3. How Your Mother Met Me
After eight seasons of trying to guess the identity of the Mother, when Cristin Milioti was finally introduced, some fans were upset that the show didn’t delve into her character more. The one episode where we actually do get to see something about her past though is absolutely excellent. It’s the 200th of the series, and much like the 100th, the writers tooks all necessary steps to guarantee that it would be one of the most memorable episodes of the show.
Picking up on the night when Ted’s story began, the episode runs through what has happened for the Mother over the last 9 years. It highlights all her and Ted’s almost-encounters, and quite a few other moments that were important to her ending up in the right place at the right time. We see her attempting to deal with the loss of her boyfriend, trying to get back into the dating game, nearly losing her band and finally rejecting a proposal since she’s still not ready to move on.
Milioti’s entire performance in this episode is stunning, but it almost seems pointless to talk about anything other than the scene where she’s proposed to. Any time anyone leaves during a proposal, things are usually going to get fairly serious, but I had no idea just how hard the Mother’s time to think was going to hit me. It’s even more remarkable when you realize that her sadness is over a character whose voice we’ve never even heard. That’s right, not only do we not see Max, but we don’t even hear him. All we know is that she thought he was the one. And yet somehow that’s enough. Well, that and Milioti’s tear-lined monologue to the sky. It’s written perfectly, and she somehow finds a way to deliver it in a way that’s even better. Absolutely phenomenal.
