With three episodes left in the series, How I Met Your Mother season 9, episode 19, “Vesuvius,” delves into possibly answering why Ted is telling these stories to his children.
As we discuss possible theories for the final episode, please beware that a lot of this is speculation, but, if you saw tonight’s episode, you probably know where this is going.
Since about season 6 there have been rumors about how the show will end and, more accurately, why Ted was telling these stories to his children. There are plenty of theories out there – Ted and the Mother divorced, then Ted married Robin in the end – and, well, the saddest one: the Mother has passed away.
In the year 2024, we see Ted and the Mother once again at the Farhamton Inn, but instead of a nice summer weekend getaway, it’s the middle of winter and the Inn is cozy, blanked in snow and fires burning.
Ted tries to tell her wacky stories of the gang’s heyday, but once he realizes she already knows them, he happily declares them a happily married couple.
Cute – that’s going to make this a lot harder.
One story she hasn’t heard yet? How Barney picked his suit and Robin got into the wedding mood that fateful weekend. It’s a reversal of gender norms: Barney is fretting over the perfect suit, trying to imagine himself walking down the aisle, all eyes on him when he enters the Church, and Robin is playing hockey with her sister (the undervalued Lucy Hale who made a small cameo in this episode which seems to be leading to a more substantial presence next week.)
It stands to reason that Barney Stinson, the man who once dedicated an elaborate musical number to his suits, would struggle a little bit trying to find The One to wear on his wedding day. In an episode with many callbacks to prior story lines, the stories behind every suit has a woman attached to it.
But no suit is more important than the one his friend, Timmy G. (Tim Gunn, for the uninitiated) made for him. As Ted persuades Barney to wear it, he realizes all the new stories and memories he can make in his wedding suit. It is also helpfully applicable to the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, Lily has been trying to get Robin into the wedding spirit all day, but the Canadian simply isn’t having it. She’d rather play hockey in the hotel room, or watch an OnDemand movie in jeans and a jersey than worry about the dress her maid of honor is wearing.
Lily has a hard time accepting this, and goes to great lengths to get Robin into bride-mode. She breaks out a white wedding dress in an attempt to recreate her own disastrous wedding photos with Marshall, but Robin is completely fine with the situation and sees nothing wrong with it. At this point, talking about Robin’s characterization and affinity for whiskey, cigars and hockey above another woman wearing white to her wedding seems too repetitive, so we won’t get into it – you know where we’re going with it.
The entire gang ends up in the same room with The Wedding Bride Too playing in the background and while they just want to sit back and watch the film, Lily is trying to impose the importance of this wedding on her friends. In the heat of the moment, Ted’s move to Chicago is brought up. It dawns on them that they don’t know the next time they’ll all be together. And that’s what makes them take a step back from their issues and look at the big picture: all of their lives are about to change.
‘HIMYM’ MVP of the week: Robin Scherbatsky
It took her a while – like, a few hours before the actual ceremony – but Robin seems to have finally been hit with that “holy crap this is my wedding” moment that Lily was striving for. Her mother’s presence might not have been as anticipated as the Mother’s in How I Met Your Mother‘s universe, but it is still a heart-warming sight.
Will Robin’s mother be able to bring out Robin’s latent feminine side? In addition to her sister and her father, this seems like the first time Robin’s family has been together in decades.
And that brings us to the final 5 minutes of ‘Vesuvius’:
The Mother, in 2024, after hearing this story about Robin and her mother’s reuniting, says no daughter should have to be without her mother on her wedding day. Ted and the Mother both go silent. We noticed tears in their eyes all episode, but it’s not until they grow solemn that we realize these two may have some not-great news.
The Mother grasps Ted’s hand, “I don’t want you to be the guy who lives in his stories.” Beyond telling his children these stories, would he dwell? Would he be able to move on if his wife were to die?
There are still a lot of ‘ifs’ in the air. If she is sick. If she is dying. If they knew about this for a while, if they just found out and needed to escape to the place they met… All questions to be answered in just three more episodes. It’s 2024, and judging by the timeline already known, Ted’s daughter Penny is nine and her little brother Luke is seven.
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