The biggest question on the minds of most How I Met Your Mother fans is simple… Who is the mother? Considering the response, let’s consider part one of this the article: About the Mother from How I Met Your Mother, I talked about what we know through Season 3. With that as a reference, Let’s take another look at the mystery of the mother. (ps, I’ve closed comments on the old post 650+ is too much to read.)
FUN Facts (let’s have fun with these):
- She was in the Economics 305 class, when Ted gives his Architecture lecture. (ref. s05e01, “Definitions” )
- She was at the St. Patty’s day party where Ted was being a jerk and originally found the Yellow Umbrella (ref. s03e12 “No Tomorrow”)
- She is Cindy’s (Rachel Bilson) room mate (ref. s05e12 “Girls vs. Suits” )
- The mom now has her Yellow Umbrella back (ref. s05e12 “Girls vs. Suits” )
- He doesn’t wait days to call (ref. s04e21 “Three Days Rule” )
- Ted says he meets her the wedding from the Season 6 Premier. We know he is the best man at eh wedding and that it starts to rain and he forgot his umbrella. No mention of whose wedding, but it’s truly a big day. (ref. s06e01 “Big Days” )
- Ted has not met her before “Lucky Penny”. Ted says his destiny was to stay in NY because if he hadn’t he never would have met their mother, while showing a wedding glimpse. (ref. s02e15 “Lucky Penny”)
Theories:
- The bump girl. During “No Tomorrow” Ted goes to the St. Patty’s day party and happens to have shared look with a black haired girl he bumps into. We know from Ted that the mother was at the party and we assume that it was indeed her umbrella he picked up the next day (s05e12 “Girls vs. Suits” ). It’s definitely not impossible, however improbable that out of all the girl’s there it was EXACTLY her!. Some fan’s feel she was a Red Herring in case the series was canceled, other feel it’s too obvious to be nothing. Either way, that’s all we know.
- Her name is Tracy. No one says it’s the girls he talks to at the end of Belly Full of Turkey, just the name that Ted mentions is significant. I know it’s a long shot but I still like the Tracy Theory. (ref. s01e09 “Belly Full of Turkey” )
- Ted’s Perfect Match is the Mother. Ted never actually meets his match in the Season 1 Episode “Milk” and coincidentally some of the qualities mentions are the same as Rachel’s roommate in “Girls vs. Suits”. With that in mind a lot of fans believe since we’ve never seen her then it could in fact be the match. Plus they blur our her face, so there’s that. (ref. s01e21 “Milk”, s05e12 “Girls vs. Suits” )
- The Kid’s aren’t Ted’s or Ted isn’t telling the story. First off, that’s just insane. While I admire your creativity, there are too many reference to cite here.
- Coat check girl or Wendy the Waitress are the mother. Both these theories were started as “confirmed” jokes in interviews by the Creators of HIMYM.
- The Mother is Zoey’s Sister/step-daughter. This is a new one and not much info to go on. The only question I would ask has to do with age. The toy that Zoey had for the step daughter in Blitzgiving looked to be for a smaller child. The sister angle I’ve got nothing for. (ref. s06e10 “Blitzgiving” )
Notable Ladies:
The short version of this is that if Ted has met (knows them, etc..) they are not the mother since he meets her for the first time at the wedding shown in Big Days. Despite that, more for the fun of it, let’s run down a few gals.
- Robin. Robin is not the Mother. We learn this in the first episode and it is reconfirmed countless times in all seasons. No matter how much people “want it to happen” It’s not let’s quit wasting space and thought on it. The kids even say “ Aunt Robin?” “I thought this was how you met mom.” (ref. s1e01 “Pilot”, and too many other to name)
- Victoria. She was great, most everyone loved Victoria and it would have been nice. A lot of fans want to see her back and while it hasn’t been a confirmed or denied, she isn’t the mother. Ted made it very clear how bad of an idea long distance was and the relationship came to a close (Ted: It didn’t work.) Also let this serve as a reminder…when it’s after 2 a.m., just go to sleep. (ref. s01e16 “Cupcake” )
- Stella. She is important to the story but the mother she is not. Stella left Ted at the altar and married her daughter’s father. There are several episodes that prove it’s not Stella, but topper for them all was the moment we say the possible flash forward with blonde kids. (ref. s04e05 “Shelter Island” )
- Natalie (Return of the Shirt), Dr. Sara O’Brein (Matchmaker), the Slutty Pumpkin, Trudy (Pineapple Incident & Third Wheel), Mary the Paralegal, Coat Check Girl (OK Awesome) … First off all of these girls were gorgeous so it’s a shame we don’t get to see them any more. Ted say they plainly were not about a few and if not they are all Pre-Lucky Penny.
- Karen. Ted’s College Girlfriend. Lilly and Marshall Hate her. She is a Grinch! She fails the Front Porch Test (s04e17) and the kids look nothing like her.
- Cindy. While she was in Econ 305, Ted made it very clear she was the roommate of the future mom, not the mother.
- Wendy the Waitress. I just wanted to mention her again because Charlene Amoia is awesome. True Story
- Zoey. He has met her way before the wedding in Big Days, and while she might be important to the story that alone should exclude her. Further more, she’s blonde and remember the possible future scene with Stella from Shelter Island? Want more? She met Ted before the Wedding and She was not Cindy’s roommate, I also would bet she wasn’t in the economics class.
So there you have it, the most concise “Who could the mother be” list in existence. What say ye?
I believe it’s a combination of factors from #2 #3 and #6, primarily the last. I think that it was a toy for a little girl is meant to throw you off, but the Captain’s daughter would certainly be much older than 6-7 and it would explain why Zoey doesn’t have a close relationship with her, while also showing why Zoey is important. I’d also not be shocked if she were a bassist in the band at the wedding as some have mentioned. Finally, I think the wedding is Robin and Barney’s, which is why he’s out with Marshall and Lily comes to get them (note that Robin just asked him to be Best Man at her wedding as well).
I totally support the idea that the mother is not exactly related to the wedding… I like the idea of her playing the bass in the band 🙂
Is like Victoria… she was at that wedding because she made the cake.
And I also think (wish) that the wedding is Barney&Robin’s. I think they should end together in the last chapters, also when the mother should be dicovered…
About the mother being the Captain’s daughter… possible but then the Tracy theory means nothing. The daughter’s name is Hannah, isn’t it?
But yeah… is one of the strongest theories so far.
One question about the yellow umbrella. Did Stella have a similar one? I think I remember something like this but I don’t know if was something the writers did to distract us… or maybe I am just wrong.
Btw, Happy New Year to everybody!
i admire what the creators and writers have done making it near impossible to guess who she is but i dont realy mind cause i know when the last episode airs and they reveal the mother you can count on it being hilarious, a massive twist and all round being a great epsiode
btw happy new years im in australia so i havent seen season 6 and it already is 2011 but still happy new year
I go for the bump girl or the perfect match or Zoey’s daughter … who know the mother may even be the Slutty Pumpkin
He also mentions that he danced with “his future wife” at his mother’s wedding, Season 5;episode 20. Does that have any significance, do you think? Any hints there? I could not find any myself, but I don’t know why she would be at that wedding? Hmm..
It is NOT the bump girl! They wouldn’t set the actress that early, which means, she cannot have appeared on camera yet.
I believe in the Tracy theory and I go for the soulmate from “Milk”, S1/E21. If it’s not her, we can’t know yet…
Or here’s a fun theory: Victoria is the mother. Ted meets her at a wedding of people he cares about. I don’t think we can be sure he’s not the best man at Stewart and Claudia’s wedding, same for the fact that Marshall and Lily weren’t there. I didn’t do any research on this thoery, but it seems funny, maybe those are very small loopholes that are highly endangered to collapse. All those assumptions are very off-road, but I thought of this just a second ago, and I thought I might share this thought =D
victoria will come back since it was only for 2 years that she will be in germany so she could be the mother
first, sorry for my poor english.
I’m not a big fan of the tracy theory, of course, at this point the writers could name the mother tracy as a homage to the fans, but i don’t think it never was in their intentions to name her that way. probably future ted didn’t even name her when telling the story to the kids as he didn’t with robin back into the pilot.
i do love the perfect match theory, and i’m pretty sure they will link the mother to her, (i can already hear future ted saying: that’s it kids, i could have met your mother years before but i wasn’t ready bla bla bla)
finally, about zoey. i know it’s likely improbable that she’s the mother, she surely wasn’t cindy’s roomate and in economics class, though i really loved the way she was introduced into the show, just very important characters have had that treatment before: robin, victoria, stella (in other words 3 possible mothers). i’m pretty sure there will be a relationship with ted (especially after the mermaid theory ending scene, but also the dance in natural history was eloquent).
probably it’s just me loving Jennifer Morrison too much.
on youtube i have seen a real interview with josh radnor ( ted) and sarah chalke ( stella) which she said that the creators have told her who the mum is which means either we hav already seen or heard her or they knew from day 1 who the mom is
i’m gonna say it’s not bump girl
ted narrates at the end of the episode it’s stated that while he and the mother were at the same party that night they never met. ted goes on to say that he’s glad they didn’t meet that night because he wouldn’t have wanted her to see his behaviour.
given all the recaps from the calls made to marshall, how ted behaved when he did bump into bump girl would also not have been as nice as the original version had shown.
based on this i would exclude bump girl from the list
also of note though, it’s up to the writers to decide who bump girl is.
they could in fact make it someone we’ve already met and make the story inconsistent. sure we’d all get angry at them, but it’s like any other tv series where the ending didn’t really work properly with the rest of the story (see battlestar galactica, lost, etc)
i was not big believer in the zoe/step-daughter theory when i first heard it but now i think i have come around for instance in the meraid theory episode at the end when zoe an ted are sitting in the booth at mclarens there is a noise that sounds like a clock icking n the background suggesting that the mermaid clock has started and that ted and zoe will have a relationship with zoe but she is blonde and the kids are not so thats out however maybe ted and the step-daughter meet while zoe is dating ted, also since the step-daughter does not live with zoe which is cleary stated in blitzgiving maybe se was roommates with cindy
What video?
Definitey Bump Girl but NOT the actress they used. Remember when the blonde came and told Lily not to date Barney? They re-filmed it with Brittney Spears as the blonde. Or when Barney’s mother tells him his father is Bob Barker? Then they re-filmed it once the actress was cast as his mother. So at the end, we will have a fabulous montage of all their “almost-meets” and they’ll show her as the bump girl, the girl the dating service tried to set him up with, the roomate, the slutty pumpkin…… all the times the Universe tried to get them together and they didn’t see it.
Lawyered.
i like Jenn Hoff’s theory. i almost totally agree with you except for the slutty-pumpkin part. he met the slutty pumpkin on a halloween party but lost her number. as we know now ted meets the mother at a wedding for the first time. i’m guessing it’s punchy’s wedding, since ted is his best man. i think they will show parts of the wedding at the season finale but they won’t show the mother. they will keep the suspence for the next season.
search on youtube sarah chalke interview on who the mother is , she is talking with josh radnor
hello.the mother is the girl that TED bumped at the bar (s03e12 not tommorow).i am 50% sure or maybe TRUDY(pinneapple incident )( third wheel) 50 % sure.the mother cant be zoey step doughter cuz she is to little i think cuz zoey wanted to give her a toy.but i wanna know where is the pinneaplle from 😐 or what happened with the goat . anyway the premier episode s06 at that wedding is where ted meet his wife or kid mother.and is PUNCHY wedding .i dont think is ROBIN and BARNEY wedding .
I think Ted meets the Mother at Robin’s or Barney’s wedding.
It could be the wedding of Robin with Don (since it was revealed in an episode that she would end up marrying Don).
Or it could be the wedding of Barney with someone.
Since both Marshall and Ted are at the wedding I assumed it would be either Robin’s or Barney’s – and not Punchy’s. Because it is highly unlikely Punchy would get married in New York. And Ted must meet the Mother in New York.
All we know for sure is the Mother is Cindy’s roommate. I do think the Slutty Pumpkin has something to do with the Mother’s storyline. Since the Mother was in Ted’s Econ class, I am sure she has noticed Ted, even if he hasn’t noticed her.
So is Zoe the Mother’s stepmom? Then the Captain would be Ted’s future Father-in-law. This would be interesting to watch but I have not yet bought into this theory.
I also think the identity of the Mother will be kept a secret till the end of the show. That would probably be sometime in 2012-2013 in the 8th season.
I’ve read most of these and I’d just like to
add a little. In the episode where Ted tells the kids the story of him and Marshall “eating a sandwich”, there’s a scene at the end where it shows older Ted marshall and lily eating a sandwhich. And Ted says “where’s my wife?”. So I think it’s safe to assume Ted is the father and the mother is alive. Great show
regardless.
I would definately say that the mother isn’t The Slutty Pumpkin. The slutty pumpkin told Ted that she was a marine-biologist and that she spent a year in the arctic studying penguins. I would imagine the education for that profession being pretty long, so it would be very irrational that she, a couple years later, would be studying economics on college.
I know it’s not Robin with the mountains of evidence against that, but with the son looking so similiar to Ted, we can assume that the daghter looks pretty similiar to the mom. The main thing I’m thinking of is it’s highly unlikely that the mother has anything but light blue eyes (like Robin) with Ted having such dark brown eyes (unless the writers are stupid).
I don’t remember it being revealed that Robin will end up with Don–when did this happen?!
Maybe I’m the only one but I hope we find out who the mother is before the very end of the show. I mean, it seems silly to have all this build up, and then not even get to know the character or see her and Ted together.
ok for those who think it will go any longer than 7 seasons stop, i wish it would but ted would be getting to old
SPOILER POST (don’t continue reading if you don’t want to know details from next chapters, just a small detail)
I like Jenn Hoff’s theory too, and I agree also with the slutty pumpkin part.
I read a synopsis of chapter 6×16, and it was told that an ex-boyfrind of Robin, who is a biologist or something like this, will come back.
If I’m right, in chapter 1×6 we get to know that the Slutty Pumpkin is a marine biologist, so the ex and the SP can easlily be related.
Also in that chapter Ted said: “wouldn’t be the coolest story ever if the Slutty Pumpkin turned out to be my wife?”
If Robin starts a relationship with this new guy, and they (God, no please!) get married, then Ted could meet SP in their wedding.
I don’t like this part, ’cause I want Robin and Barney ending together. This is a MUST for me…
One problem is why the mother was in Economics 305… And how to relate all this with Zoey character… I guess she is there for something significant.
Bump Girl for the win.
Bump girl has shown up in another episode (at least one that I can kind) Season 5 episode 1, the same actress walks out of MacLaren, just as Barney and Robyn are walking away happily together. A moment after she leaves, Ted, Lily and Barney walk out and Ted says something about finding happiness. I completely think that they have an actress chosen and that they’ve been putting her in the background. When he’s a teacher, does it not make sense that she would be in the background at the school, she goes there. And just because he bumped into her at the St. Patty’s Day doesn’t mean he MET her at all. I think she’s the best theory so far.
Victoria isn’t in college and can’t be Cindy’s roommate.
that’s a HUGE assumption that the writers wouldn’t set the actress that early, why wouldn’t they? If she’s a student where Ted teaches, no she wouldn’t be in any of his classes, but she would definitely be in the halls or in the background especially around the time that Ted and Cindy meet.
i think it’s probably punchy’s wedding. cos ted’s his best man right?
It would be fun if there were multiple Ted’s love interests at ‘the wedding’ where he is supposed to meet the Mother
She could be if she had come back and NOT told Ted. You are assuming that we would have known she was back but what if she wasnt. I might be wrong but Ted didnt see roomies face right?
I was really hoping it was going to be Zoey because as much as I love the show I realize it is going to come to an end soon and dont want it to be a reveal in the last episode. I like the bump theory because it works through the framework of the entire show and would be fun to see them reveal all the times Ted met up with her but nothing happened. I dont know that I like the step-daughter theory but it seems to work right now and where the show appears to be going. It seems kind of creepy that Ted would have a relationship with Zoey and then marry her step-daughter though.
It can also mean that you don’t have something (miss something/someone). Like if I’d say: “Where’s my sandwich?”.
I’ve heard Jason Segel (Marshall) maybe quit the show. Sure, CBS will pay him *much* money to stay. It’s really important for the show to have him there. I have not seen any article about he actually quit, but I think Zoey is there to “replace” him.
Ted says he met the mother at a wedding. In season 5 (dont know which episode, but it is like the #20-#23 I guess) Ted is at his mothers wedding where he saw a bit of the mother. Is the mother in his family (or something) from the beginning?
About the wedding in S06E01. This season will probably end in May something, right? If Barney is getting merried with the girl he met at the bar in S06E16 (thinks her name is Nora?) then it is too soon to merry her. They would’ve know each other in.. 3.5 months? I think it’s Punchys wedding!
It’s now confirmed that Zoey isn’t the mother. We know that since Ted said that in S06E16. And it, as Ted said, “ended badly”. We also know it’s *not* Wendy.
About Barney and Nora. I think they’re getting together, but I still don’t think it’s their wedding.
Hmmm I think it is not Zoey’s step-daughter, I think it is Zoey. I mean – maybe she wasn’t that girl’s roomate, but was just in the flat when Ted was there – that’s why he saw her ankle when she came out of the bathroom (or smth) and maybe all the things in her step-daugther’s room/or the flatmates room that Ted liked were gifts from Zoey to her stepdaughter, therefore still something that Ted’s future wife liked, possibly Zoey. And Zoey could have easily been in the Econ class.
I mean they’ve been building up the story for a while and I don’t think that they will show Marshall and Lily having a baby – maybe just getting pregnant, or in the end of the series – the baby is born.
Ted could break up with Zoey before the ‘mystery wedding’ and meet her there again – in different circumstances – maybe that’s why he counts that as the first time he met her.
I think they should be together, because they fit well together – better than all the previous relationships.
Would be nice if BArney and Robin ended up together as well, they’re quite funny together.
its definitely not zoey, based off the last episode aired saying specifically at the end that nothing ever came with zoey, and hes glad it didnt, which is a shame because i really liked them two.
however, this adds support to zoey’s step daughter (the captains daughter) because hes glad that nothing happened between him and zoey, plus the captain loves him (or used to)
Hmm…this sort of makes sense with another theory I heard. I heard that the Captain meets Ted’s mom and they end up getting married. The Captain asks Ted to be his best man because he’s his only friend and in a way, it’s Ted’s “fault” that the Captain was single. At the wedding, Ted meets his future wife…and so it would make sense that they would dance together. This would also explain why the writers say Zoey is the most important girl Ted meets to date.
The only hole I see in that theory is that Ted’s Mom (Virginia) is alreay married to Clint (see. Home Werckers…
Considering the fact that Ted meets the Mother at ‘the wedding’, I believe all the notable women above can be bumped off the list.
i THink The wedding ted was talking about in the season 6 Premier Was his high school Best friend PUNCHY’S Wedding, considering hed be his best man i think shes somewhat related to punchy or his WIFE 🙂
I think that part was improvised by the actor who plays Ted and the producers decided to include it at the end of the show. You can see Marshall look at a fixed point off camera – presumably at the director or other significant person supervising the scene. The way all three laugh seems very genuine.
‘Where’s my wife?’ is the actor jokingly referring to the fact that the Mother is always dodged and kept hidden in the show, even in a future scene where logically she should be present.
Sorry, i just picked it up a minute ago and i had to comment on it!
Just a quick observation, the show is based around true events that the writers carter bays and Craig Thomas have had. Ok they are very loosely based but the mother will have always been pre-determined. In conclusion my theory is that the significant stories and inportant plot lines will have been written by the two, therfor the mother will likely appear for the first time in an episode written by the pair.
I really think somehow it will end up being Robin…….there will be some loophole in everything, and the whole Aunt Robin thing is to throw us off
I am really starting to consider these other theories that maybe the future ted of 2030 is not ted or not what it seems
i agree…it has to be punchys wedding…..someone else said she probobly will be in the band playing the bass…..and of course have the yellow umbrella
i don’t like barney and robin together……..and i know it doesn’t make sense but i am still hoping there will be some loophole that allows robin to be the mother
no way …..this is the first time i have heard this??????r u sure she was in that episodce too? or maybe it just looked like her? if that was er again then it has to be her…….i must rewatch these two episodes
I use to really think that Robin was the mother, but I just saw an old episode where Ted’s kids draw pictures of “Aunt Robin” and they actually label her as that. There is no way a kid is going to call their mom “Aunt” so now I know she is not the mother.