Or… perhaps the alternative…
The Mother saying “which kind of mother misses their own daughter’s wedding” made them realize that TED was going not be there while the mother might. And the entire re-telling of the story to the kids was Ted wanting to let his kids know his entire story since he won’t be around to share it much longer
OK, I wasn’t expecting…
…Robin’s mother to show up and be played by Tracy Ullman 
I hadn’t heard that speculation, so I interpreted it to be:
Ted’s mom had died and missed his wedding
Chris Kattan and Jon Heder. That was pretty cool. Kattan had already been established, though.
But…but…she’s not Canadian!
That’s how I interpreted it.
This is also how I took it. Anything else did not even occur to me.
There’s quite a few other things in the episode that point towards the other speculation being correct.
There’s the comment about her not wanting him to become an old man with stories, their mutual agreement on the “When things become too heavy it’s best not to discuss them”, the song at the end
I missed this entirely, or just forgot. (And I just watched the most recent two episodes last night.) Refresh my memory?
There’s no such thing as Canadian. If the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is on your money, you’re British, I don’t care what those frigid pucksuckers claim.
And
The comment made in the Time Traveler episode last year how Ted wishes for those extra 45 days with the mother
I’m going to be ROYALLY PISSED if the Mother’s dead! As sad as it sounds, I’ve become invested in them. I’m already not watching the spin-off.
I don’t remember that but reading about it seems like that line can legitimately be interpreted as just a romantic expression. This episode doesn’t leave any room for interpretation. I suspected the moment the ‘old man with stories’ line came up, but by the end the treatment had become almost overdone.
Eh, the shows pretty light-hearted. I’d be surprised if they ended it on such a dark note.
That reminds me of the darkly funny exchange regarding bacon:
My dad made us bacon all the time.
How’s your dad’s health?
Uh…
Isn’t the spinoff “How I Met Your Father,” starring the mother?
No, its another group of 20 somethings.
I took that as kind of like the line from “When Harry Met Sally”: “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start right away.” Or something like that.
This show is a romantic comedy. I can’t imagine it will end as darkly as some are suggesting but who knows?
Re: How I Met Your Father. It isn’t the Mother from this show; it is a completely new set of characters in NYC.
Yep, that interpretation makes sense. But the sheer number of things in this episode pointing only the one way, I thought it was made very obvious that
she’s dying. It fits in with the theme of the show too. A guy sitting his kids down and telling them about how he met their mother, with the mother never chiming in
For all the attempts to make it so, HIMYM is not some light hearted comedy about friends hanging out. It has ALWAYS been a show about growing up. Part of that is light hearted hanging out, but part of that is also dealing with heartache and death. I mean this is the show that had Ted jilted at the altar and Marshall’s dad dying.
Anyone understand the episode title? Vesuvius.
I know its the valcano that destroyed Pompeii, but what’s the relevance.?