"How I Met Your Mother" is nearing its end and Monday's episode once again has managed to fuel speculations that the mother might be shown as dead when CBS pulls the curtain on the show at the end of this month.
Monday's episode, titled "Vesuvius," was replete with hints that the mother is on her way to bite the dust. The episode starts off in the year 2024 and shows Ted and the mother making their way to an inn after braving a snowstorm.
This reminds Ted of a story, and the mother stops him saying she has already heard the particular tale.
"Wow. You know every one of my stories," the mother tells Ted. "And you know every one of mine," he replies. "I guess it's official. We're an old married couple."
Ted and the mother decide to celebrate growing old together by narrating anecdotes. The scene then shifts to Robin and Barney's wedding as Ted starts off a story about how Robin broke the lamp.
Ted says that it is during his best friends' wedding that he realised that the future might not present sufficient opportunities for all of them to be together again.
"And then it hit all of us. We didn't know the last time we'd all be together," Ted says in the present day. "When a moment is too intense…It's best to leave it unspoken," the mother finishes as they exchange a sad look.
In the episode, the mother also proceeds to tell Ted that she is worried he lives in his stories. He urges him to move on with his life instead of living in the past.
"I love your yarns," she says. "I hope you never stop spinning them. You're the love of my life, pooh bear. I just worry about you. I don't want you to be the guy who lives in his stories. Life only moves forward."
Another hint of the mother's imminent death comes when Robin's mother is shown attending her wedding. When Ted expresses his surprise, the mother says that they should have worked out that Robin's mother was going to make it to the wedding at all cost.
"What type of mother misses their daughter's wedding?" the mother says, as Ted bursts out crying.
Theory of the mother being dead has been doing the rounds ever since news emerged that the current season will be the final. Fans feel that Ted is telling the story to his kids in 2030 because their mother is no longer alive. Ted believes his stories will bring his children closer to their mother.
In an earlier episode, Ted talks about wanting to spend more time with the mother, and this further fuelled speculation about the mother's imminent death.
The cast wrapped up filming last week, and Cobie Smulders, who plays Robin in the series, took to her Instagram to share a photo with the message:
"That's a wrap! I feel so grateful to the men and women who made our set a wonderful place to go each day. Thank you."
Smulders earlier said that she burst into tears after she learned the details of how the show is going to end.
