How I Met Your Mother: Vesuvius (9x19)

Several months ago, before Season Nine began, my mother and I were in the car on the way home from the grocery store and we had a conversation about How I Met Your Mother. We speculated that perhaps the reason Ted is telling his kids these stories is that The Mother is dead, and he wants them to know how they met, since it's such a great love story and all that. It was sort of just a silly theory, not one that either of us took very seriously. And still, I don't think this show is going to have the guts to pull it off. But... after tonight's episode, wouldn't it be an awesomely dark way to end things? Let's look at the plot, and then I'll explain what I mean.

Ted and The Mother are on vacation at the Farhampton Inn. The two of them start to tell each other stories, but they realize that they've heard all of each other's stories, meaning they are officially an "old married couple." Curtis, the desk clerk, reminds Ted of the time Robin broke a lamp, and The Mother says she hasn't heard this story. Ted dives in.

On the morning of the wedding, Robin and her sister Katie are playing hockey inside a hotel room, and a lamp gets broken. Lily wants Robin to get sentimental on her special day, so she brings by a scrapbook of her relationship with Barney. Robin doesn't seem to care especially that this is her wedding day, and instead gets excited when she notices that The Wedding Bride 2 is on pay per view. After talking with Marshall, Lily decides to take drastic measures to make Robin care about her wedding day. Lily puts on her own wedding dress and shows up in the room asking to borrow Robin's photographer. Robin says she doesn't care, which just frustrates Lily even more.

The Mother interrupts around this point to declare that she actually does know this story, but she and Ted decide to finish it anyway. Back in the past, Ted catches Barney sneaking into a room that Curtis tells him is checked out to a Susan Tupp. Ted is furious, and follows Barney into the room, only to find that it's filled with suits. (Sue Tupp, get it?) He's trying to decide which one to wear for his wedding. Ted tries to help him. The only problem is, each suit carries memories of Barney's past exploits. Finally, Ted convinces him to wear the new suit that Barney had made just for the occasion. Barney had said it felt weird, and Ted said that was because it was new, and still needed to be filled with memories.

The Mother, flashing forward once again, says she's worried about Ted because he always seems to live in his stories, and that he should try living for the here and now.

Flashing back one last time, we see Ted and the other four friends realize that this might be the last time they all spend together for a long time, since Ted is moving to Chicago. They watch The Wedding Bride 2 together and decide that their sadness can wait - some things can be left unsaid. Robin goes out to get some ice and sees her mother in the hall. Robin hugs her, and it seems like this is what she needed to realize once and for all that it's her wedding day.

Back in 2024, The Mother says that it's obvious that Robin's mother was going to turn up. "What mother is going to miss her daughter's wedding?" This causes Ted to get very emotional for some unknown reason, and The Mother changes the subject.

First of all, let me list the few things that I didn't enjoy.

Barney's jokes about the wedding. The recurring theme seemed to be the humorous idea that Barney thinks the wedding is about him. That people will stand when he enters the church, and that it's bad luck for Robin to see him in his wedding suit. It was sort of a stale joke.

Also, Lily wearing a wedding dress and trying to get Robin riled up? It felt like overkill. We don't need to be hit over the head by the fact that Robin isn't a "girly" girl. We know it already.

But, in all honesty, this episode was very good, despite some unsuccessful jokes. Let's list some of the good stuff.

- The Wedding Bride 2. Narshall. The Wedding Bride was one of my favorite jokes from the whole show, and I loved that they brought it back.

- Robin's mother! That was really touching and unexpected. I'm excited to see what they do with it.

- The Mother and Ted. Okay, back to my theory. So when The Mother tells Ted she's worried about him, and that he should stop hiding himself in his stories, I started to wonder what exactly Ted was hiding from in these stories. And then, in the end, when The Mother laughs about somebody's mother not making it to her daughter's wedding... well, the way I see it, this could mean a lot of things. But the one that seems most likely to me is that Ted is realizing that The Mother won't be there for her daughter's wedding someday. Because she has a terminal illness? Who knows! All I'm saying is, it would be a really dark and surprising way to finish things off. And Ted does mention a surprise ending... I can see the appeal.

Just, Ted and The Mother in general have really great chemistry. I'd love to know more about the casting process for her character, because it was such a big risk to leave such an important character until the very end and try to integrate her in with the rest of the cast. I'm glad to see it's been successful so far. I hope she's in all the rest of the episodes!

8/10