***Thanks for all the comments, but I’m closing down commenting on this article. It’s at over 650 comments and that’s a ton to read, People are saying the same things over and over. In the spirit of keeping the conversation going, I’ve summed up the bulk of the post and what people are saying here and have started a new thread called More on Who is the mother from HIMYM.
Like most posts tat I really enjoy it’s overly in depth, check it out and let me know what you think!
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I feel that a big question for How I Met Your Mother fans has always been “Who is the mother?” And while we don’t have a definite answer, we can take what we do know so far and begin to formulate some ideas. This is a long one so go grab a drink and pull up a chair. By the way, HIMYM returns to us on March 17th! So hopefully soon there will be more to add to this list! Disclaimer: I love theories, but I have not posted anything here that cannot be backed up. Enjoy!
Who we know is NOT:
1. Robin is not the Mother. We learn this in the first episode and and it is reconfirmed countless times in all 3 seasons. No matter how much people “want it to happen, ” it just won’t. Get used to disappointment. In fact, for those still
letting the thought wonder in the empty space in your head let me share the best explanation / recap on the subject from tv.com forum user RUdaPs:
To explain the surprise of the “…and that’s how I met your Aunt Robin.” line in the pilot…
If you pay attention throughout the pilot, Future Ted always says things like “…and then I went to her apartment.” The assumption is that the kids are thinking the whole time that “she” and “her” are their mother because Future Ted says that he’s telling the story of how he met their mother. The only thing is, he doesn’t say a name. So at the end when he says “…and that’s how I met your Aunt Robin.” the kids are surprised.
It’s like watching “The Sixth Sense” for the first time. (If you haven’t seen it and would like to you should stop reading this and skip to the next paragraph.) You always assume that Bruce Willis is alive but it is never clearly stated. Then if you go back and watch it again, you realize that only the kid talks to him throughout the movie. Even though you thought it was obvious the story was about one thing it was clearly about another and you can go back and see what it was really about
2. The string of possible girls throughout Season 1. There was Natalie (Return of the Shirt), Ted’s old girlfriend, who knew Krav Maga. Coat Check Girl (OK Awesome), that Carter Bays even joked that if the writers strike ruined the show for good, she was the mother. Even though we never meet her (which would be a great idea for this season…hint, hint), the Slutty Pumpkin (from oddly enough the episode called the Slutty Pumpkin). Dr. Sara O’Brien (Matchmaker), the engaged 9.6 match found by love solutions. Trudy (the Pineapple Incident), who came back in the Third Wheel…let me side track here for a moment. Ted only says “I left Trudy a message, but she never called me back”…to me this implies he never saw her again, but I suppose that was the way around things for that episode (that and “Some stories you tell, some stories you don’t”…seriously, would would ever tell their kids they rode the tricycle)…anyhow moving on. There was Victoria from episodes 12-18, she was great, would have been nice, but she won’t be back (at least not as marriage material). Let’s not leave off Mary the Paralegal (and that is a shame…but when you don’t laugh it just seems mean). And I can sum all these up as “not the mama” because in the episode Lucky Penny from Season 2, Ted says:
“My destiny was to stay in New York. Because if I hadn’t, I never would have met your mother.”
Thus saying that up to this point, he has not met the mother yet, so we have not seen her. Take a moment and let that sink in if you need to.
3. Ted’s soul mate. Let’s camp on this one for a moment. Season 1 episode 21, Milk, the dating company finally comes through and finds Ted’s soul mate. Now if #2 is true then she could be included in that group. However, Ted never actually met her in person. Will this be a loophole? Will she ever play back in? I leave it to you…personally I feel, the “Soul Mate” is out of the picture or at very least not the mother…I just felt she needed to be mentioned.
4. The girls form Season 3 (so far). Well Season 2 was a wash as far as “the mother” because Ted was with Robin the whole time. And in Season 3 so far I don’t think we have seen any potential for a “mother character”. In some of the recent interviews with the creators of HIMYM they confirm this thought (more or less). In the Platinum Rule, Ted say something about that being all with Dr. Stella for now…but I seriously doubt she is the mom…and here is why….
WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW SO FAR:
1. Her name. Now this is just a theory but it seems to be a pretty strong one. The mother’s name is Tracy…don’t believe me? Season 1 Episode 9, Belly Full of Turkey, at the end of the episode a “burlesque entertainment artist” approaches Ted and says what he did was sweet… She says “I’m Amber”…then says “Actually, I’m Tracy”… then future Ted’s (Bob Saget) voice pops in and says “And that kids is the true story of how I met your mother.”
The kids are blown away surprised. He does say he is kidding…however ponder this if you will…why would the kids even believe it for a moment if their mother’s name was not Tracy?
*Update: Here is some more info on the Tracy Theory.
2. They meet in New York. This is a slight assumption too, however in Lucky Penny he says if he wouldn’t have stayed in New York he would have never met her.
3. The Yellow Umbrella. Season 3 episode 1, Wait for It, Ted says, “Kids, there is more than one story of how I met your mother. You know the short version, the thing with your mom’s yellow umbrella…” So we don’t know much, but we do know there is a yellow umbrella involved (You can thank Captain Obvious for that one).
Also if this is your first time here be sure to check out the How I Met Your Mother Show Reviews for the latest info on “the mother”.
I downloaded the torrent and listened quite carefully too. I did here man, not men. What do you other guys think?
Ok wow. It’s Stella. Stella was under the yellow umbrella. It shows her smile at Ted, under the yellow umbrella. Future Ted sayd that his wife is aat the St. Patricks day party, but he didn’t see her there. When Ted was getting his tattoo removed, Stella said that she was at that exact party. I could go on, but that’s all I feel like saying.
Hey, I know you are all going to disagree but i watched seasons 1-4 in a space of a fortnight once (boring holidays) and I am 99% sure its Stella.
Evidence:
-No quotes from ted to suggest otherwise
– When getting the tattoo removed Ted talks about St Patricks Day and they comment at the fact that they were at the same party. (So was the mother)
– Im pretty sure I’ve seen the yellow umbrella in her office before
– As if she is going to stay with that douchey karate guy.
All other girls have been eliminated by him saying “she wasn’t your mother” or something along those lines. I expect her to come back into it as she played a much bigger role in the series then all his other girlfriends. Both the Tracy and Robin Theory are silly.
it cant be this zoey character, because remember when we see the mother’s leg, shes rachel bilson’s roomate. But zoey tells Ted she got married when she was 21. So she can not be the mother. And it cant be stella, because after they break up, theres a shot of what the kids woudve looked like if the mother was stella
This is a follow-up to my comment from November 8th. Eric, well, I might have misheard the “best man / best men” thing, although I do not think so. It seems, however, that it might not to be that important anyway.
The only four minutes or so which, so far, count “meeting the mother”-wise are the beginning and the end of episode 1 of season 6. Because what else do we know? The mother was at the St. Patrick’s Day Party? Well, yes, but Ted did not meet her there. She was in the class where he started his teaching career? Well, yes, but it was not “his” class. She was Cindy’s roommate? Well, yes, but Cindy is now in a stable lesbian relationship and out of Ted’s life. And this yellow umbrella just basically comes and goes to keep viewers happy.
But Ted being the best man at a wedding and meeting the mother there (And he says “the day I met your mother”. Not re-met or saw again, but “met” as in “got acquainted with without having known before”) is a solid story arch that the writers can not get rid of easily. This fancy wedding we see at the beginning of season 6 episode 1 surely has to be planned meticulously over months, constituting a storyline in itself. Except, of course, this wedding is not the actual wedding that Ted is the best man at, which would be much like the storylines in HIMYM usually unfold.
Anyway: even if Ted is the only best man at a wedding where Lilly and Marshall are also present, who can he be the best man to? His father? Some guy at GNB? It is still most likely to be Barney. I do agree with some comments that it might well be that Barney gets married to Robin, as there are clues for this. But then there is also a slight inconsistency: Ted says he met the mother “at a wedding”. If it’s Robin and Barney, why not “at Aunt Robin’s and Uncle Barney’s wedding?” Because then the viewers would know too much? Maybe.
I also hear it as Lily calling out to Ted as “Best Man”, not “Best Men”. The real interesting part isn’t that though. The interesting part is Ted talking about hoping that it doesn’t rain, and the two of them running inside and asking each other if either of them has an UMBRELLA. Looks like the Yellow Umbrella storyline is not over.
Okay, this is what I think.
* The mother is studing Economics 305.
* Barney works on GNB (what does he work with?)
* Barney marries Robin.
* Barney invites the economics-girl.
* Ted, as a best man, meets her.
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Btw.. I listened to http://www.tedmosbyisajerk.com/audio.mp3. In 20:15 there are some weird sounds. I played the weird sound backwards and it says:
‘Wendy the waitress is the mother, of the goat!’
Is it possible that Barney marries Wendy? Or is it just a trick by the writes to fool us?
What do you think?
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I really want to hear respones from you guys. I love HIMYM and can’t just stop thinking of who the mother is. Did I miss something? Please, correct me!
🙂
Call me crazy but technically the kids might not be Ted’s Kids so aunt Robin could still be Teds wife
The kids did call Ted dad in, I think it is, s01e02.
there is no way Robin is the mother as much as we all want it.
the one person i can still think of as the mother is Victoria – she could be coming back from Germany if not already.
otherwise my other theory is that Zoey is brought on the show to lead Ted to the mother
I watched Big Days again, and I think I found something in the beginning of the episode.
Isn’t the guy in http://u.snelhest.org/i/2010/11/15_3612.png (image), isn’t it Barney?
And who is the brunette he’s talking to?
It seems like Jenkins.
So in S6E9, “Glitter”, we find out that the wedding for which Ted is the best man is Punchy’s, his best friend from High School. In S6E1, we find that he meets his wife at that wedding. Could it be that the wedding is the season finale for this season? I mean that would make it the series finale too, right?
Hey stephen…you should definitely check out the HIMYM Glitter discussion… we’re talking about a lot of that there.
the general consensus is that Punchy’s wedding is a smoke screen for what we saw in Big Days…and on the subject of the seasons… I don’t know for sure but I feel like HIMYM will go through Season 8 at least.
I tottaly agree that robins the father even though the children call her aunt ruaben
i agree that ruaben is the mother even though the kids call her aunt ruaben
i think that ruaben is the mother even if the kids call her aunt ruaben
sorry my mistake i agree with lexi it is stella
Season 3 Episode 12, Ted and Barney go to a club where the woman with the yellow umbrella (AKA the Kids Mother) goes. In this episode between 13 and 14 mins, Ted bumps into a girl in the Bar. He stops and looks at her for a sec. What is the point of this unless this is the mother and its being set up for later?
Sorry, I just read through the earlier comments and saw someone had spotted this already.
in fact tho i couldnt be stella because in the episode where she leaves him at the alter he says “this is what it could have been like” and it shows stella with the kids but in fact he says in his next sentence but it didnt happen like that” and it shows her without the kids. im telling you it cant be stella. and on another note he says that thier mother was in in his architectecture class he says your mother sat as the camera roams around and says o nevermind thats for another day. im a how i met your mother nut. thats my favorite show.
Any of you people ever think that the writer’s have not yet decided?? Their going to drag the show out as much as possible. when they set up girls like stella, they are just making sure that they don’t write themselves into a hole (like LOST)
you know that barney is the bizness. the platinum rule is something that still cracks me up to this day. gotta love barney player for life anyone who can be a bar owner an astronaut and a coyboy all at the same time. has to be a lady master lol for a gay man in real life he plays a good straight man.
but at the end when he says “that is the true story of how i met your mother” the kids are shocked BUT…. watch the WHOLE EPISODE. then he says “just kidding” and the kids look relieved.
check your facts
im pretty sure i have. and im with the one dude who says maybe they havent decided so that the writers dont write themselves into a hole like lost. (great statement)
but im pretty sure my facts are acurate as he does hint that the mother is in his CLASS. ( i can do capital letters too ) we know that stella isnt in the class because in the window episode it shows the full class. stella no where to be found.
im pretty sure im quite accurate about this.
Isn’t Ted’s future wife in the economics class?
Barneys secretary in episode Milk is Tracey
I think its that ” Tracy. Because if u’ve seen Season 5 Episode 12 Ted meets a girl named Cindy which is ted’s wifes room mate. And then Cindy mentions that her room mate is a whore, and ted met Tracy at that stripclub it doesnt make so much sense but i hope i helped something ^^
It is not Stella stella married her babies dad! And the tracy thing was a joke why do you think the kids freaked and went “WHAT??” and who is this other Vicki? I do not think that Tracy theory holds any water at all!
Vicki is the girl Ted meets in the elevator in GNB, season 4.
Ted had the yellow unbrella…and she showed up next to him with her babies dad who she left him at the alter with! the only way that makes sense at all is if ted is an absolute idiot and it really is how I met YOUR mother meaning he isnt the father but the step father…Stella already has a kid remember?
I am vicki and I was talking about the other poster name vicki lol…..and Victoria is actually still a valid candidate for the mother if she all of a sudden comes back from Germany that is lol!
I am vicki and I was talking about the other person posting name vicki lol…..and Victoria is actually still a valid candidate for the mother if she all of a sudden comes back from Germany that is lol!
I really wanna know who it is ._. haha btw im Vicki number 2 o-o
lol well hi V2!
I totally agree with other comments that the writers have not yet decided who is the mother. Why should they have? HIMYM is up and running nicely, and as soon as the identity of the mother is revealed, the show is, basically, over. I also agree with other comments that Ted supposedly being the best man at Punchy’s wedding is a red herring. There is, however, another thing I want to bring up here.
There are some unresolved issues about season 5 episode 20 when Ted’s mother is getting married to Clint. Ted was supposed to give a speech there. This indicates that he could have supposed to have been Clint’s best man. And what did he do during the two 72-hour-disappearance breaks? He could have met his future wife and been with her, especially during the second break.
But he, Marshall and Lily all wear completely different clothes at that wedding than they do at the one which is celebrated on the same day that Ted meets the mother. Did they all get changed somewhere along the way? Unlikely. And Ted being Ted would have introduced the new girl to his friends immediately. Does he hide her? Is she currently at the house he bought and refurbishing it? Even more unlikely. Also episode 1 of season 6 speaks has the insert “a little ways down the road”, which directs to the future rather than the past.
I would like to think that Ted has already met the mother, and that she is at the house he now owns and busy turning this rat-infested hellhole into a place suitable for a family with two kids, a girl and a boy. But evidence derived from what is being communicated in the series does not support this.
Unless the “mother” is the bum upstairs lol
ich glaube nicht das Robin die mutter ist.
I’ve read so many comments on here and had to rite somthing
The tracy theory – it was a future ted playin a joke on the kids it is not thier mom but it is quite possible their mothers name is tracey because if not they would’nt have reacted.
St Patricks day – He bumps into that girl buh he said he didnt meet her that night so im pretty certain its not her
Vikki – i doubt its her coz you would allready know the story and they would of done a future scene with the kids cos they obviously know wot there moms name is
EX’s – i doubt it is any of them coz the kids would know there moms name
Stella – its possible that she is the mother buh then again i doubt it because she got married she has an 8 year old and her husband made that film n if it was you would you go back to her lol.
Robyn – Not her at all why would he say aunt robin
TBH i would love to c him end up with robyn coz shes awesome
also wot if the mother is dead in the future thats why hes telling them this story and i think bob saget says i know ive told you this loads of times or summin like that buh i cant remember lol buh wot if she’s dead and robyn is his wife in the future buh then again she marries don i think so i doubt that will happen unless they get divorced
sorry for rabbiting on so much i just love this show its legen……. wait for
DARY
Also i rekon they will drag it on until 2012 or summin coz the kids are at least 16 plus i doubt it was a one night stand so it myt be sooner coz hes the sort of guy thats with the girl for a few years marries her then has kids so we myt meet his mom in this series well im hoping we do cuz the suspense is killling meee
I seriously feel dumber having read this Dary! I completely agree with you about the mother but DAMN IT can you please spell words? If you are going to abbreviate please use the letters actually in the word! You wrote ‘buh’ for pete’s sake ‘but has 3 letters in it! If you are going to type 3 letter why not type the REAL lats letter? The word because dosen’t even have an O in it!
Seriously what is this crap? Ebonics in text form? It’s even more messed up than the “language” that also makes NO sense!
I understand typos for god’s sake I typo a lot and I’m dyslexic! But COME on!
Sorry i didnt know my comment was that offensive buh for me its how i type so soz haha
It aint a typo its a quicker way to type like u do in a text message
Dude you have some good points in there OMG he spelt but buh what a crime
I belive its STELLA!!!!!
it probably isn’t tracey because at the end of “wait for it” robin says that ted is “bigger” and he is over their break-up BUT future ted says that he doesn’t know what got him through the breakup and that it definitely wasn’t something petty and macho, which tells us that he doesn’t tell his kids the exact words of what is happening on screen. Therefore, he may not have told them that the strippers name was tracey, explaining the shock
My best guess is episode ‘ No tomorrow’ when Ted bumps into a girl at the st patricks day 13min49sec into the episode, at the party where he gets her yellow umbrella the next day. Only because that girl is actually pretty long time in that scene before dissapering again and otherwise that scene isn’t that necessary. I know he sais that he didn’t meet her that night and that that was lucky because he didn’t think that she would have liked him, but bumping into her is not necessary meeting her. That’s my teory.
It’s all so simply. The mother appear in third series in 12 episode. Saint Patrick Day party. Ted go to Barney and he knock with a girl. He says: “I’m sorry”, and she’s smile. I think the girl is the mother. After the writers will read that, they will change the big final ;))))))))))))
I think it’s Mandy Moore..the tatoo girl