How I Met Your Mother: Barney and... (Spoilers ahead...)

[Guy Gardener]

Hmmm.

Abbie Elliot?

Possibly the mother, probably not.

[Scout101]

Not by the way they describe her character...

[tighr]

My guess is that either Abby Elliott or Ashley Benson (who also will have a few episodes this year), one of them is going to end up being Barney's as yet unseen half-sister. And Ted will try to date them.

[Guy Gardener]

Is the half sister half black or was mommy eating even more flavours of ice cream while she was pregnant other than vanilla and chocolate?

[tighr]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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Is the half sister half black or was mommy eating even more flavours of ice cream while she was pregnant other than vanilla and chocolate?

Half-sister on his dad's side. Two season's ago, we were introduced to Barney's dad, who turned out to be John Lithgow. He has a family with a son and daughter who live in the burbs.

[Guy Gardener]

John Litglow tastes like Vanilla, who knew?

[trekkiebaggio]

Season 9 is official.

[Agent Richard07]

^ Can't say I'm happy about that. I enjoy the show, but it's time to meet the mother and pack it in.

The 9th season will have to be the last. The mother has to get pregnant in the summer of 2014 at the latest, given that we saw a baby in the 2015 flashforward. It's interesting if you think about it. If Ted doesn't meet her until May of 2014, it doesn't leave much time between meeting someone and having a kid on the way. Maybe he had to settle down with her because she got pregnant.

[JarodRussell]

They can still introduce the mother and continue the show. Screw the title of the show.

[Mr Light]

I really, really, REALLY hope we meet Mother in the season finale, and spend an entire season with her and Ted falling in love, seeing how she interacts with the group, getting knocked up....

[JarodRussell]

It kinda needs to be, because it would be an incredible cop out if they didn't. They spent so much time on women that were never going to be the mother, but the mother would then be like, "Oh look, here she is, and The End."

[Agent Richard07]

I wonder if they can introduce the mother but do it in such a way that the audience doesn't even suspect it's her until that fact is revealed. That would be pretty difficult to pull off.

[trekkiebaggio]

They have to really nail the casting and character of the Mother as well, she has all these years worth of expectation to live up to.

[Agent Richard07]

If she'll be appearing in just an episode or two, I wonder if they'll get a big name actress like Anne Hathaway or someone along those lines.

[FPAlpha]

They've written themselves pretty much into a corner throughout the show.

It was repeatedly stated that Ted met the mother at a wedding.. we've had several weddings in the show and Ted has met some women there (including Victoria who was a favorite to be the mother and would have been if the show got cancelled early) but i think they said it outright in the last season finale that Barney's and Robin's wedding would be THE wedding so it has to happen in this season finale.

Of course the writers can cop out and have Ted meet several women at the wedding and play the game up until the show finale (and i wouldn't put it past the producers) but it would be even lamer than the way the show already is concerning the mother storyline.

Have her appear at the wedding and spend the final season getting them to fall in love and marry them in the show finale (and then in the final scene have her appear past the kids to tell her side of the story leading to the spin off "How i met your father" ).