How I Met Your Mother Season 9 (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Adam, I had a very different take that I'm hoping is wrong..

Spoiler

I'm wondering if Ted's wife isn't passing away, and the reason he's recounting the story to his kids of how they met is because she's passed away.. So his tears in the scene were because the mother won't be at their daughter's wedding...

That would be wildly dark, though.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Matt - That's an interesting theory, but as you said - dark. Seems really out of character for a show with its sensibilities.

This episode didn't really do much for me. I'm usually pretty easy to please when it comes to this show, but this one didn't click for me. Some amusing bits, but that was about it for me tonight. I think the show really excels at times with its fragmented narratives, but not so much this evening.

- Walter.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Adam, I had a very different take that I'm hoping is wrong..

Spoiler

I'm wondering if Ted's wife isn't passing away, and the reason he's recounting the story to his kids of how they met is because she's passed away.. So his tears in the scene were because the mother won't be at their daughter's wedding...

That would be wildly dark, though.

Yeah, I'm very much afraid of that. Certainly, the foreshadowing can't be denied at this point -- though I was doing my best!

I just hope it's a misdirect.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

Adam, I had a very different take that I'm hoping is wrong..

Spoiler

I'm wondering if Ted's wife isn't passing away, and the reason he's recounting the story to his kids of how they met is because she's passed away.. So his tears in the scene were because the mother won't be at their daughter's wedding...

That would be wildly dark, though.

That is the weird vibe I got from the framing sequence throughout this episode.

Spoiler

Maybe he ends up with Robin after all.

 

[Josh Dial]

That was my theory back in season 8, with the "45 more days" episode.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Well, I thought about this a little bit more and I'd always assumed that the reason that we never saw Ted's wife in the far future (think matronly Lily and balding Marshall) segments was because the show did not want to tip their hand or commit to a certain actress until they were ready for the big reveal. Now I'm beginning to wonder if there is another reason. (I really hope the speculation proves to be wrong.)

- Walter.

 

[Jason_V]

That is the weird vibe I got from the framing sequence throughout this episode.

Spoiler

Maybe he ends up with Robin after all.

Haven't they been referring to

Spoiler

Robin as Aunt Robin for a while in the future sequences? Unless Mother dies and Barney and Robin split/don't really marry, leaving Robin and Ted together?

 

[Greg.K]

"Swarley"

 

[Greg.K]

Well, I thought about this a little bit more and I'd always assumed that the reason that we never saw Ted's wife in the far future (think matronly Lily and balding Marshall) segments was because the show did not want to tip their hand or commit to a certain actress until they were ready for the big reveal. Now I'm beginning to wonder if there is another reason. (I really hope the speculation proves to be wrong.)

- Walter.

Starting to think similarly. The realization that they knew all of each other's stories and that they'd achieved "old married couple" status seemed like an ending.

And I don't think it'd be too dark for this show.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

Haven't they been referring to

Spoiler

Robin as Aunt Robin for a while in the future sequences? Unless Mother dies and Barney and Robin split/don't really marry, leaving Robin and Ted together?

So he's been

Spoiler

dating Aunt Robin

during all these years of the framing sequence.

 

[Jason_V]

So he's been

Spoiler

dating Aunt Robin

during all these years of the framing sequence.

Or

Spoiler

they've been dating and he's explaining how Aunt Robin turned into Step-Mom to the kids

 

[SamT]

LOL! All those deaths would be bad. They can't get out of this mess with killing anyone, especially the mother.

 

[Scott-S]

I really hope the above speculation is not really how they end it.

Spoiler

Besides, in this weeks episode, the waiter came by the table and said somethingabout it being the "Mosbys". This implies that he could see the both of them.

If the speculation is true... I will be very angry.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

I was underwhelmed by this episode. The suit dilemma and Robin's lack of sentiment just wasn't all that funny for me. Looking forward to a good ending.

Pet peeve - shouldn't we save spoiler tags for actual spoilers and not speculation? I appreciate you guys trying to be conservative in case your guesses are correct, but we just had a half dozen posts with spoiler tags on guesses. The danger is that readers like me start to read them all, anticipating that they are just speculation when all of a sudden someone drops an actual spoiler bomb in there. Spoiler tag use has always been a bit fuzzy around the edges of the unwritten rules so this may be just me.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I really hope the above speculation is not really how they end it.

Spoiler

Besides, in this weeks episode, the waiter came by the table and said somethingabout it being the "Mosbys". This implies that he could see the both of them.

If the speculation is true... I will be very angry.

With regard to your speculation:

Spoiler

I don't think anybody's suggesting that the Mother is already dead/imagined by Ted in the 2024 bookends. Rather, that she's already received a grim diagnosis and won't be around for her own daughter's wedding. Either way, I hope it's not the case.

 

[Jason_V]

Agreed with Adam. That never entered my mind, at any rate.

The scene where Ted chokes up about Mom not being at their daughter's wedding...probably the best thing this show has done all season.

 

[mattCR]

I've changed my mind. The more I think about it, the more I think differently about this. I think the above is right. This is just wild speculation so I'm ditching the spoiler tags.

I now think the mother dying - or having died by the time he talks to his kids not only makes perfect sense, it would be one of those things that would make the finale not just moving, but add a whole different layer to the whole series. Why would Ted spend all of his time recounting to his kids all the moments with his other friends before he met his wife when he was trying to tell the story of his wife? Because he was trying to not think about the fact he had lost someone he loved, and because he was trying to remember that he could be happy when he was single, even when things seemed as though they couldn't.

Seeing him recount some of these stories to his wife, you're reminded that if this is the kind of outcome, then it's what she wants, for him to remember his friends and how he had a life before her and could have one after she was gone.

I thought about this the last few days as I came to think this is the reality.. the talk is happening after her death and we're going to see glimpses of her and that's where the talk is going on (or that she's dying). The speech to the kids is also a reminder of why these people are so important in their lives. They may be 'aunt Robin' etc. but they aren't the kind of major figures in a kids life the way a parent is, and humanizing them works.

I thought about this today and realized, if done correctly, this would be a fairly 'dark' finale, but it could also be an amazingly scripted one that could change the way I think about the goofy stories and even 'poor' episodes of the past, as a way to look at them as Ted being overly zany to 'pep' himself up over the outcome as it sits now.
It would take real guts to do it, I think.. but if they do it, kudos to the show. I now think it would be damn bold, and the kind of thing very few sitcoms would even try to do.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Citizen87645]

Interesting, but it would make the kids seem like a-holes given some of their snarky reaction shots.

 

[David Weicker]

Another twist on this speculation is that Ted is the one who passed away.These stories could be like a cancer patient recording stories for his kids to know who he was - except it was Ted who knew he would be the one who wasn't aroundBut I really don't want this kind of ending. I really don't .

 

[Jason_V]

Another twist on this speculation is that Ted is the one who passed away.These stories could be like a cancer patient recording stories for his kids to know who he was - except it was Ted who knew he would be the one who wasn't aroundBut I really don't want this kind of ending. I really don't .

But that doesn't make sense in relation to the scene where Ted chokes up at the thought of Mom not being there at her daughter's wedding.