Finale Season

Yes, it's finale season in TV land. Castle was on Monday. The Big Bang Theory is tonight (though I won't see it till tomorrow, since we don't have cable or satellite or a converter-box-thingy-that-replaced-antennas-a-few-years-ago, and have to wait until the episode is posted online) and How I Met Your Mother is next Monday.

I'm really excited for HIMYM. Not only does Lily have the baby, but apparently the identity of Barney's bride is going to be revealed.

In case you don't watch HIMYM... well, you can probably just go ahead and stop reading now. And if you do watch it but aren't caught up to current episodes, you probably want to stop reading too. But if you're curious and don't care about spoilers, read on.

The premise of the show is that Future Ted is telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. So, the story is told in flashback. And sometimes those flashbacks jump around a bit, so we see little bits of things that haven't yet happened in the show's timeline. As of right now, we know that in the not-too-distant-future, Ted's going to be best man in Barney's wedding. We don't know who he's marrying, but in my mind, there's really only one logical choice: Robin.

I happened to come across a LiveJournal post (heh, LiveJournal . . . that takes me back) of someone outlining 100+ reasons why Robin is the bride. I glanced through some of them, and to be honest, there are a lot of pretty big stretches in there, putting significance on things that probably don't have any . . . the sort of tiny things that shippers will grab hold of and not let go. But I still think she's the most likely option.

There are really only two other women that Barney's had a real connection with: Nora and Quinn. I don't see it being Nora because of the way things ended between them; I can't see her giving him another chance. I don't see it being Quinn because, well . . . despite what we're told, I personally don't see any chemistry between them. She caught his attention by calling him out on his man-whore-ish ways when they first met, she's clearly a challenge for him, but that doesn't mean they're right together. He's currently trying to get her to quit her job as a stripper, which she's said she would do if she ever got married, which all seems like it might be leading to a proposal because he's crazy about her . . . but I just don't see it lasting.

So, that leaves Robin.

Or some mystery girl we've never met, but given that I'm pretty sure next season is going to be the last, ending with the wedding (which we've already been told is where Ted meets "The Mother"), that's a pretty quick time frame to meet someone new, fall in love, get engaged, and plan a wedding.

I've heard two decent arguments for it NOT being Robin. One is that we haven't been getting much Barney/Robin chemistry lately. That hasn't really been addressed since mid-season, when Robin pretty much stomped on his heart. The other is that it would make all of next season fairly pointless.

For that second point, I agree and disagree. One of the fun things about this show is being told little bits of future information and then seeing how things play out to get to that point. For example, we learn from the pilot episode that Robin is not "The Mother," and yet Ted and Robin dated for an entire year, and it was still enjoyable to watch, even though we knew they wouldn't end up together in the long run (although I will admit that earlier this season when Ted told her he loved her, my reaction was a very emphatic, "Seriously?!"). So, even if we find out that Barney and Robin are getting married a year from now, I still think it will be fun to see how they get there. In fact, them being on somewhat rocky terms lately might even help that.

Still, like I said, I somewhat agree with that argument, but my thought on this would be the same whether the bride is Robin or not. Either way, I'm surprised they're revealing her identity this early.

Tuesday is going to be an interesting day. I'm tempted to stay away from the internet altogether, until Pat and I can watch the show together. (Either that or watch it as soon as I wake up, but I don't think he'd like that.) Granted, I did make it all through this Tuesday without stumbling across any Castle spoilers. But I know FAR more HIMYM fans than Castle fans. So if I'm suspiciously absent from Facebook and Twitter that day, you'll know why.