, a feeling that Lily reciprocates. It is revealed in "Arrivederci, Fiero" that Robin and Lily became best friends when they shared the experience of spilling Thai food all over Marshall's Fiero and ensuing cleanup antics.

She was chosen as the Slap Bet Commissioner for the slap bet between Marshall and Barney. She despises the word "moist" and is characterized as a "loud chewer" by Ted.

In the third season, it is revealed that Lily is a shopaholic, and goes shopping (particularly for shoes and boots) when something bad happens. Her multiple credit cards are kept in a "box of shame," which is a pink shoebox. This fact is subtly hinted at during the season one episode Cupcake. Upon ruining a wedding dress Lily is asked "How will you be paying?" and her reply is "credit card... s". She and Marshall struggled with her credit card bills especially when they were about to buy an apartment, which caused Marshall to take a job at a big corporate firm. They eventually get the house, only to find out that the neighborhood is situated near a water sewage treatment plant and that the floor of their apartment is crooked. In season 4 she and Marshall move into their new home and are considering having a baby.

Out of all of the characters, she is the only one Barney confided in when he realized that he was in love with Robin in the season 4 premiere, "Do I Know You?". Barney has also called Lily to ask her to uncuff him from a sex swing. In the same episode as Barney's confession of his love for Robin, she, in a semi-incoherrent rant stated that Robin was her best friend and that she wouldn't pretend she "hadn't noticed her body."

Lily, along with Ted and Marshall, occasionally indulged in "sandwiches" (Future Ted's euphemism for marijuana) during college and at their 20th college reunion.

Romantic Interests

 * Marshall Eriksen : Marshall and Lily met on their first day at Wesleyan University. They dated, fell in love and were together for 10 years. They planned to get married earlier but Lily got cold feet and backed out, deciding instead to go to San Francisco for a summer art internship. When she returns, Marshall refuses to take her back at first, but they soon reunite. The first time they are married for about 12 seconds while at sea before being unmarried, the second time they are married out in a garden surrounded by their closest friends and the third time, minutes after their second wedding, they go inside for a third one, that had been going horribly wrong. Lily and Marshall lost their virginity to each other.
 * Scooter : Scooter, or 'Bill' as he is now known, was Lily's high school boyfriend whom she only dated because he looked like Kurt Cobain. He crashes Lily and Marshall's wedding in hopes of winning Lily back. He fails miserably. He also almost had sex with Lily before she started seeing Marshall. Scooter was played by David Burtka (who is Neil Patrick Harris' partner).
 * Too-Much-Tongue-Guy : Made out with Lily at a Freshmen mixer before she met Marshall. This was suspected to be Ted but was later discovered to be someone else at her 20th college reunion.

Character Traits
Lily is often portrayed to be the most morally-inclined member of the five-some. She is rarely impressed by Barney's antics, shows a consistent dislike for people not being true to themselves (When Marshall took the "soul-destroying" corporate job) and is often horrified by the use of bad language (especially when directed at her). Despite this, she is prone to out-bursts related to sexual language and/or harsh slang words. Of the couple, Lily is the impulsive one (and is terrible at keeping secrets); Marshall is often required to be the voice of reason. She is often curious about trying out new things. She finds it easy to sustain platonic friendships with both males and females, although she is usually found in the company of men (Ted, Marshall, Barney). She is also prone to a reaction at certain words such as; "moist" makes her shiver, and "sack" and "booger" make her laugh.