There was talk earlier today over on TVLine that we’d get a big hint about the wedding where Ted apparently meets his future wife and mother to his children — THE titular mother. I wouldn’t say we got much in the way of a hint about that wedding, but we did learn a couple of interesting things about what’s to come.
First, we now know for sure that Zoey is not “the mother.” (I feel like I’m uttering some exalted title for this person, like she’s “The Godfather” or someone like that.) I really didn’t believe that’s where things were going anyway, but more than a few people — Ivey included — thought perhaps she could turn out to be this person. Yes, she doesn’t fill all the requirements of what we’ve learned in the past — being a bass player, for one — but there’s always a chance they threw us for a loop. But now, with Ted telling Wendy the waitress that they were not together anymore, that theory can be put to rest once and for all.
The other thing we learned — and is related to the above — is that, apparently, Zoey and Ted break up spectacularly, in a bad way, and that it happens soon. Well, it happens at least before this mysterious wedding many of us are wondering about. In a way it’s kind of a shame that she’d be out of the picture so soon, but it’s a logical conclusion. What it does seem to lead to, though, is the high probability that we’re actually going to meet the mother at the end of this season or next. If we go by what Ted said to Wendy at the airport, Ted not only meets the mother at the wedding (My guess: she’s the bass player for the wedding band), but there’s really no way to go about it without us clearly meeting her too.
I’m pretty sure there are a lot of you wanted the show to simply give us this woman so the show can simply be enjoyable for what it is, without having to play these guessing games. Me? I love this stuff. Oh, sometimes I like to be able to kick back and just enjoy a show without having to get too cerebral about it, but sometimes a balance of both is a good thing.
“I’ve already convinced MacLaren’s to implement a new ‘green’ initiative.” – Marshall
“That’s ‘cuz of you? I have to carry an 80-pound bag of bottles to the recycling center every night. I threw my back out.” – Waitress
“You’re welcome … Earth.” – Marshall
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Feb 21, 2011 @ 22:06 EST5EDT
Well, I haven’t seen the episode yet, but I’m the guy that said there was still an outside chance for Robin to be the mother until she and Barney got cozy.
This show is all about clues, but it is also about misdirection (Goat?).
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah watch the episode. Not sure it can get much clearer.
There was always the theory kicking around that Wendy could have been the mother, but I guess this episode kills that.
Sid, funny you should say that. I seriously thought of her as an option in the early seasons, until she had that weird “relationship” with Barney.
I think TPTB thought about Zoey like a possible mother but they tested the audience first. They got a massive negative feedback…everybody hated the character…so they just dropped the idea.
I liked Zoey, I thought she brought a fresh breeze into what was getting to be a stale show. I know other people who liked her too, like the reviewer Ken Tucker.
The problems were threefold: the viewers who are getting sick of Ted finding women who are not the mother and wanted him to finally find here were annoyed at yet another dead end; the writing for her character was all over the place from being incredibly annoying in her first two episodes to quite sweet in the Clue on and it’s hard to get a handle on a character who is being written like that; and finally there was a lot of negative comments about Jennifer Morrison/Zoey from House/Cuddy shippers who came on the HIMYM boards to bash her left over from the House shipper wars with comments like “I hate Zoey, she’s ruined the show” and “I’m going to stop watching as long as Zoey is there”. (I’ve seen several comments like that at a number of places.)
I think it’s too bad the character wasn’t really given a chance.
I’m all for them putting us through this guessing game… as long as all the clues make sense and connect when we finally meet “the one”.
Agreed. I’ve never really understood why people hate on the “mythology” of the show so much. It’s served as a decent conceit for the narrator’s presence and is sort of a fun side aspect to the actual content of episodes. It does get annoying if there isn’t a payoff to the story, but so far they’ve been self-consistent with the clues, which is pretty impressive for a show that isn’t focused on its mythology.
I’m surprised they came out and stated so clearly that Zoey is not the mother. Is this the end of her episodes? She’s now become a lame duck character so why have her on any more?
And just when I was starting to really enjoy her scenes with Ted.
okay well to get everything understood, my theory is that ted will meet his wife at punchies wedding, cause his the best man right?