In another thread I asked if other folks would encounter the mother before Ted. We have Lily on the train, and Barney some months before the wedding.
I would not be surprised if she meets other cast members - and a nonzero chance she meets them all.
Brian
Ted meets the Mother in May 2012. The framing story of the Wedding is all set in 2012. Two years later is 2014. The baby appears in 2015.
More like a 100% chance, if you ask me. It’s going to be one of those situations where everyone but Ted has met her at one time or another in some memorable way beforehand.
They’re going to develop the character via having her meet everyone and show how compatible she is.
Plus, if Cristin Millioti is in the main cast, she’s in quite a few episodes (min. of 7 I think?).
Any chance the mother and Marshall’s driving companion are old college roommates?
Now we get to see Ted taking all the time in the world to get Robin, and Barney making the most intricate play of his life to get Robin. Does anyone care at this point? Barney is with Robin - MOVE ON!
We had already seen both of those. Ted pined away most of last season, and Barney pulled off The Robin with the assistance of NOBODY ASKED YOU CLARICE!!!
YOU GOT THE WRONG NAME PATRICE!!!
Great episode this week. It makes so much sense of some of both Barney and Tedd’s actions which at the time, in the interest of springing some plot twists on us, seemed to come a bit out of the blue. Nice.
And of course Robin was always going to end up with the guy who actually makes an effort to make it happen, rather than the guy who sits back and waits until it’s “meant” to happen. [writes that nugget down for use in own love life]
And Neil Patrick Harris was at the top of his game all episode.
The one thing I was looking forward to this season was minimal mopey Ted… about Robin, that is. So of course, we have to have a flashback so we don’t miss out on that. I mean, it’s what we wait for every season, right? Yet another “Robin’s so perfect for me” moment, when CLEARLY she is wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong for Ted.
Otherwise, I would have liked the episode. I liked the mother and Barney hanging out, how that explained the sudden change in him last season. There was some good writing in the episode, how so many things tied together, but more of that blue french horn shit makes me want to leave a goat in the writers’ room.
That was pretty much my response, too - “Oh My God, are we SERIOUSLY doing this again?!?”
And just so it doesn’t not get mentioned, Ted and Marshall being big fans of the Generals was hilarious.
Dammit!!! That’s what I get for relying on my faulty memory instead of looking it up. Personally, I blame [rolls dice] the voices in my head.
Yes - It was just absurd enough to be funny. Now I want to go to a Globetrotters show to root for The Generals.
The best was them knowing the coach’s name, and talking to him so familiarly enough, that it definitely seemed as if it wasn’t their first time.
You know, I don’t think it had ever occurred to me before to wonder who the Globetrotters usually play against. You learn something new every day. 
In the Simpsons, Krusty the Clown wound up in serious debt to the mob, because he kept betting on the Generals (“I thought they were due”)
Not being American, I feel I am missing some in joke here vis-a-via the Globetrotter and the Generals.
The Globetrotters put on exhibition basketball games, clowning around in between performing crazy stunts and making fancy trick shots; the Generals are the designated losers who make a show of getting outplayed by the entertaining acrobats.
Nitpick: The full name of the team is the Washington Generals.
The Harlem Globetrotters are a team that does “entertainment basketball” - lots of tricks, showy shots, and humorous bits of business. The Generals are their designated opponents - they’re there just to provide a background for the Globetrotters to shine against, so going to a Globetrotters game to hoping to see the Generals win is foolish…
No only that, but the running commentary about the blind referees was hilarious because it is also accurate. Just like the commentary about Fezzik in the Princess Bride and how Inigo is kind of a dick to him at the end. Something you don’t really think about, but is funny because Marshall is precisely correct.
Well it appears all the speculation was right!
From Ted’s reaction to the Mother saying "Which kind of mother doesn’t attend their daughter’s wedding, I don’t think there can be any other interpretation except for the story of “How I Met Your Mother” is Ted telling his kids about the story of him and their mother, who passed away when they were younger