One of the things that I love about How I Met Your Mother -- there, I said it, I love the show -- is the mystery surrounding who "mother" is and whether we've already seen her on the show or is she still to be introduced. It's not just the Lost fans that are watching scene by scene, shot by shot, frame by frame to uncover clues. Take this very cool observation by a blogger at Seat42f.com.
If you look at the picture, the green boxes, you'll notice that the framed handwritten letter/poem/writing in the background of Stella's home (left), is the same as the framed letter/poem/writing behind the kids in the opening of the show. According to the blogger -- who has HD and studied the scenes closely, it's definitely the same artifact.
The same artifact in two scenes, 22 years apart. The connection between the two is Ted. Now, the questions, conjecture begin: Why does Ted have the letter unless Stella's the mother? Well, if she is the mother, then it's in the 2030 scene because she's kept it all these years as a souvenir.
What if she's not the mother? Why would Ted have the framed letter/poem/writing then? Perhaps it was a gift from Stella and he's saved it all these years, a memento of happy times.
I have a problem with Stella being the mom, though. Would Dad really tell his kids about the first time he boffed mom? Would he reveal that she didn't have sex for five years? Of course, he may not be with mom in 2030, so I guess he could share that info with his kids, but it's still borderline creepy. Of course, some of the other stories he's shared with these teens -- what do you think, they're 14, 15 years old? -- has been kinda mature. "Hi, kids, let me tell you about the time I made love to two women at the same time. We called it the Tricycle."
So, what do you think? Is this the missing link or just another breadcrumb on a path that may or may not lead to mother? Please, comment and share your thoughts cause my head is starting to hurt.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
5-07-2008 @ 1:34PM
Akbar Fazil said...
We can easily assume that Ted does not tell his kids all about his (and friends) sexual exploits. Sure we see them but I would think that future Ted tells stories to his kids and does not go into full details on everything.
Also, if Stella (or any woman he dates) is the mother the kids would consider it done because at the firs mention of her name the kids would get it.
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5-07-2008 @ 1:44PM
Michael said...
Ted didn't tell his kids about the threesome. The entire narration for the episode was "Kids, there are some stories you tell, and some you don't." (or something very similar.)
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5-07-2008 @ 1:52PM
RC said...
Look at how much more we talk about sex in 2008 than 1986. Maybe by 2030 it's not that big of deal to share those things with your kids.
http://bitsmack.com
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5-07-2008 @ 10:02PM
pumpkinhead said...
That's an excellent point. Who knows, maybe in the year 2020, there'll be a new show called "Dr. Josh," in which a bald, crossing-dressing downsized former call center associate without a medical degree, will espouse the enlightened new millenium philosophy that we should tell our children every detail of our sexual histories, and we, mentally deficient lemmings that we all are, will make this person a multi-millionaire (and somehow make the evil-Oprah a few extra billion too), and follow his moronic advice.
5-07-2008 @ 2:02PM
Dave said...
While I'm as eager as anyone else to discover the identity of The Mother, I think we have to attribute this coincidence to the limitations of the prop department.
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5-07-2008 @ 2:05PM
Jenny J said...
If Stella's the mother, is the girl that Ted's telling the story to Stella's daughter? I know they said Stella's daughter's name (I forget what it is), but do we know the name of the 2030 daughter?
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5-07-2008 @ 2:05PM
willmore2000 said...
Oooooor, it could just be a lazy prop guy/decorator that used the same "homely" object in two unrelated scenes with no input from the creative team.
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5-07-2008 @ 2:13PM
Isabelle Carreau said...
I doubt it's Lucy (Stella's daughter) since she is at least 5 years old (I think) so that would mean she would be around 27 years old in 2030... Ted's daughter looks like a teen not 27.
5-07-2008 @ 2:22PM
JJ Forde said...
I agree, because of her daughter I just really don't think that Stella is the mother. Its most likely just a prop that floats around, who knows maybe it is in another scene somewhere.
5-10-2008 @ 4:53PM
WhoElseButME said...
THE PROP GUY MESSED UP! (Sorry about the Caps!...not shouting) Ted's 2030 daughter doesn't look 27 or 7-8 years elder to her alleged half-brother which she would be if she was Lucy.
5-07-2008 @ 2:08PM
heather said...
Ted does save everything from ex-girlfriends though...remember when Robin made him get rid of everything and his apartment was empty???
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5-07-2008 @ 2:16PM
Ryan said...
Great logic. And I agree.
5-07-2008 @ 4:18PM
Chip Douglas said...
I agree. Probably just something saved. If they wanted to make it so obvoius, they would have included the Yellow Umbrella. And the kids (I have only heard them refered to as "Kids") would certainly know their own mother's first name.
5-14-2008 @ 1:52PM
Jake said...
Winner.
We don't know that ANYTHING on that shelf belongs to the mother. We do know that it belongs to Ted.
Also, this story continues until at least 1 year after Ted met Stella (from the "Robin didn't live there until my 31st birthday" scene). If the story of "how I met your mother" doesn't end at "then I met your mom and we went on a date," then its kind of a lame story. Also, he is still calling her Stella in the narration. If we have introduced her, and she is the mom, EVEN IF he is telling the continued story of their romance and not just "how I met her," he would at the point of her introduction start calling her "your mother." B&T know that to do otherwise is to give the story an artificial quality that won't sit well with the viewers. "Oh, no, we actually introduced mom a long time ago, and the kids in the story knew it, but we figured we'd hide it anyway." Not their style. Stella /= mom.
5-07-2008 @ 2:18PM
cdawg said...
I added the link to this on one of the previous blog posts about Josh Radnor... how bout some credit here Allison?
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5-07-2008 @ 3:57PM
ALLISON WALDMAN said...
Yes, Cdawg -- you get the credit for pointing this out to me. Thanks for reading and posting and reminding me that you found it. :>
5-07-2008 @ 2:20PM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
It could just be another item Ted saved from one of his ex-girlfriends. Remember how Robin made Ted get rid of everything in his apt that he got from one of his former ho's and his then his apt was nearly empty? That's my guess because like Akbar said the kids would know the story was done and probably would have said something by now. I think Stella's kid's name was Lucy. Not sure they said the names of the 2030's.
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5-07-2008 @ 6:19PM
Gregg Fuller said...
The kids' names are Luke and Leia.
5-07-2008 @ 2:21PM
Tom said...
Another possibility --- just because there's two kids there on the couch in the year 2030 doesn't mean that there's not other children in Ted and his future wife's marriage.
Lucy could easily be his step-daughter and, being 27 in 2030 as Isabelle pointed out, might already be out on her own.
Granted the show isn't "How I met your mother and stepsister" but you never know. ;-)
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5-07-2008 @ 2:29PM
Joel Keller said...
I'll be interviewing Bays and Thomas next week, so I'll ask them about it... I'm sure they'll be completely evasive.
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