After nine seasons, the final episode of How I Met Your Mother airs in the United States on Monday, March 31. Curiata.com is reliving the series this week by looking back at our favorites of the 208 episodes.

One of the great things about How I Met Your Mother is how it can have a very Seinfeld-esque episode that’s seemingly about nothing at all but still manages to weave in little plot threads that tie it to the overall series. The fourth season’s “The Best Burger in New York” is one of those episodes.

“The Best Burger in New York” opens with Barney announcing that his company has just bought out Goliath National Bank and offering Marshall a job in its legal department. Through a brief series of flashbacks, we see that Marshall has not been very successful with his current job hunt, though his dream of becoming an environmental lawyer prevents him from accepting Barney’s offer.

Later, at MacLaren’s, Marshall tells the story of how he discovered the Best Burger in New York after moving to the city eight years ago. This sets up a mission for the friends to once again find this burger joint, which Marshall hasn’t been able to locate since.

The episode becomes a version of a Hero’s Quest, as Marshall is determined to succeed in finding this burger. Marshall’s journey around Manhattan to find the burger is inextricably linked to his unsuccessful job hunt. As Lily recounts the expansion of Marshall’s “underpants radius,” it becomes clear Marshall has been losing self-esteem the longer he goes without a job, and this burger is Marshall’s Holy Grail. Lily understands he needs to find the burger because he needs a win.

However, just as they finally locate the correct corner where the burger joint had been, the gang discovers it is now a Goliath National Bank ATM. The symbolism here is too much for Marshall: his youthful optimism, represented by the perfect burger he had as a 22-year-old aspiring environmental lawyer, has been buried by the corporate world. He reveals to Lily that he has taken a job with GNB.

Marshall is afraid that working in a corporate atmosphere will strangle his passion for environmental law and change who he is. However, the burger joint Marshall seeks hasn’t been shut down by the new ATM after all; it still exists and the burger is just as good as it ever was.

Of course, that twist, too, is symbolic. GNB is only a stepping stone for Marshall: he does ultimately land his dream job with an environmental firm. But this was a big moment of change for Marshall and, as usual, all his friends were there to support him. Even Barney is being supportive in his own way by trying to talk up all the better points of GNB to change Lily’s mind about the bank before she finds out Marshall has accepted the job.

One of the more random yet amusing aspects of this episode is the appearance of Regis Philbin, who has also been on the hunt for this specific burger joint ever since he ate there years ago. All throughout the episode, you see evidence of his search, as his signed photograph hangs in every restaurant Marshall has visited. This adds an additional layer of lighthearted humor to an episode with a much deeper theme.

Best line: “I think I just had my first burgasm.”

Best Cutaway: “Million Dollar Heads or Tails”

Mother Lore: None!