Ted in”Something New,” the season 8 finale to How I Met Your Mother

(Dude, this episode was…not that awful, but it’s the not-that-awful nightcap to to a god-awful season. How many times has Ted changed his mind about Robin now? Someone has to be keeping track on the internet somewhere. Anyway. Making this about me (because it’s my blog, so duh) but I’ve always loved that Ted was from Cleveland, and actively roots for the Indians and disparages Lebron and makes passing comments about Shaker Heights. So it’s kind of awesome that a couple weeks before I move to Chicago (while longing still for C-town in the not-so-distant corners of my heart) he springs this gem of a quote out in the season finale.

And because of this Ted-affinity — and because, for all its recent terribleness, the first three seasons of this show were amazing — I can’t let HYMYM go. OH AND ALSO because I had to find out who the mother is WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE NEXT POINT of oh, my god. For the first time in ages, I got chills when watching the least forty-five seconds of this episode. That’s her! That’s actually her. (There was a moment when I was pretty sure that it was a switcheroo b/c the actress was billed as “The Girl with the Yellow Umbrella” and not “The Mother” but the Powers that Be confirmed it on FB.) And also for the first time in ages, I’m actually excited for the next episode…of course, now there’s a whole summer inbetween.

But yeah, from the “Friday, 10 am, 56 hours before the wedding” that appeared on screen (reminiscent of “Dawn of the First Day, 72 hours remain”) it seems like maybe the 9th (and final) season of HYMIM is going to be framed by Barney and Robin’s wedding. I think it’s kind of an awesome idea, and one that didn’t occur to anyone, even as we groaned when Ted told us in like the second episode of this season how  he met The Mother, and even as we all banged our heads against the wall when we heard that Craig and Carter was stretching out the series a whole other year. But this show has always done interesting things with story-telling motifs, even if it has strayed into the lad of the gimickey lately, and I think it would be cool if they pulled it off and had the entire 22 episodes set within those 56+ hours between the end of tonight’s episode and when Ted meets The Mother the night after the wedding.

ANYWAY. I’ve lost track of my original whatever, but just my thoughts on the episode. I’m still quite pleased with this quote above :)

Though I feel obligated to mention that I am not pleased with Chicago tonight. Stupid Bulls. Stupid basketball. Stupid everything. I couldn’t even make it through the ESPN recap, it was just so…ugh. That series opener made room for hope but the last three games have been so depressing, I can’t even.