How I Met Your Mother

Vivek

Master Member
It's the 8th season of How I Met Your Mother and besides for the comedy antics of the gang, the character Ted Mosby is still the main reason I keep watching the show.

And thanks to actor Josh Radnor, last night's episode "The Time Travelers" had me in tears and reminded me how Ted is still the heart of the show. Definitely one of my favourite episodes.
 
It's been interesting to read all the conjecture about last night's ending and what it means for narrator Ted. I really like the use of the Billy Joel song at the end. Not too many people picked up on the lyrics and thought it was just picked because it was an a cappella tune.
 
That will put it right around the season finale. With only one season to go I hope they give us a year of them dating and getting to know one another.
 
I'm a HUGE fan of this show. And yeah, particularly for Ted's story, not NPH's antics (which are funny, but not the point for me).

It's a funny sitcom, sure, but it also has heart, and it's the heart that keeps me coming back, rather than the ha-ha-funny moments.


The feedback on this episode that I've seen has ranged from interesting to idiotic. People insisting that the mother is dead in the future because Ted said "I'll love you all of my days and beyond...you'll see." (Which would suggest that, if anyone's dead, it'd be TED...)

At any rate, here's my prediction for the end of this season:

- We will SEE the Mother. We MAY get a very brief "Hi, my name is..." (I still don't think it's Tracy, but you never know) moment, but other than that, we won't get much. Season 9 will open with Ted chasing her for...hmm..not more than 4 episodes before they really get together. At which point, she'll become part of his life, and I expect the season will stop playing in real-time and will skip ahead. That or they'll play it out in real-time up to their wedding, and wrap the show with a montage of stuff about what happened afterwards.
 
Yes for sure we won't see her until the very end..OR we won't actually see her!! Might not make sense for the role to be cast for a 1 second spot in the finale.

I actually was wondering if the mother does die. I doubt they would leave a show with such a heavy feeling, but it would explain the longing he has for her and his wanting to have 45 more days with her.
 
Yes for sure we won't see her until the very end..OR we won't actually see her!! Might not make sense for the role to be cast for a 1 second spot in the finale.

I actually was wondering if the mother does die. I doubt they would leave a show with such a heavy feeling, but it would explain the longing he has for her and his wanting to have 45 more days with her.

The Mother doesn't die. I guarantee you this. Come on, folks, it's How I Met Your Mother, not Six Feet Under.

The wanting to have 45 more days is easy: he loves her. He's absolutely over the moon for her, and Future Ted knows what's coming in those 45 days from when he realized in the bar "I'm all alone now" to when he met her and his life changed. It's really that simple.


People have been bringing up "Oh, the Mother's dead!" for ages, usually as a way to explain why Ted ends up with Robin. It doesn't happen. She's not dead, and Ted isn't with Robin. Every mention of his wife to his kids is present-tense, not "remember how your Mother used to do XYZ BEFORE THAT PIECE OF SKYLAB FELL ON HER?!"


They won't push the introduction of the Mother back to the end of the entire show, just the end of this season. She'll be, I expect, part of the cast next year.
 
I'm a HUGE fan of this show. And yeah, particularly for Ted's story, not NPH's antics (which are funny, but not the point for me).

It's a funny sitcom, sure, but it also has heart, and it's the heart that keeps me coming back, rather than the ha-ha-funny moments.
Well said, I totally agree. :).

Yeah I been reading the user reviews on IMDB and other forums, some even felt confused by the episode. But pretty much everyone agrees Ted's ending was great and that made up for the whole episode.

Whoever plays the Mother has so much expectation riding on her, I hope her character is able to match to the build up.
 
Well said, I totally agree. :).

Yeah I been reading the user reviews on IMDB and other forums, some even felt confused by the episode. But pretty much everyone agrees Ted's ending was great and that made up for the whole episode.

Whoever plays the Mother has so much expectation riding on her, I hope her character is able to match to the build up.

I figure if they can still nail the heart with speeches like Ted's last night, they won't have a problem casting her. I mean, think about when we first met Victoria. She seemed terrific (although in hindsight, not so much), and certainly Ashley Williams and Josh Radnor had great on-screen chemistry together. I think they can do that with whomever they end up casting.

Honestly, I find it kinda funny the amount of apprehension people seem to have about casting the Mother. It's almost as if they've fallen into the same trap Ted has: being unable to imagine anyone other than the women who've come before (especially Robin), and being unable to see beyond that. (I'm not saying you're doing this, Vivek, but I see it a lot.)

I think whoever they cast will be able to pull it off. Every time the show has brought someone on that they really WANTED us to like, we have (by and large) liked them. People might cite Stella as an example of someone they didn't like, but in hindsight, I don't think we were meant to, really.
 
I sincerely hope that the last season actually features the mother as a recurring character so we get to see why she's the one for Ted rather than just being told about it. Though after eight years of build up it's going to be tricky to pull off in a way that will be satisfying for most fans without the mother just being a mary sue.

I wonder if having coat-check-girl on last night's episode was specifically to kill off the theory that she's the mother.
 
The irony of that is that Coat Check Girl has been debunked as The Mother from her very first appearance ("Ok, Awesome"). On the cab ride home, Ted says "Hey, maybe that cute coat check girl is her" and Future Ted says "She wasn't." It's in the last minute of the episode if you have Netflix. People just forgot about it and posited her as a possible option.

That said, this season has debunked a couple other theories (e.g. Carly) and taken out a few other lingering options that weren't really options (e.g. Victoria). And they've been knocking down other possibles for the past couple seasons, too (e.g. Trudy, The Slutty Pumpkin, etc.).

My theory? She's the girl from "Milk." The one Ted blew off the date with to go be with Robin. To me, that'd just be too poetic -- Ted wasn't ready for her when she first showed up, perfect on paper, and instead HAD to go chase Robin...yet it's Robin and her wedding that ultimately make it happen for Ted with this girl, or at least open the door to that.

By the way -- for those interested in all things HIMYM, check out have-you-met-ted.com (if you haven't, already). I post over there frequently, and actually write the episode recaps and some of the other blog posts. We've been having issues with our comment system, so you can't post comments right now, but we're trying to nail that down and hopefully will soon.
 
The irony of that is that Coat Check Girl has been debunked as The Mother from her very first appearance ("Ok, Awesome"). On the cab ride home, Ted says "Hey, maybe that cute coat check girl is her" and Future Ted says "She wasn't." It's in the last minute of the episode if you have Netflix. People just forgot about it and posited her as a possible option.

That said, this season has debunked a couple other theories (e.g. Carly) and taken out a few other lingering options that weren't really options (e.g. Victoria). And they've been knocking down other possibles for the past couple seasons, too (e.g. Trudy, The Slutty Pumpkin, etc.).

Robin was debunked in the first episode and it didn't stop people thinking she was the mother, clearly coat-check-girl had to be debunked again.

I think Victoria was originally supposed to be the mother, as she showed up in the 13th episode. Most shows (at least in the US) get an initial 13 episode order, and if they're doing well they get picked up for the "back 9." If the show had ended right there with Ted tracking Victoria down at her shop with a "and that kids is how I met your mother" voice over it'd have been a fine ending point. Obviously the show did well enough to merit a full season order so they had to tank her later down the line, then bring her back to fully sink that ship since it wouldn't work for her to be the mother with how the story evolved. Apparently Stella was supposed to be an option to be the mother had the show not been renewed around that time, but thankfully she wasn't.
 
Robin was debunked in the first episode and it didn't stop people thinking she was the mother, clearly coat-check-girl had to be debunked again.

I think Victoria was originally supposed to be the mother, as she showed up in the 13th episode. Most shows (at least in the US) get an initial 13 episode order, and if they're doing well they get picked up for the "back 9." If the show had ended right there with Ted tracking Victoria down at her shop with a "and that kids is how I met your mother" voice over it'd have been a fine ending point. Obviously the show did well enough to merit a full season order so they had to tank her later down the line, then bring her back to fully sink that ship since it wouldn't work for her to be the mother with how the story evolved. Apparently Stella was supposed to be an option to be the mother had the show not been renewed around that time, but thankfully she wasn't.

Yeah, at each point where they haven't been sure, they've had an exit strategy. Victoria was one, Stella was, I think, another (although a much weaker one, in my opinion). I don't think anyone ever thought Zoey was, though (and thank god -- she sucked). Actually, when I went back and re-watched the series before starting Season 8, I came to the conclusion that Victoria sucked, too, even back in Season 1. Her pattern is that she bails. She ALWAYS bails. Always finds a reason to leave rather than go for it.

Then there's "Bump Girl" from "No Tomorrow," but I think she's a red herring, actually. I don't think it's anyone we've seen or encountered yet. It may later be revealed that the Mother was there at various points in the story, but they'll be insert her into those scenes with creative editing.
 
The drumroll idea from Victoria is a little dodgy, I'll grant that. At the very least at the end of the episode her "thank God" seems to imply even she knew it was a bad idea in practice. It's only after she was deigned not the mother that the bailing pattern really set in, since they had to manufacture some reason for her to not be the mother.

I'd rather it be the dating service girl he stood up than bump-girl, unless it's both at the same time.

D'oh, also remembered that it never could have been Zoey, because by that point in the show we already knew Ted met the mother at a wedding. I like Jennifer Morrison, but that whole plotline was annoying.
 
I'm so glad to see a thread about this show here finally. I adore this show. This show has helped make my 20's...fantastical. No other show has impacted me so literally. Well, maybe Doctor Who. Whatever, I love this show!
Someone mentioned 'the heart' of the show, and I have to agree. No other sitcom pulls at my heart like this one.

As for The Time Travelers...weird episode, but I liked it. I'm a fan of any episode where Ted confronts himself and his life and realizes he's still 'on the road', so to speak.

I bet we only see the mother at the end of this season. They love playing with us like that!
 
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