For those who don't remember:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1570154/synopsis

Marshall leaving work high-fiving and to music was great.

Maybe the lesbian hooks him up with a friend but it is the wrong friend, she is a terrible fit for Ted so they only have one date and she becomes part of the group like Robin did but she is right for Barney and they hit it off and are the couple getting married.

Tbh we could spend the entire week speculating on this, there isnt much evidence right now.

thought it was a great start to the season. will now be looking foward to new episodes of the show. awesome

I certainly enjoyed the episode but didn't think it a great return to form, rather more a decent enough episode in the same vein as last seasons occasional good episodes. I'm probably on my own there so oh well.

Marshall's dad suddenly being on the phone multiple times a day was a bit on the nose and once again we got precisely zero information about the mother. It's not that I care about the mother in the slightest really but when we are told things will advance then they don't it grates slightly. Also the kids sitting there listening to their dad, man if that was me I'd have just walked off a LONG time ago.

It can't be the lesbian wedding that they were showing. When they showed Rachel Bilson and the Jessica Alba lookalike at the wedding, neither was in a wedding dress, likely meaning they were guests and not the brides. How they explain the econ-major roommate being at "the wedding", I don't know. It's entirely possible the girl will be introduced at some point to the audience but not to Ted.

However, I still think that was a glimpse to the series finale and not anything before then. If you put the few clips together from last night, it makes sense why it was likely Robin and Barney's wedding. The whole thing with Ted destroying his beer label when he's nervous is because the wedding would mean he was the last member of the group to be single. Then, he leaves the church dejected, walks into the rain, where a girl with a yellow umbrella turns around and says hi. Ted smiles and says hi back, and thats the end of the show. You really can't write anything past that point. Marshall/Lilly have their kid, Barney and Robin are married, and Ted finally meets the yellow umbrella girl who we already know is the wife. There's nowhere else to go. Everyone's arc wraps up. It's a perfect ending in that sense.

The beauty behind that ending (or any ending where the wedding episode is the series finale) is that it would allow them to cast a big name actress to play the role of the mother (which you know the network will be pressuring them into doing anyway). If the wedding happened before-hand, you would need to find an actress who could regularly appear on the show, which is hard to find among big names who have full schedules. If it's just a one episode (or even just one scene) shot, they could really please a lot of fans/casual viewers by hotshotting an A-list name to play the role. You have to admit that the reveal would be a lot more impactful if the role was played by say Mila Kunis or Jessica Biel (just as examples), as opposed to some actress we've never heard of.

It's a good sign that everyone has a different interpretation of last night's episode. That was something the show has been missing for a long time. Hopefully it keeps up.

Are we to assume they were at the wedding with their adopted child? I wasn't paying enough attention, I was flipping between the 9ers game, Braves game and my DVR of the show.

I assumed the child picture was WAY later down the road and not at the wedding.

upon completion of the episode just now, i assumed that wedding was the lesbians (and ted was the best man cuz he opened cindy (rachel bilson's) eyes to her love of box and maybe somehow (thru being at columbia) became close). it was a bit of a stretch, but it sorta made sense. it also, in my head, explained why he was nervous...giving a best man speech for somebody you don't know that well in front of a lot of people you don't know well ain't fun.

BUT marshall was in a tux. so it's either a black tie wedding or marshall is in the wedding party too. so that makes me think barney or robin (not necessarily to each other). either of those could easily meet somebody mid season and be married asap. it's not out of the realm to have a womanizer in barney or a never want to get married type in robin be the one to meet somebody and be married within a few months.

so now we're asking why is ted's future wife at the wedding? while it makes way more sense for it to be Cindy's wedding...she could be a date of any number of randoms. it would be lazy writing, but they all live in NYC so it's possible. my longshot guess is that ted's future wife is (like victoria from season 1) the wedding cake maker and we're left with some parallel bookends nonsense and somebody makes the joke "i guess u have a type" or something stupid like that. or, more likely, it's just a random date.

but i can also see it being somebody somewhat closely related to robin or barney and ted being like wtf/omg how come the girl of my dreams is your cousin/coworker/etc and u never introduced us.

as for the ep...i wasn't too hot on it. i did like marshall leaving work but (as mentioned somewhere above) a story line about marshall's dad being so close is annoying because we've never really been exposed to it so that B plot sucked for me (although it is believable based on his character).

i am very excited for this show (and all new tv) to be back so i ain't complaining.

Wait, when did we see Cindy at the wedding?

A year later I'm still surprised how Alyson Hannigan has blown past Cobie Smulders in the looks department.

This actress has signed on for a recurring role and could end up being the mother:

Ted is the best man and Marshall is a also in the wedding based on the fact that they are wearing the same thing.

So did Liliy get enhanced in the offseason or have I just never noticed them before?

lilly just had a child IRL...so did Robin but .....her boobs went away.

pleasant surprise either way!

Read about that earlier.

Here is a link
this link has spoilers

Regarding Lily's boobs, definitely some enhancement going on, I definitely don't buy those are baby boobies, I mean look at them and compare to season 1. Also, I think it's been a few years since she had the baby now, no?

KneeCo posted this in last year's thread:

I'm in agreement with mkind

Great episode. Definitely better than all of that crap last season. Only weakness was the Marshall/Lily storyline was pretty lame and contrived.

As for the wedding, I think you guys are thinking too hard about it. It seems very likely both Marshall and Ted are in the wedding party, and I think it is just as likely that Barney and Robin get back together. They don't have to ruin the series and make them date again; their history could allow for a quick impulsive, but well-felt proposal by Barney. The toast obviously means a lot to Ted, meaning to me that he could have multiple friends involved, and this might leave him as the last single. It seems fitting to have the series finale be Barney/Robin's wedding. The 'mother' could either be friend of a friend, or coincidentally be in the area/know someone who knows Barney or Robin.

The only other possibility I see is the wedding be for his sister (which still doesn't really explain the best man imo) and she knows the future mother through some circumstance.

I still believe the wedding is this year, not the series finale.

The series is set up to run through season 8 (my understanding from the interview where Segel was comaplaining about being bored with the role and wanting out but being locked in said this iirc). Obv, it's up to the network whether that is actually how long it runs, but thats the set up.

So telling us where Ted meets the mom, and then not getting him there for three years kills the titular question. Now that doesn't matter very much, really, as long as the show is funny, but it is weird.

It would be like telling us 2/3rds of the way through the series run of the Fugitive that the guy finds the one-armed man in New Mexico. Then he doesn't go to New Mexico for another 3 years. It's just weird. You lose the week to week "will he catch the killer" suspense, because of course he wont, he isn't in New Mexico.

We can't really have Ted meet girls not-at-the-wedding anymore and still keep with the mom question.

So it seems to me the wedding has to be sooner than later.

Another comedy that forgot it's a comedy. Boring opener.

Overall a decent season premier.

The direction I really hope they take is - we find out who Ted's woman is - the kids mother. However, he doesn't marry her, they don't live happily ever after, he just knocks some hussy up, she pops out the kid because they are against abortion, and then she leaves Ted with the kids.

Rachel Bilson is a 10, a f'n 10!

And am I the only one who thinks Robin is pretty nasty looking, Allyson Hannigan is pretty meh' as well. I need my eye candy dammit, wish the show had hotter regular cast members. Take 'Friends' for example - Phoebe, Rachel, and Courtney Cox character all would be hotter then Robin or Lilly.

CBS needs to kill off Lilly (dies in labor) and Robin. And the show needs to be about Ted, Barney, and Marshall raising Marshall's kid and trolling for trim. Eventually Ted and Marshall both have kids, and Barney is just their hilarious break from fatherhood.

i hope this is a level. bolded is just wtf?