Since the season 8 finale aired, we’ve been learning how much How I Met Your Mother will change as it heads into its ninth season now that we know the identification of the mother.

How I Met Your Mother is going in a decidedly different direction for their final season. Instead of spanning the expected eight or nine months, season 9’s episodes will all occur during Robin and Barney’s wedding weekend. Because of this, the actress who plays the mother, Cristin Milioti, has been bumped up to series regular. While she meets the gang at separate moments and, most importantly, she encounters Ted last, it would make sense she would pop up more frequently than not in the episodes.

Creator Carter Bays told TVLine, who also reported this news, that “viewers will become ‘much better’ acquainted” with the mother throughout How I Met Your Mother‘s final season.

The decision to place season 9 within a two or three day time frame has been slightly polarizing within the fan community. While it’s unlikely to take on 24‘s approach to real-time storytelling, and instead keep their signature flash forwards and backwards, some still worry How I Met Your Mother is metaphorically jumping ship.

This move raises many questions – chief among them, will there be a satisfying ending for this group that we’ve come to know and love over the years? Will we see a flash forward to Ted raising his kids with the mother? At that, will we see how Ted and the mother date, get married, and have kids? Even if some conspiracy theorists believe Ted’s future is slightly different than the fairy-tale ending many fans would like to see for him.

There is still a lot left to this story that should ensure a fantastic final act from a show that’s always been more than one step ahead of its viewers.

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