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First things first, I miss Lily like I'd miss an arm. Who's with me? Okay now, let's get to "Right Place, Right Time." This episode -- which is not the finale despite what I said last week -- is one of those foundational episodes. It doesn't really take us anywhere. It just books our flight, plans our itinerary and packs our bags. All necessary and worthwhile things, but? It is homework, nonetheless. It feels weird to get homework this late in the year, but the show has earned it, and it was fun homework, like drawing a picture of your favorite scene in your free-choice book report book -- not mean homework like memorizing the Periodic Table of Elements. While setting up the future, "Right Place, Right Time" also reinforces the theme that has run all through the series -- that all these little steps we take seem like nothing when we take them, but are all part of this journey that is life.
Ted's struggling with an uninspired design for his first clients at his own firm. He's tired and stressed, so Robin sends him out to get a bagel and a new attitude, but he avoids his favorite joint -- Schlagel's Bagels -- because Robin got food poisoning there. Since the weather clown (no, really) on Robin's show predicted rain, Ted grabs an umbrella on the way out the door. A YELLOW UMBRELLA! Wait. Are you kidding me, Show? The yellow umbrella is Ted's?! After he hits the newsstand, he detours to give a street person a buck because of a prior arrangement I'll cover in the weecap. [Gah! Really?! Can I at least tell them it involves an intervention? - Zach] After, while he waits at the traffic light, he meets... someone. We don't see her face, because it's obscured by an umbrella. A blue one. But Saget!Ted tells his children (and us) that if everything hadn't happened as it did, he wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time, and they might never have been born.
Meanwhile, in the B-Plot, Barney is ready to celebrate... you know, there's no sense pussyfooting around when he's well into triple digits, is there? Barney's about to bang his 200th woman, and holds a (black tie optional) pre-party at MacLaren's, because "lucky" 200 is Petra, the Czech "Supermodel" currently featured in Bro's Life. Robin realizes one of the girls appears on his list twice (yeah, there's a list) and so Barney is back down to having "only" slept with 198 girls and trying to bed another in the two hours before his date with Petra, because he wants her to be #200. There's backstory there, too -- the way back to Junior High backstory (again, see tomorrow's weecap). [Gah! Really?! The source of his entire sex fixation? You're killing me here! - Zach] Barney finally scores with a female weight-lifter at his gym. She doesn't tickle his fancy, but does damage his delicates. Barney returns to MacLaren's sore and skeeved, if jubilant, only to have Robin point out that he also assigned the same number twice on his list. That is, he had already and actually slept with 199 women, before having sex with the Hulk. Pretty Petra never can be number 200.
Back to the A-Plot -- Ted has now given detailed exposition behind all the steps to that led him to that particular traffic light at that particular time. The woman beneath the blue umbrella taps Ted's shoulder. Saget!Ted narrates: "Somehow, I ended up in the right place at the right time, and as a result, my life would never be the same." The camera plans back to reveal... wait for it...
Stella.
Yeah, we're going to have a lot to talk about in the weecap, aren't we? Because there's this end tag, see. But just you wait. Catch you on the flip side.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see why vlogger Sean Crespo thinks HIMYM is just a modern-day Friends in No Prior Knowledge!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Okay, straight off I need to thank Kate, Kehley, Bobbie-Jo, Renee, Xara, Rachel, Carolyn, Betsy and Lyssa for clue-sticking me in e-mail. I'd forgotten that Ted ended up with the yellow umbrella at the end of "No Tomorrow." Thanks, y'all. And thanks to everyone on the boards, too. I've watched the entire series, but I wasn't recapping it until this season and don't have as firm a grasp on the details of seasons past. Back then it was just a... TV show (to me, obviously). A sitcom, even. Nobody told me there'd be a quiz.
Weirdly enough, I also got a lot of e-mail in which people took great pains to explain to me that Stella isn't the mother. Thank you?, but I did already know that. Well, okay, I don't know any more than anyone else knows. I'm not spoiled or anything, but I didn't say Stella was the mother in the recaplet (and wasn't thinking that when I wrote it). Maybe people just needed to vent in my direction, which is fine if it keeps them off the streets. A whole lot of other people are absolutely freaking out all over the rest of the Internet, posting things OMG STELLA CAN'T BE THE MOTHER and i thot teds kidz were brunet r they blond now or wut? (those people don't post on TWoP, at least not for long) and If Stella's the mother I'm burning my TV and scattering the ashes over Schlegel's Bagels. I really don't think Stella is going to be the mother and will get into my reasons at the end of the recap, which I can't do until I get to the beginning and through the middle, so... shall we?
What I like about this episode is that, while setting up the future, "Right Place, Right Time" also reinforces the theme that has run all through the series -- all these little steps we take seem like nothing when we take them, but are all part of this journey that is life. So when Ted meets his first potential clients as an independent architect, they don't have to be the ones who will fulfill his dream of leaving a landmark in the Manhattan skyline. Just pitching to clients (even for a job that leaves him uninspired) is a necessary step in Ted's journey.
Fortunately for us, it's an amusing step, because the potential clients want Ted to build their restaurant, "Rib Town" in the shape of a Stetson. I wonder if they ever ate at The Pie Hole. Don't look at me like that. They live in my TV. It's just inches from HIMYM to Pushing Daisies, because I refuse to delete it from my TiVo until those troglodytes at ABC show us the rest of the season. I mean shoot, they haven't canned Cupid yet, for heaven's sake, so it's not like they have anything better to put on the air. Sorry. I'll get back to it. I do wish I had some pie, though. Pie would help my concentration. Mmmmm, pie.
Ted's struggle with designing a cowboy hat-shaped restaurant seems a little weird to me, because the clients came to him with the big picture. I mean, it's not like he has to think it up. He just has to figure out how to make it sound, but whatever. He's tired, stressed, and thinks he's too good for this job, so he is cranky. Robin sends him out for a bagel and a new attitude, and reminds him to bring an umbrella. Galoshes, the weather clown (yes, really) on Robin's show, is predicting rain. When Ted mocks this, she puts on one of the cowboy hats lying on his drafting table and calls him "Hoss." Cobie looks stunning in the hat, by the way -- no surprise there. As Ted leaves, he grumbles that the universe has it in for him, and he can't wait to see what it has in store for him "out there."
Outside, Ted (with the yellow umbrella) walks down the steps, turns right and then reverses himself as Saget!Ted explains that life's big moments aren't always things we do. Some things just happen to us. Current-day Ted stops at the newsstand, then crosses the road to give a street person a dollar. He then backtracks by the newsstand and waits for the traffic signal to change. Saget!Ted narrates throughout this scene:
I'm not saying you can't take action to affect the outcome of your life. You have to take action, and you will. But never forget that, on any day, you could step out the front door, and your whole life can change forever. You see, the universe has a plan, kids and that plan is always in motion. A butterfly flaps its wings... [thunder rumbles] and it starts to rain. It's a scary thought, but it's also kind of wonderful. [Ted puts up the umbrella as it starts to rain.] All these little parts of the machine constantly working, making sure that you end up exactly where you're supposed to be, exactly when you're supposed to be there. [A long-legged woman -- her face obscured by the blue umbrella she's carrying -- walks from the newsstand over to Ted and taps him on the shoulder.] The right place...at the right time. [Ted turns his head. His eyes widen. He blinks.]
After the break, we see a recap of the faceless woman tapping Ted on the shoulder as Saget!Ted narrates that it's a miracle that he ended up on that street corner at that particular time. For instance, when he left the apartment, he almost went right, but then changed his mind and went left. To explain why, we flash back to...
A Few Days Prior: Robin's on the air at COME ON GET UP, NEW YORK! interviewing a woman who custom-makes silk handbags. As Robin raves about how much work goes into each bag, she's overcome by nausea and vomits in one of the samples. She yells at the crew to cut to the weather, then grabs another bag and barfs into it, too. As she grabs a third bag, they cut to Galoshes, the Weather Clown giving his forecast and we cut to...
Ted's apartment: Robin's lying on the couch with a blue mixing bowl right by her head. Oh dear, I have that bowl. I have three of them. But I use them for FOOD! Unregurgitated. Do people typically use mixing bowls for illness? We always use a bucket as a safety, in case the sick person can't make it to the bathroom, but um... people are expected to make it to the bathroom if at all possible. My point is -- a bucket seems more appropriate. The scene's point is -- Robin has food poisoning. But we don't find that out until after she fakes out Ted that she's pregnant. He offers to marry her, but he'd still want to see other girls (really, Ted -- even if Robin were willing to marry you and have children -- well, things have changed) so they'd have to have "one of those" kinds of marriages. Robin tells him to stop it, and the real reason she's sick. Ted wants to know where she ate the bad food, but she doesn't want to say.
Just then, Barney dances in, and without even looking to see who's in the apartment, he insists Ted go to YouTube and enter the search terms: Robin Sherbatsky Morning Show Vomit. Suprisingly, the HIMYM Powers That Be -- who so like spoiling us with websites -- did not put up a vid. Some fannish soul tried, but had to adapt his/her approach so as not to get dinged for a copyright violation. Once Barney notices Robin, he morphs from excited toddler to concerned adult. "Oh, hey, Robin. Home so soon?" Robin moans. "Someone already put it on YouTube?" Barney says, "Yeah... someone." She doesn't catch on, but we all realize this proves Barney was lying when he claimed not to watch her show (which we already knew, but it's still nice to be right). He tries to change the subject. "So, uh... why you been throwing up? You pregnant?" Robin says, "Yeah, Barney. I'm pregnant." Barney skedaddles right out the door. The people in the forums are trying to fanwank that he went to set up a nursery in his apartment so that he could offer to raise her child with her and propose to her. Heh. Yeah. No.
After Barney's gone, Ted tries to find out the source of Robin's food poisoning, but she doesn't want to tell him, because he loves the place and it will ruin it for him. He agrees she shouldn't tell him, but later at MacLaren's, he browbeats her until she finally gives up the information. "It's Schlegel's Bagels." Ted is then, predictably, pissed off that he knows. "Schlegel's? Thanks a lot, Robin. Now I'm gonna have to try to find another place in New York that serves bagels." I'm sorry. I saw that joke coming a mile away and it just fell flat for me. We cut to...
Hypothetical Land: Saget!Ted narrates that if Robin hadn't told him where she got the tainted food, Ted would have turned right, not left, on that fateful morning. He would have gone to Schlegel's, then "gone home, worked on the old hat building and [his] kids might never have been born." Now, if that's what left some of you all with the mistaken impression that I think Stella's the mom (and I don't), I'll note here that Ted said it (not me) and he's careful with his phrasing, such that we don't have to think the woman who tapped Ted on the shoulder is the mother. We just have to think that meeting up with her was a crucial step in Ted's journey toward meeting the mother.
We then learn why Ted stopped at the newsstand on the way. To get that story, we flash back to Barney reading a magazine, Bro's Life at MacLaren's. He brings the mag to Ted to gloat because he has a date with featured model Petra Petrova, "Bro's Life magazine's girl of the year. For May." Heh. "A delicate flower in stiletto pumps and leopard panties, straddling an ATV." Barney adds, "Petra here, if all goes well, will be my...wait for it -- 200th! Sorry, I couldn't wait. It's all exciting."
Yes, he means the 200th woman he's slept with. I... I... the thought of this just... ew. I know Barney's a dawg and proud of it, but I... it makes my skin crawl. I'm not sure I've met 200 guys I'd want to have dinner with. You know? It's just yucky. Ted's with me. When Barney raises his hand and requests "the highest of fives," Ted's response is: "Not if I was wearing a HazMat suit." And Ted and Barney do the 200 is too many/there can't be too many conversational tango, but seriously, I have to move forward because I keep shuddering. Yeah, yeah, prudish recapper is prudish tonight. Shut up.
Barney breaks out his list of the 199 "lucky" women and tells Ted his date is on Thursday, but he's having a pre-party at MacLaren's that night. "Prepare a toast. Black tie optional, but preferred. Gifts are... look, I would say unnecessary, but follow your heart." Ted and Barney get back on the 200's too many/it's not too many seesaw and we cut to...
MacLaren's: Marshall says, "It's not too many." Marshall! You are just out of control without Lily around. Go to your room, young man and don't come out until Lily says you can. Oh, you know how I usually say, "He doesn't hear me," or "He's not listening"? I think Marshall is listening and can hear me, because he tells Barney: "No, don't get me wrong. You're disgusting, and the cops should probably clamp a boot on your genitals, but that number should be higher. After Barney told me about all this, I crunched the numbers and well... I had some charts made up." Marshall whips his charts out from under the booth, as Ted, Barney (in a tux), NOBODY, and Robin roll their eyes.
Marshall figures that Barney hits on about 20 girls a week. Barney says it's probably more. For the sake of argument (and charts; I love charts) Marshall sticks to 20. "So, 20 girls a week means 1,040 girls a year. In Barney's 16 years of sexual activity, that means he's hit on 16,640 girls. Now, if he's bedded 199 of them, that is a success rate of..." Marshall switches to a second chart -- this one's a pie chart. The pie is bright red and bears the label FAILURE. Marshall continues: "A little over one percent. That's a batting average of .012, eight times worse than the career batting average of one-handed pitcher -- that's right, pitcher -- Jim Abbott." He flips to the chart which is just a picture of Abbot, giving his batting average as .095. I love that the emphasis is on the fact that Abbott is a pitcher, and not one-handed. Now, people in the forums have arguing whether or not having had 200 partners makes someone a "sex addict" or if it's all "that many." But they've also been nitpicking Marshall's statement concerning Barney's 16 years of "sexual activity." We know that Barney had sex for the first time at age 23. So that would make Barney 39 and he should be more like 33 or so. I'm hand-waving it thusly -- unless Barney is older than we've thought, Marshall was either lumping all romantic displays of affection under the "sexual activity label" or he forgot how old Barney was when he first had sex and was just guess-timating. I don't think we have to look at it as a continuity error, but you know -- whatever gets you through the night. Anyhow, Barney points to Ted and says, "Jealous." He points to Marshall and says, "Jealous." He points to the picture of Abbott and says, "Hero." He points to Robin and says, "Suspiciously quiet during this conversation about number of sex partners." And he finishes by pointing to himself and saying, "Hero." To Barney, it's the grand total that matters. When Ted says, "Says who?" Barney says, "Matthew Panning, the stud of Port Richmond Middle School," and we flash back to...
Port Richmond Middle School: Panning and a bunch of other boys are picking on Barney. None of them look older than 12 or 13. Panning bets Barney has never "done it with a girl." Young Barney says, "Neither have you." Panning proclaims he's had sex 100 times. I will not be making any cracks about this scene, because they're kids and that's just creepy. Panning says the girls he's been with are all seventh graders at his cousin's school in Long Island, because boys are always claiming they've done it with some poor out-of-town girl that doesn't even exist, see. Young Barney says, "Well, you know what, Matthew? Someday, I'm gonna do it with 200." Matthew laughs, tells Barney to call him when that happens, then shoves his books onto the floor. Oh, school days, school days.
Back in the present, Barney growls, "And call him, I will." Ted leans into Marshall and says, "He's going to say it again, really slow." Barney, still lost in his memories, says, "Call him... I will." Robin interrupts to note that Barney has listed a woman named Gaby Allen twice (#78 and 162). Barney freaks. This means he's "only" slept with 198 women, but he really wants Petra to be the 200th, so he's only got two hours to pick up another girl and get her into bed. He tries several of the MacLaren's patrons, but his desperation cramps his style and is a huge turn-off. He rushes back to the booth and faces Marshall. "Knowing how important this is to me, do you think Lily would even consider.... By the way, I would do all the work." Calmly, Marshall looks up from his beer. "I will end your life." Barney says, "Right," and flies out of MacLaren's looking for "lucky" 199. Commercial. I'm going to go take a shower.
Barney's been gone for over an hour. Robin and Ted sit at the booth, alone, perusing Barney's list. Robin says, "You know, looking over the names on this list, I'm not sensing a lot of ethnic diversity. He should really look at that in himself." I wonder how many (other) names end in -sky. [Also, I thought his preferred type was "Asian, with a little boob"? - Z] Just then, Barney limps in. He can hardly walk. He grabs the ice out of Ted's otherwise empty glass and places it on his crotch. Ted asks what happened, so Barney explains that there's this woman at his gym, Pauline, who's been hitting on him for some time. A weight lifter -- she's not his type -- but he was desperate. "Every inch of her tasted like roast beef and creatine. But I did it. I did it and I still have 30 minutes before I'm supposed to meet Petra. Robin, do you have any concealer handy? I'd really like to cover up some bruises. And razor burn."
Reluctantly, Robin breaks the news to Barney that besides counting Gaby Allen twice, there was another error on his list. He assigned number 138 to two different women in a row. Barney says, "Wait, so, that means Pauline wasn't 199. Pauline was 200? [...] Petra was supposed to be 200! Gorgeous, feminine, doesn't-wear-a-weight-belt-in-bed Petra!" Ted pats Barney on the back and tries to congratulate him for reaching his goal of 200. "You should be proud. You should be tested, but you should be proud. Who cares if Pauline doesn't pose for bikini pictures in magazines?" Barney says that Pauline does. "She's gonna be in week's issue of Muscle Sexxy. And like many of the ladies in that magazine, sexy has two Xes and one Y."
And what does that have to do with Ted's journey? Well, that's the reason Ted stopped at the newsstand that fateful morning -- to get an eyeful of Pauline in Muscle Sexxy. We see him, and by his reaction, let's just figure that Pauline isn't Ted's type, either. Saget!Ted tells us that if Current Ted hadn't spent a "full minute" at that newsstand, in order to check out the picture of Barney's 200th, he would have "cut down 77th and gotten to that corner a minute early. [He] would've gotten the bagel, done some work, and [his] kids might never have been born." So, why did he have cut down 77th and give a buck to the homeless man, anyhow? Well, to learn this we flash back to...
GNB; Early In Marshall's Tenure: Marshall walks into the GNB Graphics office and introduces himself to Fran (Kit Pongetti, who plays "Lady" on Scrubs). Marshall's adorably polite as he asks for her help in preparing some charts and graphs for his big presentation. Fran is friendly and helpful. "Honey, this is the graphics department. We can make as many graphs, as many charts, in as many colors, on as many kinds of paper as you want." Marshall's in ecstasy. I know the feeling. My husband Scott cracks, "That's you," and by that he means Marshall. I love charts and graphs (especially charts). Finally, Marshall says, "Oh, Fran. Oh, Franny, Franny, Fran. We are going to have some fun." And we cut to...
MacLaren's: Marshall breaks out a chart ranking the Presidents in order of how dirty their names sound. He's got: Johnson, Bush, Harding, Polk, Filmore, Pierce, LBJ, Hoover, Bush and Clinton, in that order. Heh. We cut to the apartment. Marshall's holding up a poster of what looks like MasterCard logo, only the circles are red (on the left) and blue (on the right). [It's a Venn diagram, so-called chart-lover. - Z] The left-hand circle is labeled: "People who are breaking my heart." It overlaps with the right hand circle, which is labeled: "People who are shaking my confidence daily." The purple area where they intersect is labeled, "Cecilia". Best gag of the night. And it's even better that some of you were too young to get it on your own. Also? I have better insurance. Ahem. Barney, Ted, Robin and NOBODY roll their eyes at him and we cut to MacLaren's. Marshall's shows the gang and NOBODY a pie chart of his favorite bars, and then a bar graph of his favorite pies. Whee! The gang is silent. We cut to the apartment. Marshall enters with some new charts, to find Ted, Robin, Barney, and NOBODY standing under the INTERVENTION banner. LOVE! They're calling him out on the use of charts, graphs and all forms of visual data representation. Fortunately, Marshall's brought along his chart of their reactions to his charts and graphs, as well as a chart of their projected reactions.
At GNB, Marshall gives a presentation, and I'll notice that, in contrast to Robin's assessment of Barney's conquest list, the group around the conference table has some ethnic diversity. However, THEY'RE ALL MALE. What's up with that, Show? Marshall introduces his idea of setting up a shell corporation in Bermuda to minimize losses (and save the suits some jail time) and goes to whip out his charts, but his portfolio is empty. He panics and calls Ted, asking what happened to them. Ted says, "We flushed your stash, man." When Marshall gets all demand-y, Ted says, "You're doing charts at work?" Don't worry, Ted. A big outfit like GNB must have an Employees Assistance program. Marshall explains that he needs them for a presentation and this could cost him his job. Ted tells him to sit tight and promises to bring them to him. Marshall tells him to hurry. "I'll try to think of a way to stall them." Back in the conference room, Marshall explains there's been a delay with the charts and then realizing he has to keep the group's attention, he launches into his fish-based stand-up routine.
Meanwhile, Ted races out to the alley to search the dumpster for Marshall's charts. While digging through the trash, he hears Milt, the local homeless man (played by the voice of Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta) offering some charts for sale. They're Marshall's charts. Ted tries to buy them off him, but Milt, who has his earphones plugged into a grapefruit is asking a million dollars for them. Ted tries to talk sense to Milt. Who has his earphones plugged into a grapefruit. Naturally, Milt doesn't play along, and who's crazier, now, Teddy my boy? Crazy like a fox, Ted says he'll give Milt a million bucks, but since his ATM (Milt: "Alien Time Machine") has a withdrawal limit, he will give Milt one dollar a day for a million days. Milt says, "That's 2,700 years." Ted says, "Yeah." TheItGirl from our HIMYM forum says, "According to WikiAnswers, it's 2,739.73 years, and he said 2,700. Not bad for a guy listening to a grapefruit iPod." Milt says, "Deal" and they shake on it. After Ted takes off with Marshall's charts, Milt pockets his buck and says, "Sucker." Hee.
Back at the GNB conference room, Marshall's still doing his fish shtick (sorry). "I'm sorry, is there a land bass I don't know about?" One guy laughs at his joke -- yeah, it's Marshall. Ted delivers the charts and scurries out, and Marshall gets down to business. While we watch a montage of Ted taking his steps, Saget!Ted tells says:
And so, if I hadn't bought those charts back for Marshall, I wouldn't have had to cut down 77th to give Milt his daily dollar, and... well, you know the rest. So, there you have it, kids. There's a lot of little reasons why the big things in our lives happen. If I had known then where all those little things were leading me, and how grateful I'd be to get there, well, I probably would've done something like this...
Ted stops midway through his route and reverses direction. As Guided By Voices's "Glad Girls" plays, Ted returns to hug Milt; then three people at the newsstand; Barney at MacLaren's; Pauline at Barney's gym; the Schlegel's proprietor and the health inspector who's placing a big "D" in the shop window; a puking Robin, the purse maker, and Galoshes the Weather Clown. We cut to the intersection. It's raining. Ted's standing under the yellow umbrella, waiting for the light to change (not knowing that his life will change). Saget!Ted continues: "Because somehow, I ended up in the right place at the right time. A long-legged woman -- her face obscured by the blue umbrella she's carrying -- walks from the newsstand over to Ted. "And, as a result... " She taps him on the shoulder. "My life would never be the same." Ted slowly turns his head. His eyes widen. He blinks. The camera zooms out to reveal... wait for it...
Stella.
End Tag: The day at MacLaren's, Barney confronts Matthew Panning, his old Middle School nemesis. Matthew, who seems to have grown into a likeable man, makes pleasant conversation and asks Barney what's been going on with him. Barney whips out his list. "I've had sex with 200 women." And along with me, Matthew says, "God! That's way too many. I mean, that's just gross. Have you sought counseling for sex addiction? Because you're a prime candidate." Barney asks Matthew if he's sought counseling for "I-Win-You-Lose." Probably not, Barney. "Uh, yeah. Suddenly those 100 girls you nailed in the seventh grade aren't so impressive." Matthew's not following at first, but then he realizes that for all these years, Barney's believed a young braggart's lies. "Is that what this is about? Barney, I lied." Barney's not buying. "Yeah, sure you did." Heh. "I was 12. Of course I was lying. I didn't have a pet Ewok, either." Barney says, "Sure you didn't." Let's face it, dude. Ewoks suck. Matt is still incredulous. "Your whole adult life has been based around something I lied about -- when I was 12?" Barney says, "Jealous?" Matt doesn't have time for this. He's got to pick up his kids from school. He tells Barney it sounds like he has a lot of problems and leaves him with a, "Good luck, I guess." As Barney shrugs it off, he picks his list up off the table and says, "I'm awesome." He then rips it to pieces. "Okay, 200." He lays the pieces down on the table. "Now what?" His gaze drifts over to the bar, where he spots Robin. She mouths, "Hi." He nods, raises his glass and then looks away, concealing a smile -- a secret little sad smile. He lifts his drink to his lips and we fade to black.
The end tag was my favorite. Oh, and the "Cecelia" chart. And you know what else? Ted meeting up with Stella. She's not the mother. We saw earlier this season that if he'd married Stella, his kids would have been blonde. But really, that's not the biggest reason. Ted and Stella weren't getting married for the right reasons. They were getting married because they wanted to be married people, and because Stella's sister's wedding fell through and they didn't want to waste her deposit money. Stella literally left Ted at the altar, and we saw her reunite with the father of her child. And we later saw her, him and their child -- as a happy family unit. So did Ted. Stella's just another one of the steps that will lead Ted to the mother. And that's all right with me. So take a deep breath, relax, and think about all of the steps that have mattered in Ted's life. Rooming with Marshall in college. Moving to NYC with Marshall and Lily. Meeting Barney. Falling in love with Robin. Falling out of love with Robin and learning to be friends with her. Almost marrying Stella. Not marrying Stella. Living -- as friends -- with Robin. Starting his own business. Then think about Barney's "What's " -- because that's way more exciting. Woooo!
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see why vlogger Sean Crespo thinks HIMYM is just a modern-day Friends in No Prior Knowledge!
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