A series of flashbacks lead up to a short, albeit important, closing scene in this week’s episode of How I Met Your Mother. It turns out every three years since 2003 Ted and Marshall (and subsequently Barney) watch the original Star Wars trilogy and fantasize about what their lives will be like the next time they all get together.
Of course Ted imagines being married to an amazing girl, Marshall sees Lily wanting a plethora of kids and Barney just wants a different and way hotter girl than ever before.
The only problem with “Trilogy Time” is that it doesn’t feel like it’s going to pay off in the end. The story drags on and on before the final revelation, which allows for the majority of the episode to be lackluster. It’s great seeing what the characters thought the future would be like in 2003, 2006 and 2009, but there isn’t much substance. It does go to show that the writers have an amazing ability to hark back on subtle references and expand on them. This is something HIMYM fans adore, but it’s also one of the reasons new fans can’t enjoy this show as much.
Even though it didn’t seem to be worth it during the show, the ending moments, when they flash forward to 2015, bump the episode from an average throwaway to an episode that provides a jumping-off point for the rest of the series.
The least important of the two, and the one that made me audibly grown, was Barney changing his flash forward from a new, hot chick with back boobs (you read that correctly) to wanting Quinn to stick around. The mystery of who he will marry is almost as drawn out as who Ted’s future wife will be. Only this isn’t the entire reason the show exists. I’m tired of Quinn and want Barney and Robin to finally get together. It has to happen sooner or later. Not because they’re two main characters and it will make everyone happy, but because Quinn, for lack of a better word, sucks.
As for the important revelation: Ted has his daughter sometime in 2015. That’s right! We now have a timeline for when he has to meet his wife.
Bear with me for a moment. I’ve known Ted for nearly seven years now, and I think I’m pretty well-versed on how he thinks. If he has a kid in 2015, he is most certainly married. He’ll want to do things the traditional way. And unless there was a “surprise,” he’ll have known the girl for at least a year. Well, unless he says “I love you” on the first date, then who knows? The point is, we’ll meet the mother hopefully by the end of next season. However, knowing how the creators like to drag us along, we might never actually meet her. Maybe they’ll pull a fast one on us and introduce her off-screen. Everything is always up in the air, especially with recent revelations that they want to continue the series to show Ted and his future wife’s relationship.