A Plea For The Mother

WARNING: Major spoilers below for last Monday’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, and season 9 in general. Don’t look if you don’t want to know.

Dear Thomas and Bays:

Please don’t kill The Mother.

I know the Dead Mother theory has been around a long time, and was given some legitimacy by Ted’s urgency in the Time Travelers episode. But I didn’t think much of it until we learned that The Mother lost the man she loved at a young age… and doubted whether you get more than one love like that in a lifetime. (Also noted: her lack of future-voiceover in the episode.) And then this week, she spoke that line, “What kind of mother doesn’t make it to her daughter’s wedding?” and Ted cried, and the collective heart of the fandom sank.

At its core, HIMYM is a show about hope and love conquering all. That’s why I get so emotional about it. It’s gone to some dark places – the loss of parents, infertility, getting left at the altar – but always with the implication that everything happens for a reason, everything will pay off in the end. Ted has waited for his true love for nine seasons. If their happiness is only a prelude to tragedy, if she doesn’t grow old on the porch with him and his friends, if he’s telling his kids this long story because their mother is dead… it would be a violation of the very heart of the show. Sadly realistic, and a gutsy move, but a slap in the face. There are so few happy endings in real life. Sometimes art is the only thing that keeps us hopeful for ourselves.

You’ve promised us a twist ending. So I think if you were really going to go this route, you would have saved it for the very end. Why waste the emotional punch by parceling it out over the last few episodes? You know that everyone is going to jump to the Dead Mother conclusion, and maybe you’re just messing with us. Something is definitely going on with the Mother in 2024, but I believe she lives. I believe love wins.

Please don’t prove me wrong.

Thanks,
Brenda

About Brenda

Mom to a preschooler with T1D. Paralegal. Swiftie. Xennial. Grizzlies and Tigers. Pilates and Peloton. Books and fanfic. 901 / 305 View all posts by Brenda →