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Get ready to rewatch your favorite yellow umbrella saga with a whole new perspective! Join us as we uncover the genius clues, subtle hints, and blink-and-you-miss-it details that laid the groundwork for major plot points and character arcs throughout the legendary nine seasons of "How I Met Your Mother". From tragic fates to romantic destinies, these moments were hiding in plain sight. Prepare for major spoilers if you haven't seen the entire series!
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00:00Uh, favorite book is Love in the Time of Cholera, check.
00:02I read that.
00:04More like Love in the Time of Don't Bothera.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:08And today, we're counting down our picks for the subtle hints,
00:11clever callbacks, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments
00:14that laid the groundwork for major plot points and character arcs
00:17throughout the legendary nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother.
00:21If you've not seen the series in its entirety, there will be spoilers ahead.
00:25Hey, we still have our, uh, 40 deal, right?
00:28We're both still single at 40.
00:30I'm all yours.
00:32Number 20.
00:33Professor Infosaurus.
00:35When Lily and Marshall put their friends through the Who Wants to Be a Godparent quiz,
00:39one particularly somber scenario involves explaining their hypothetical demise to Marvin.
00:45Ooh, our demise.
00:48Barney, how would you explain to little Marvin why we're not around anymore?
00:55While Barney and Robin offer predictably outlandish solutions,
01:00Ted turns to the gentle wisdom of Professor Infosaurus, a dinosaur hand puppet.
01:05At the time, this seemed like just another endearing, if slightly odd, Ted eccentricity.
01:11Hey there, squid.
01:13Death is a difficult, yet unfortunate certainty.
01:18Good enough!
01:20Ted wins the round.
01:22But then, in a flash forward to the present, older Ted pulls out that very same puppet while
01:26talking to his kids.
01:28Suddenly, what seemed like a throwaway gag becomes a bittersweet hint at the tough conversations
01:33Ted had to have with his own kids when their mother passed away.
01:37Professor Infosaurus will be a big, big hit with children.
01:42Isn't that right, kids?
01:43Hmm?
01:47Number 19.
01:48Ted and Victoria's Reunion.
01:50Robin once pointed out that relationships need more than just chemistry.
01:54They also need good timing.
01:56We can beat the odds.
01:57Odds schmads!
01:58It's gonna work.
02:00We're gonna make it work.
02:01It'll work.
02:03It didn't work.
02:05When Victoria heads off to Germany, she holds hope that she and Ted might still have a shot
02:10someday.
02:10In her mind, they're both single in this imaginary future.
02:14But Ted doesn't seem too bothered by the details.
02:17Hey, you know, I mean, if when I get back, we're still single, we can...
02:21Even if we're not.
02:25True to his word, he reconnects with Victoria years later, only to find out she's about as
02:31far from single as you can get.
02:32The wedding dress should probably be a major deterrent, but that doesn't stop Ted from
02:37driving off into the sunset with her.
02:39Well, you can't say he wasn't true to his word.
02:42You, me, riding off into the sunset.
02:45Any thoughts?
02:48One question.
02:50FDR or West Side Highway, what's the quickest way to the sunset?
02:53Number 18.
02:54Pumpkin Blanket.
02:55On one memorable Halloween, Ted, in true Schmoesby fashion, clings to the romantic ideal of reuniting
03:02with a slutty pumpkin he met years before.
03:04This could be the year.
03:06Halloween is a night of wonder and magic.
03:08All right, bring the mockery.
03:11Fine, I can take it.
03:12Come on, wouldn't it be the coolest story ever if the slutty pumpkin turned out to be my future
03:15wife?
03:15The party may be long over, but Ted remains stubbornly on the rooftop, convinced his costumed
03:21soulmate will appear.
03:22While the slutty pumpkin is a no-show, guess who does arrive to keep him company?
03:27Notice the cozy orange blanket draped around her shoulders?
03:30A distinctive pumpkin orange, wouldn't you say?
03:33How do you do this, Ted?
03:35How do you sit out here all night on the roof in the cold and still have faith your pumpkin's
03:40going to show up?
03:41As they commiserate about their love lives, Robin questions his enduring hope for the
03:45one.
03:45Look, I know that odds are the love of my life isn't going to magically walk through that
03:50door in a pumpkin costume at 2.43 in the morning, but it seems as nice a spot as any
03:57to just, you know, sit and wait.
04:00Little did they, or we, realize that the orange hue subtly hinted that the woman he was meant
04:05to be with was right there all along.
04:07Number 17.
04:08It's Bad Luck to See the Bride in Her Wedding Dress
04:11How I Met Your Mother loves to play with the superstition that it's bad luck for the groom
04:15to see the bride in her wedding dress before the ceremony.
04:18I know it's bad luck to see the bride right before the ceremony, but I realize something.
04:23Marshall and Lily have broken most of their wedding vows, but they're still the best couple
04:28I know.
04:28Barney catches a glimpse of Robin before their wedding, and their marriage barely lasts
04:33three years.
04:34If you blink, you might miss it.
04:36No, we're not still bitter.
04:37Then there's Tracy, who shows up to McLaren's in her wedding gown, and, well, we all know
04:42how that story ends.
04:44Even then, in what can only be called the worst of times, all I could do was thank God.
04:49Thank every God there is, or ever was, or will be, and the whole universe, and anyone
04:55else I could possibly thank.
04:57The only exceptions are Marshall and Lily.
04:59Sure, Marshall sees Lily in her dress before their official ceremony, but since they sneak
05:04in that adorable outdoor wedding right after, they basically outsmart the superstition.
05:09Lily pad and Marshmallow forever.
05:11After that, we all went back inside for the second wedding.
05:14And yeah, a lot of things did go wrong, but it didn't matter.
05:17Because when we all look back on that day, what we remember is the first wedding.
05:21Number 16, There is a Season for Everything.
05:24The series started dropping hints about the big wedding where Ted would finally meet the
05:29mother around season 6.
05:31Kids, there are two big days in any love story.
05:34The day you meet the girl of your dreams, and the day you marry her.
05:37But believe it or not, the first one may appear less than 30 seconds into the premiere.
05:42Pause at just the right moment, and you can spot a church wall sign reading,
05:46to everything, there is a season.
05:48Sure, it's a biblical reference about accepting life's ebbs and flows,
05:52which honestly ties in perfectly with Ted's love story.
05:55Well, it's at times a long, difficult road.
05:59But I'm glad it was long and difficult, because if I hadn't gone through hell to get there,
06:04the lesson might not have been as clear.
06:05But could it also be a clever wink from the writers teasing the fact that an entire season
06:10would be dedicated to what will soon be revealed to be Barney and Robin's wedding weekend?
06:14Kids, Barney and Robin's wedding turned out to be a life-changing weekend for all of us.
06:19Well, not just us.
06:21One ticket to Farhampton, please.
06:23Number 15.
06:24Marshall's Fantasies
06:25Marshall's got a pretty wild system for fantasizing about other women,
06:29and he's not shy about sharing it.
06:31Even when I do start to have a dirty thought like that,
06:34it seems so much like cheating on Lily that I feel guilty.
06:37So first, I need to have a different fantasy.
06:40Step 1. Lily has to die from some over-the-top soap opera disease.
06:45Step 2. He waits a totally vague, appropriate amount of years before moving on.
06:50The rest of the gang is understandably horrified by this whole routine.
06:54Kill me off?
06:55I mean, I'm fantasizing about other girls all you want,
06:58but could you maybe not murder me?
07:00But here's where things get really eerie.
07:02This goofy little fantasy ends up mirroring the show's actual ending almost beat for beat.
07:07Since the final scene with the kids was filmed years before the finale aired,
07:11it's possible that Marshall's so-called fantasy was actually designed to be a sneak peek at the
07:16gut-punch finale.
07:17Dad, we love Aunt Robin!
07:19Whenever she comes over for dinner, you guys are so obvious.
07:23Come on, Dad.
07:24Mom's been gone for six years now.
07:27It's time.
07:27Number 14. Where's Marshall's Dad?
07:30The countdown in Bad News will forever be remembered as a masterclass in narrative devices.
07:35It's as brilliant as it is devastating.
07:38Something's happened. Um, your father, he had a heart attack.
07:45He didn't make it.
07:47However, there's an even sneakier detail about Marshall's dad passing that you may have missed.
07:52If you go back to season four's The Fight,
07:54there's a flash-forward to a future Thanksgiving with the Erickson clan.
07:58Look around the table, and you'll spot that someone important is missing.
08:02It is so good to be home.
08:04Mom, Lily, fantastic job.
08:07Good food, good meat, good God, let's eat, right?
08:09Yep, Marvin Sr. is nowhere to be seen.
08:13Two seasons later, Lily's devastating reveal in Bad News finally explains his absence at that
08:19Thanksgiving.
08:20It's a quietly heartbreaking Easter egg that makes Marshall's loss hit even harder when
08:25you re-watch the show.
08:26I'm not ready for this.
08:32Number 13. What mother is going to miss her daughter's wedding?
08:36We already suspected something was up before this episode,
08:40and even more so when it felt like Ted was racing the clock to share all his stories with Tracy.
08:44You know every one of my stories.
08:47You know every one of mine.
08:50I guess it's official.
08:52We're an old married couple.
08:57Nice!
08:57We did it!
08:58One story he shares is about how Robin's mom overcame her fear of flying to be at her
09:03daughter's wedding.
09:04Tracy's response completely shifts the mood, leaving Ted in tears.
09:08That's the story.
09:09Right down to the surprise ending.
09:12There's not really such a surprise.
09:14I mean, come on.
09:16Of course she showed up.
09:17What mother is going to miss her daughter's wedding?
09:18In that moment, it's clear he's picturing a future where Tracy isn't there to see their
09:23kids get married.
09:24He already knows their time together is limited.
09:26To make it even more bittersweet, Bob Dylan's If You See Her Say Hello plays in the background,
09:32a song all about lost love.
09:34If you've seen her say hello, she might be here, Ted Gere.
09:42Number 12.
09:43Marshall's Bets.
09:44Every long-term couple needs a way to keep things exciting.
09:47And for Marshall and Lily,
09:48Making money off this bet just makes me feel more alive than you felt in years.
09:59back in season one's game night we learn marshall has a surprisingly strong winning streak
10:04and that luck pretty much follows him into every wager let's not forget the slap bet anyway he and
10:11lily make plenty of bets and from what we see things almost always seem to swing in marshall's
10:16favor he's gonna break his leg he's not gonna break his leg 20 bucks as he does well he didn't
10:21break his leg with that in mind it makes a lot more sense why he was so reluctant to pay
10:26up
10:27even when ted and robin seemed completely doomed really we should have seen it coming always bet
10:32on marshall
10:40number 11 the funeral music is a huge part of the show's foreshadowing toolkit something we'll come
10:46across on several occasions after eight seasons of waiting we finally meet the mother but even in
10:59that big moment the background music is already dropping hints about her fate as the reveal unfolds
11:04you can hear the funeral by band of horses playing talk about on the nose foreshadowing
11:15by choosing this track for this moment the showrunners were quietly preparing us for the heartbreak ahead
11:20it lines up perfectly with ted's narration from the future too since he's telling this story after
11:25tracy's gone every sweet memory is already foreshadowed by the loss we know is coming
11:38number 10 the ending at james's wedding in this episode barney is shocked to learn that his brother
11:44is monogamous but then he discovers that he's going to be an uncle oh my god i'm gonna be an
11:50uncle
11:51for the rest of your life fast forward a year and we see barney hanging out with his new nephew
11:58and chatting about their future uncle nephew bro ship however that isn't the only future prediction
12:04in this scene either we are gonna grow out uncle and nephew style think of me kid i am gonna
12:11teach
12:11you how to live the camera pans out to show barney lovingly playing with the baby while ted and robin
12:17dance together in the background this image seems to mirror the events of the series finale could it
12:22be that the writers were hinting at the ending and we simply missed all the signs number nine did
12:28barney predict the future with things getting serious between robin and don barney and ted are
12:33forced to confront some unresolved feelings as they drunkenly argue over who deserves to be with her
12:39barney offers up this rather crass compromise how about this how about this we share her i'll take
12:46her until she's 40 and then you can have her after that now if we do the math barney and
12:51robin are in
12:52their 30s when they get married in 2014 but despite building up to the wedding for an entire season
12:57it doesn't last it was a twisting turning road that led to the end of the aisle and not everything
13:03along
13:04the way was perfect to be honest not everything to follow would be perfect either ted's telling his
13:11teenage kids this story in 2030 16 years later meaning when he and robin ultimately get back
13:16together she must be over 40. this is a story about how you're totally in love with aunt robin so
13:22we
13:22guess barney called it back in season five number eight the headstone in hindsight there were lots of
13:28clues revealing the mom's fate since day one admittedly some as we've seen are more subtle
13:34than others and we'll see even more of that later in this season seven episode marshall visits his
13:41father's grave a year after his passing to continue their old tailgating tradition kids tailgating at the
13:47vikings bears game was a tradition for uncle marshall and his dad we'd recommend pausing to take a closer
13:52look at the headstone on marvin senior's left while most of the writing is unclear the word mother
13:58can be easily made out they were practically spelling it out for us and yet so many of us missed
14:04this
14:04huge foreshadowing detail that was hiding in plain sight number seven where's the blue french horn any
14:11fan of the show knows the story of the blue french horn and how it became a symbol of ted
14:15and robin's
14:16relationship excuse me pardon me just enjoy a coffee hey go go after ted steals it it resides in robin's
14:26apartment however some eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that in this season two episode it's nowhere
14:32to be seen can we talk about this later absolutely tell people what two episodes later at marshall and
14:38lily's wedding ted and robin tell barney a long story revealing that they broke up they also explain
14:44that the restaurant forced them to return the iconic blue instrument oh my god it's you what
14:49what you are the son of a bitch you stole a blue french horn but could the horn's absence just
14:55two
14:56episodes earlier also have been hinting at their breakup as well number six the mother's name if you
15:02cast your mind back to season one one of the very first details we learn about the titular mother is
15:07her
15:08name after getting kicked out of a soup kitchen on thanksgiving ted robin and barney end up at the lusty
15:13leopard much to ted's dismay surprisingly good right i told you so but while they're there he starts
15:20chatting to a stripper who tells him her real name i'm amber i'm ted actually i'm tracy
15:29still ted ted may have just been messing with his kids but their shocked response tells us all we need
15:34to know their mom's called tracy and we just got the very first piece of the nine-year-long puzzle
15:40that
15:40uncovers her identity and that kids is the true story of how i met your mother what i'm kidding
15:48number five ted and robin get their single stamina back when barney's brother james comes to visit he
15:54successfully persuades the gang to break out of their couple's hibernation and go to a bar
15:59you owe it to them to rise up and shimmy your lazy ass into something hot and you go out
16:05there
16:05and you live their dream can i get a hell yeah voiceover ted then explains the signs that
16:11differentiate the couples from the singles on a night out there are many ways to tell whether
16:16someone has single stamina or a couple's coma cut to the following year when they're all at james's
16:21wedding newlyweds lily and marshall duck out early while ted and robin decide to stay a little longer
16:26it's nine o'clock i should be getting back um you guys want to split a cab uh no i
16:31think i'm
16:31going to stay a little bit longer yeah me too i'm not tired at all in fact they both seem
16:35to be
16:36exhibiting single stamina behavior and that can only mean one thing if like many of us you missed
16:42these clues you'd eventually learn about their breakup 12 episodes later number four love in the
16:48time of cholera if you've read gabrielle garcia marquez's novel then you might notice a few
16:53parallels between the book's plot and this series in the book florentino and fermina who parallel ted
17:00and robin fall in love but the stars just don't align this woman was perfect she liked dogs she
17:08spent her summers in north carolina she played bass guitar she did the times crossword she played tennis
17:13she liked old movies her favorite food was lasagna her favorite book was love in the time of cholera
17:17she eventually moves on and marries dr urbino instead mirroring tracy or arguably even barney
17:23after urbino passes away and several decades pass fermina and florentino finally get together
17:29you just never know when or where and he was right unfortunately the when of it was still a little
17:38he's down the road but the where of it not only is this ted's favorite book but also what he
17:46happens
17:47to be reading when he first meets tracy for those familiar with the novel the ending was a dead giveaway
17:52the whole time funny how sometimes you just find things number three marshall saved the last slap for
18:01a rainy day the slap bed is one of the best running gags throughout the entire series and has provided
18:07plenty of hilarity along the way still we can't quite understand why barney would choose to extend
18:13it rather than just wear the ducky tie for a year and to be clear this would add three slaps
18:18to marshall's
18:19existing one giving him four slaps in total deal nevertheless marshall uses two of his four additional
18:25slaps immediately and vows to save the last one for a rainy day i think i'll save those bad boys
18:32you
18:32enough for a rainy day okay the worst is over and would you believe it barney and robin's wedding
18:39day fit the bill perfectly marshall uses the final slap to knock the wedding jitters out of barney
18:44bringing the slap bet to its very satisfying conclusion stop from now we're back in the six
18:57number two la vian rose you're probably familiar with tracy's rendition of this idith piaf song from
19:05season nine but did you know that it's not the only time it's featured on the show we first hear
19:21it in season one's the limo when ted and robin share a new year's midnight kiss
19:33the song is about seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses which describes ted to a t
19:39it also connects him to his two greatest loves you start believing again in what destiny
19:48chemistry if you have chemistry you only need one other thing what's that timing were they trying
19:55to tell us that this was ted and robin's song all along
20:03before we continue check out this single from soundmojo's audio songs from iran reimagining
20:09persian melodies as modern rock metal and pop songs check out the full track and album below
20:15where are you my love so near say the word and i'll appear i wrote this song just for you
20:21to tell you what i
20:30number one the mother's fate as we've already seen the show is full of hints pointing at the
20:35tragic fate of the titular mother but this one from season eight is especially heart-wrenching
20:40but none of those things is the thing i do first you know the thing i do first future ted
20:46imagines
20:47his past self racing to the mother's apartment to confess his love he tells her that he would do
20:52anything to have more time together but i'm here now i guess because
21:01i want this extra 45 days with you i want each one of them now we all know that ted's
21:08a hopeless
21:08romantic so we might have dismissed it as classic schmoesby however it was actually foreshadowing the
21:14gut-wrenching fact that their time together is limited as we later discover when ted is recounting
21:19his story tracy is no longer around come on dad mom's been gone for six years now it's time did
21:27you spot any other foreshadowing details it would be legend wait for it dairy if you shared them in the
21:33comments
21:34you
21:35you
21:36you
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