How I Met Your Mother: Theories on who is "The Mother"

First post in a while. I think this is a worthy topic to write about before the show comes to a close.

I believe that Ted's future wife has been shown on screen, and they have seen each other, though we haven't been introduced yet.

*Obviously some spoilers will be said along with my theory, involving some of the newest episodes.* *Edit at bottom to address newer episodes.*

In S3:E12, the episode called "No Tomorrow", we have the first major information released about who the mother is. Ted says that she was also at that party. The yellow umbrella belonged to her, and he got it. Unfortunately for Ted, they never met that night (or fortunately, since Ted said he had to grow into the person that he needed to be).

The few continuity errors aside, I've learned that nothing happens in this show by mistake. There are tons of little things placed here and there that hint to, foreshadow, and reference many things. One really subtle example of this is in S4:E10 "The Fight", where Marshall says that he will be cutting turkey with a lightsaber in 3 years or so. When they fast forward three years to Thanksgiving, Marshall says "Mom, Lily, fantastic job!" he never mentions his dad, and you never see him. This is potentially not showing Marshall's dad because he is going to pass away later in the show. That is so subtle that it flies over most people's heads.

Back to "No Tomorrow", during Ted's semi-drunken panic, he runs into a girl. They look at each other for a second, Ted apolgizes. The mystery girl smiles and says "Nah, that's okay." and walks away.

Potential First Encounter

(I took this using "prt sc" off of Netflix so sorry if the quality is lackluster. I am not sure of many other ways to do this)

This takes up a few seconds at most, but there is absolutely no reason to have this scene otherwise. That is enough time to have a witty one-liner, funny action, or something else, but instead they decided to put it in here. It has to have a greater purpose. My theory is that she is Ted's future wife.

If that isn't the case, then she will at least be brought back for something else. That, or the writers used her as an exit strategy. With a plot line like this, if they get canceled/don't get a renewal, they at least want a somewhat complete story arch. If the show didn't make it past the first season, Ted would have gotten Robin at the end, and she would have been the mother. By the end of season 2, the writers didn't know if their show got renewed for another season, so they would have ended it on a funny note. Ted is single, and out on the prowl with Barney, and Barney starts his hit saying "LEGEN" and it would have cut off there.

Victoria and Stella were both default mothers if the show didn't get renewed. It is possible that if season 3 would have been the last season, they would have used her to be the mother.

To combat the idea that Ted says he never saw his wife until he saw her ankle at that lesbian's apartment, I will just say that he never knew that was her, or doesn't remember bumping into his wife like that.

As far as that goes, I think it is well enough explained, but I want to list a few other theories I have here.

-Ted's future wife is the woman who had a blind date with him made by the company "Love Solutions". In S1:E21, he is supposed to go out with a "perfect girl", but he ditched the blind date to go out with Robin. This woman could potentially be his future wife.

- This one is lengthy. Ted has said in the later seasons time after time that he met his wife at Barney's wedding. I think it is pretty safe to assume that Barney, or someone Barney knows have no relation to Ted's wife. Now, when you go to a wedding, unless you are someone's date, you either know the bride or the groom, and you at least know of the people who's wedding you are going to. It's not impossible, but I think it won't be the case, unless you go by this theory

http://whosright.com/poll/himym-is-barney%E2%80%99s-half-sister-ted%E2%80%99s-wife

This theory basically says that Barney's dad, Jerry, has a daughter, Carly, who is in college, and we haven't met yet. I'll admit this sounds very plausible, but I'd think there is something in the bro code that says one bro shouldn't go after another bro's sister, such as how Barney couldn't go after Ted's sister. Even though they are half siblings, I'd think it still applies. Also the argument "Uncle Barney and Aunt Robin" can't be too accurate because Marshall and Lily have those titles too.

They may find a loophole around this, such as Barney barely knowing her, so it doesn't count, or Barney's classic exception "Unless she's hot." Knowing that almost every character on TV is attractive, this isn't far from the realm of possibility, but I personally don't think it will happen this way. It's a possible and highly believed theory, but let us go on assuming this theory is incorrect.

Anyway, that leaves the brides invitees. The bride has to know Ted's wife, or know someone that is close to Ted's wife, like Ted's wife's roommate, who Ted dated. So far, we have had three main candidates for Barney's future wife:

- Robin
- Nora
- Quinn

It's safe to assume that Ted's wife has some relation to one of these girls. Robin and Barney have an on and off again relationship, which makes it so we don't know if they will end up together. We know Ted denounced Robin's and his agreement on getting married if they are both single at age 40 in S7:E18 "Karma". With that, Ted pretty much has given up on Robin, so Barney is free to end up marrying her. I highly doubt Robin knows Ted's future wife because if she did, we should have heard of her within 7 seasons. If I am to fully believe this, it leads to the conclusion that Barney and Robin are not going to get married, which I find likely.

That just leaves Nora and Quinn. Since Nora and Barney broke up, we haven't seen or heard of Nora, so this is leaning more towards Quinn. Quinn has blond hair, and so does Cindy's (Ted's old girlfriend that turned out to be lesbian, and roommates to Ted's future wife) lesbian wife. It's a stretch, but it could be possible that they are related, and that is why she is at Barney's wedding. I'm more of throwing this part out here as food for though.

Also, Barney shows that he really wants to marry this girl. He wants to marry her, to stop her from stripping, which is shown in S7:E17 "No Pressure". He clearly has feelings for her, and with time running out until the end of this show, unless he ends up with Robin or Nora, we don't have much time to be introduced to who he marries. So it is likely that Barney will end up will one of these girls. My belief that it will be Quinn.

Quinn and Barney get married, Quinn or someone Quinn knows has some relation with Ted's future wife, they meet at the wedding.

The last theory that I believe is possible is not even a theory on who the mother is, but what her name is. In S1:E9 "Belly Full of Turkey", Ted meets a "burlesque entertainment artist" otherwise known as a stripper, and she first introduces herself as Amber. She then changes her name to Tracy. Future Ted then says "And that kids is the true story of how I met your mother!" and the kids both scream "WHAT?!". People theorize that if the kid's mother wasn't named Tracy, they wouldn't have been so shocked. If my dad told that story, but called the stripper anything else other than my mom's real name, I would call bullshit immediately. Because of this, people think the mom's name is Tracy.

I apologize to anyone who is named Tracy, but I do not hope this is the case, because I am not really fond of that name.

Lastly, some other theories that I have read that I will at least partially address:
- Adoption Theory
- Not Ted's Kids Theory
- Everything isn't Real Theory
- Mother Is Dead Theory

Until the most recent episode, the adoption theory seemed somewhat possible, albeit unlikely. We learned in S7:E20 "Trilogy Time", that Ted has a baby girl that he has to watch for the night. Unless he is baby sitting for someone else's kid, which is highly unlikely, this shows that he does have a kid of his own. Also, the comment of "taking after his mother" would seem out of place unless her mother is Ted's wife. It's unlikely that anyone would make a comment about an adopted baby looking a lot like the mother that adopted her.

As far as the "Not Ted's Kids Theory", I guess we don't have much to disprove this. Sure, as I stated in the last paragraph, Ted does have a kid, but we can't link them to the kids that Future Ted is talking to. This could just be a story to someone else's kids. They do exclaim at one point "DAD!", though I don't remember the specific episode. This seems to say that this theory is false, but he could just be a "father figure" to them. As I will talk about while addressing the "Everything Isn't Real Theory", this just doesn't seem like it will happen.

"Everything Isn't Real Theory". This theory is that Ted talking to his kids about how he met their mother is all a lie. He has become so delusional and lonely that he is addressing the kids he never had. Sort of like in S7:E12 "Symphony of Illumination", Robin addresses her kids that do not exist.

Without having proof, since you can't really disprove an abstract notion like this, I can still claim with some certainty that this will not happen. This show isn't Lost, or some sci-fy/thriller movie, or any M. Night Shyamalan movie. This is a fairly straight forward Sitcom. Sitcoms almost never have an absurd twist like this. This theory, if true, would ruin the show for many people, and piss everyone off for waiting this long to hear it.

I know "Roseanne" had a bat shit crazy ending, but that is because the writers lost their minds. The show was dropping in ratings like crazy, so they started to pull out all the gimmicks to try and increase ratings. I sincerely doubt the writers and producers of HIMYM will do this.

"Mother Is Dead Theory". Same as the last paragraphs, though we can't prove anything, I seriously doubt the show will end like that. That is way too dark for a sitcom.

I doubt this will get many views, but if anyone reads this, and has any comments, thoughts, rebuttals that completely destroy this argument, I'd love to hear it.

Some youtube videos that go along with my theory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D-4bjMSZtQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNTJKzcrO2M


*Edit 05/22/12*

Huge spoiler here. In S7:23/24 "The Magicians Code parts 1 & 2", we get some huge information. They finally reveal who Barney gets married to. In part 2, Barney proposes to Quinn. At the end of part 2, it is revealed that Barney is getting married to Robin, through the flashback they show. They have several flashblacks to the wedding. I am rewatching every episode that features a flashback to try and get any additional info I can.

The first flashback is in S6:E1 "Big Days". This is the first time Future Ted says that he met his wife at a wedding. It is never stated in that episode who's wedding it is, but we do know he is the best man to. It is shown in S6:E24 "Challenge Accepted" that he the best man to Barney Stinson. By this episode, it still is never officially stated that he meets his wife at this wedding. Future Ted just says "at a wedding" and then it switches to the wedding. It is shown one last time in "The Magicians Code" where Barney's wife is Robin.

No time throughout the dialogue is it stated that he meets his wife at Barney's wedding. It is just inferred through the scene switching that it is. It is possible that it happens at a different wedding, possibly to increase the length of the show. Normally, my skeptical self would say that this is possible, but since Barney and Robin are marrying each other, I don't know of many weddings that he would go to after theirs. The only other weddings I could possibly think are options is Stella's wedding, or Victoria's wedding.

Stella is the woman that left Ted at the alter for her ex-husband. This infers that they got a divorce before Ted met her, so if they are in love again, they can get married again. Even though it is stated at Ted and Stella's wedding that "You never invite an ex to your wedding", things work out completely differently. Ted invited Robin and Tony to his wedding in S4:E5 "Shelter Island". Sure, things ended horribly in that episode, but Ted states that everything that happens to him turned him into the person he needed to be to meet his future wife, so one could construe that it was a good thing this happened. In gratitude, Stella could still invite Ted to her wedding.

One last possible reason that it could be her wedding, is that a lot of times, the opposite of what is stated or believed, happens, but then it is for the better/turns better. This wedding helped shape Ted to what he needed to be to meet his wife, Marshall and Lily's break up ultimately led to them getting married anyway, and in "The Magician's Code", there is going to be a good reason for Ted saying he doesn't want to steal a bride, then steal a bride anyway.

Or, somehow, using some of the previously stated reasons, Ted will go to Victoria's wedding, after their inevitable break up happens, and he will meet her there. Victoria and Ted will break up, her ex will take her back, and they will get married. He will go to the wedding, and meet his future wife.

Both of these, I still think are very unlikely, but still possible. Again, I put these theories out there as food for thought. More than likely, this wedding is the correct wedding.

What I now believe, and is very likely, is the Carly theory. Robin almost positively won't know Ted's future wife, so unless we meet someone else that might know the future wife, the only other potential is Ted's half sister Carly. I doubt the girl will be some random girl at the wedding, because there has to be some connection, unless she is just another "+1", which is unlikely. I doubt that anything seriously bad will happen at Barney and Robin's wedding.

The other theories are still possible, but with the recent developments, I believe the "Barney's Sister AKA Carly" theory is the most sound.

Edit: 3/6/13: Well, I was partially right in theory. It wasn't anyone that knew Robin or Barney that have already been introduced. It wasn't Carly though. They addressed that, Ted and Carly had their fling, and the episodes kept coming out.

Most people were shocked that HIMYM released such detailed information on how Ted meets his wife. In one of the newer episodes, Ted says that if it wasn't for him running into his lesbian ex, he would never have found the band to play at Robin and Barney's wedding, where he meets the bassist, and they fall in love.

This leaves many of us wondering how the rest of this season to play out. Will there be one more season like they say, will the season end with them finally meeting, or will it end with their wedding? Is there a whole story in how they finally talked to each other?

That is anyone's guess, but there isn't much to create theories on anymore, unless you want to make more tie ins. Maybe this girl is still the "perfect woman" from the dating service, or maybe she is the bump girl. But we know in good detail, how he is going to meet her, we just haven't seen it yet.

I wasn't the most correct, but I found it fun to think so much about it. I'll leave this post up just for the sake of reading it for fun. Maybe it will spark more discussion, give you a bit of insight on other aspects of the show, or just be a good read. I thank whoever reads this, because it makes me feel better about geeking out on something like this.

Get the first season of HIMYM here! HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER SEASON 1 BY HOW I MET YOUR MOTHE (DVD) [3 DISCS]