How I Met Your Mother Season Premiere Review: “The Locket” (Season 9, Episode 1)

Season 9 of How I Met Your Mother has definitely been highly anticipated. Much more so than the anticipation that the typical gap between seasons of a TV show leads to. Meeting the mother is something die-hard fans have been waiting for since day one of HIMYM. Countless times throughout the series we’ve been close, almost getting a glimpse of her before a quick cut or a well-placed umbrella shielded her face from view. At the end of season 8, in a surprising and polarizing move, we got that glimpse of the mother, long before Ted did, meaning that she’d be a major part of season 9, and we’d actually have time to get to know her.

In addition to a good bit of the season focused on getting to know the mother, it’s a fairly safe bet that a good bit of the runtime will be devoted to various ways the wedding between Barney and Robin could be ruined, and that’s what the focus of this episode is. Considering this season takes place only during the course of Barney and Robin’s wedding weekend, I don’t think that’s too much of a stretch. And sure enough, in no time at all, we run into the first issue for the self-dubbed most awesome couple around. But instead of being too much and lacking in humor or emotion (like the entirety of season 8), this possible problem was great.

Making Barney and Robin cousins, or at least teasing the possibility of them being cousins, is the only way to make a kink in their weekend work without it being grating. Bring the issues up with humor, not overly blatant attempts at heartfelt moments. That likely won’t be the last issue they run into, but if the rest are in the same vein as that one, then I’m okay with a little suspense thrown into the time before their Sunday wedding. The possibility of Ted ruining the wedding isn’t quite as funny, but more on that later.

I will say, as much as I don’t know if I’m a fan of everyone else meeting the Mother before Ted does, admittedly, the interactions she has with Lily are a treat to watch. The two instantly have great chemistry kicking off this season, and I hope we get to see more of that. After all, this chick is introduced with cookies and a joke. Those are two of the greatest things in the world. That’s a brilliant way to instantly make us like the character, and how great she gets along with Lily only furthers that.

It’s important that she starts strong and stays strong this entire season. After all, the only one who has built the love of Ted’s life up more than Mr. Mosby is the fans of this show. They’ve speculated about what this mystery woman will be like for the last 8 years. If she isn’t the most incredible girl ever, lots of people are going to be disappointed. Even if she is the most incredible girl ever, lots of people will probably be disappointed. But so far, I’ll say that Cristin Milioti is up to the task.

Of course, now that they’re at the hotel, the question of where the Mother has gone off to has to be raised. If she’s really somewhere at that bed and breakfast, Lily obviously would have wanted to continue hanging out with her, considering how well they hit it off.