I consider myself to be a fan of the show How I Met Your Mother.  Despite not having seen the entirety of the past few seasons due to never being home on Monday evenings and being probably the only person in the world who does not have a DVR, I do own five seasons on DVD.  I have always thought, like everyone, that we would not get to meet the mother until the series finale and, after reading a partial interview in Entertainment Weekly (the full story will be out this Friday) with the show’s creators this morning, I realized that that indeed was the plan – until the show was renewed for a ninth and final season that is.  The creators – Carter Bays and Craig Thomas – decided to shake things up and give us what we’ve all been waiting for: the mother.  In a way, it was genius because no one was expecting it – no one except me. 

Sunday evening, as I was watching tv with Billy (yes, it was the Survivor finale, but no I didn’t watch most of it, I had been catching up on Smash and came out at the end) there was a commercial for How I Met Your Mother.  It promised a reveal and that it should not be missed.  There wasn’t any more info given, but something struck me.  I turned towards Billy and said “What if we meet the mother?”  He said that he didn’t that they would do that because it was not the premise of the show.  I became convinced that they would, making a mental note to tune in and see for myself.

Flash forward to last night.  I laughed while Robin and Barney used a familiar move (the engagement ring in the champagne) to break-up an irritating couple, only later to learn that it brought them together.  My eyes widened when I found out that Lilly and Marshall were moving to Italy (they can’t move!), but was happy to learn that Marshall received a job offer to be a Judge (did we know he would end up as a judge?  I didn’t) and they would be staying.  The biggest shock – or so I thought – was that Ted was moving to Chicago because he was heartbroken over Robin and Barney’s wedding.  I thought that Lilly would have told the gang or tried to stop him, but she didn’t.  At the end of the episode, she helps Ted with his luggage.  Ted says that he needs to leave Sunday night and Lilly asks how he’s going to get back to the city.  Ted says he’ll have to take the train.  The hairs on my arms stood up and I knew.

In the next scene we see a pair of woman’s legs and the bottom of a guitar case.  The legs are walking but stop for an instant, revealing the bottom of an umbrella.  A yellow umbrella.  The umbrella that we all know to be the mother’s.  We see the legs moving again and I held my breath.  Then, we see her at a ticket window.  “One ticket to Far Hampton, please,” she says.  This is the mother.  Ted will never move to Chicago because he’ll meet her on his way back from Far Hampton – and, as we know, he doesn’t wait three days to call her, he calls her right away. 

I was speechless, but inside I was screaming “Yes! Finally!”  Then I called my boyfriend and practically shouted into the phone.  He didn’t seem that excited about it, but I certainly was.  I have been waiting eight years for this moment and it was better than anything I could have imagined.  I will spend the summer catching up on (purchasing) the seasons that I have not seen completely, as I anxiously await what I feel will be the best season ever.  The secret is out and the series may almost be over, but the story has only just begun.