Did We Meet the Mother?

At the end of last night's How I Met Your Mother, my first thought was "Holy shit! Stella's the Mother!"

Then I thought about it and realized that doesn't make sense. When Stella left Ted at the altar, Future Ted made it very clear that Stella was not the Mother, even going so far as to show the blonde children he and Stella would have produced. Since Stella is still clearly blonde, the years-old stock footage of Ted's children (seriously, it's the same shot every time) cannot be her doing.

So where does that leave us? With the yellow umbrella. We know the Mother left it at a bar on St. Patrick's Day where Ted grabbed it the next day while looking for his phone. We also know Stella was at the same bar that night, and might happen to know the umbrella's owner. Could it be the extra Ted said hi to in an otherwise unnecessary moment? Do I watch this show way too closely?

I do know that I certainly was not expecting an answer to the series' titular mystery when I sat down to watch this week's episode. So, assuming Stella is not the Mother, we will have a little bit of build-up rather than an out-of-nowhere "so here's the mother" episode. And I still maintain that the show can continue after we find out her identity, just as long as they cast someone good enough to become a 6th cast member on the show.

Even with the unexpected ending, best part of the episode still goes to Marshall's chart addiction. Not only did he make a "Cecilia" themed Ven diagram, but we got a reference to my fave season 4 ep, "Intervention." Referencing a previous episode with no explanation for non-fans? We're entering Arrested Development territory here, and I like it. Maybe slap #4 will be coming up soon.