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"Warning: This article contains spoilers that some readers may prefer to avoid. &amp;quot;Was it really such a surprise?&amp;quot; This week&amp;#039;s How I Met Your Mother threw up possibly one of its biggest twists since the show began, and strongly hinted at a fan theory that has existed for some time. The fan theory in question is that the reason future Ted is telling his kids the epic story of how he met their mother is because she is no longer alive by 2030. Some theories go on to suggest that the story is actually taking place on the day of her funeral, and that he actually ends up with Robin. But more on that later.  In &amp;#039;Vesuvius&amp;#039;, there is no Bob Saget as future Ted, but we see a slightly older Josh Radnor in 2024, ten years into the future, telling Cristin Milioti&amp;#039;s Mother some stories from Barney and Robin&amp;#039;s wedding. It was another example of how great Milioti is as The Mother, and how awesome they seem together. Despite only sharing a handful of scenes together, she is clearly the best of Ted&amp;#039;s partners by some distance. Which is a relief - imagine if they had cast someone a bit rubbish? Ted and The Mother quickly realise that they have shared pretty much every story with each other, until Ted thinks of one from the morning of the wedding, and so back we go to the Farhampton Inn in the present day. Lucy Hale returns as Robin&amp;#039;s younger sister, while Lily gets frustrated that Robin isn&amp;#039;t having a pre-wedding freakout, and is taking everything in her stride. The present day (well, technically flashback) storyline was not one of the best this season, but it still had some memorable moments. In particular, we got to see scenes from The Wedding Bride Too. Once again, Ted is lambasted as Chris Kattan&amp;#039;s Jed Moseley, much to the hilarity of the group, until Jon Heder arrives as Narshall. Cue a nice nod to one of my favourite episodes &amp;#039;Swarley&amp;#039;, in which Barney attempts to mock Marshall&amp;#039;s new name until it quickly switches back to Swarley (Swarleze Theron is a new favourite).  Meanwhile, Barney is having his own mini-freakout as he is not sure what suit to wear, until Ted uses one of his romantic speeches to calm him down. Eventually, the wedding scenes had some true payoffs this week, as we finally got to meet Robin&amp;#039;s mother, something we have been curious about since day one. We didn&amp;#039;t get to see much of her this week, but it was a lovely moment, and it will be great to see Tracey Ullman as Mama Scherbatsky.  The bit that had me most choked up in the flashbacks was when Ted realised that everyone knew he was leaving for Chicago, causing the group to realise that they were unsure when they would all see each other again. This was a truly moving moment, when they had to come to terms with the fact that it was maybe finally time to move on and start lives and families of their own. This then brought us back to the future, as Ted says: &amp;quot;In a moment like that, when what&amp;#039;s really happening is too intense to deal with, sometimes its best...&amp;quot; with the Mother replying: &amp;quot;To leave it unspoken.&amp;quot; Earlier in the episode we were suddenly hit with a massive (possible) bombshell when a sombre-looking Mother tells Ted: &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t want you to be the guy that lives in his stories. Life only moves forward.&amp;quot; With the Mosbys suddenly offering up mellow lines and sad faces, these scenes heavily hint that the Mother is suffering from some kind of terminal illness, and that she is no longer with us by Bob Saget time. I must admit to tearing up quite a bit when Ted begins crying for some unspoken reason, especially when the Mother says &amp;quot;What mother isn&amp;#039;t going to be at her daughter&amp;#039;s wedding?&amp;quot; in relation to the Robin story.  As previously said, the &amp;#039;Mother is dead&amp;#039; theory has been floating around for a while, and this could all be one big red herring. The Mother&amp;#039;s line of &amp;quot;Was it really a big surprise?&amp;quot; could just be a nod from the writers to all the fan theories over the years. While HIMYM has often been about life moments between adults and making the most of the time we have, such as with Marshall&amp;#039;s dad in the past, I can&amp;#039;t help but feel that the writers wouldn&amp;#039;t go that far when it comes to the end game, and they wouldn&amp;#039;t have made it this obvious without actually saying it outright four episodes before the end, but I guess we shall see soon. In terms of HIMYM canon, this was one of the most important episodes of the series, as they should be at this point. The wedding stuff may have been largely pedestrian, but it was still one of the funniest this season. Barney&amp;#039;s High-Five Moment of the Week: [When realising Robin gets all the attention at the wedding] &amp;quot;Fellas do get boned in the whole wedding thing don&amp;#039;t they?&amp;quot; Other awesome moments: - The return of Curtis! - The Wedding Bride has become a hit Broadway musical - Barney&amp;#039;s female alias: Sue Tupp - Ted realising Marshall always knew about Chicago (&amp;quot;She pocket texted me while you were telling her&amp;quot;) - Ted laughing while crying when telling the Mother how Barney stole his scuba suit What did you think of last night&amp;#039;s episode? Is the Mother dead? Let us know in the comments box below. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/how-i-met-your-mother/review/a555604/how-i-met-your-mother-recap-life-only-moves-forward/>