Dead Mother

I don't know why, but I can't stop thinking about how the reveal of who the mother is and what her story with Ted will be (when they eventually get to it) on How I Met Your Mother. My newest thought, as the title hints at, is - what if the mother is dead? Granted, this pretty down and macabre twist might not play well in a sitcom, but there is a certain logic to it. After all, Future Ted is telling his kids this story in very drawn-out fashion - rather than give them the short version he's detailed 50 (so far) short stories, without even (we assume) introducing the mother yet. Why would someone do this? If the mother died when the kids were young, it would make sense to go into this long and detailed history. Especially if the kids were raised by Aunt Robin - if Robin and Ted do end up together, not as a couple, but as a widower and close friend raising his kids. This would explain the sheer tonnage of material about Aunt Robin he's giving the kids - for, if Aunt Robin was just a friend, would the kids really need this much detail?

In an episode from a few weeks back, we got a quick tag of a high Future Ted asking where his wife was. We were to assume that it was a random, pot-fueled non-sequiter designed to remind us, the audience, that there is a mother. However, given the show's abundant love of letting context reveal hidden meanings, what if the real point was that the mother is gone, and this was a kind of sad moment for Ted, as in his stoned state he asked after his dead wife?

OK. Maybe not.

Until Whenever