Time Travelers

While being mostly a bottle episode centered around the gang at the bar, “Time Travelers” gives fans exactly what they want, massive details into the future mother.

Straight away, Ted spews a whole bunch of juicy details of the mother, including the fact she, in April 2013, was dating a finance guy named Lewis while living on West 115th street.

Despite, the in your face reveals, the episode as a whole is this odd bottle episode that actually takes place entirely inside Ted’s head. In his one step removed from psychosis story, Ted interacts with Barney, 20 years from now Ted and Barney (who edge him on towards going to “Robots vs Wrestlers”), and 20 minutes from now Ted and Barney. It’s very much a soul seeking episode that Ted tells his kids about some of the anguish he was facing in April 2013, after he spends yet another evening alone in the bar. All the crazy antics between Marshal and Robin are really an event from five years ago. The reality was he was just sitting there in the bar alone again as all his friends were at home working on their own advancing lives.

It’s a very dark image to consider, and one that Ted really hasn’t expressed before on the series. Looking back, he realizes that he’s been clinging on to some of the old fun and memories he and the gang had many years ago, despite the fact that the gang has started to leave him behind. Looking back, Ted sees that he shouldn’t have squandered the time he’s been spending on himself instead spending them with his friends. Looking back, Ted wishes that had he had the chance to meet the mother 45 days earlier just to have that extra time with her.

But then that brings the HUGE question as Ted monologues about the time he didn’t spend with the mother specifically talking about what will happen in 45 days and the future they will have. Suddenly though, the tone of the monologue takes a sharp shift, talking about how he wants the extra 45 days, the extra 45 seconds, the extra moments with her so he can love her just that much longer. It’s as if, at the time he tells his children, Ted is more that just recanting the story of meeting the mother for their entertainment, but rather to commemorate the journey that lead him to meeting their mother and how they fell in love. The shift is very subtle, but in the context of the episode as a whole, it’s something to consider.

What if this whole time, he was telling the kids about how he met their mother because they didn’t know her at all? The episode’s premise is the idea of wasting time. Ted himself states “Life is short, and if you ever come across a beautiful crazy moment in it, you need to seize it before it’s gone.” What if, and this is a big what if…what if the mother dies after their second child. What if everything Ted has remembered the last 8 years is merely the lead up to a brilliantly bright but short moment of happiness. Of all the things, the kids know the very first thing Ted would do if he could would be to go see their mother for those extra moments. It’s what would “make the best memory 20 years from now.”

Other Observations

• The mother lives at 317 W 115th Street, Apartment 7B
• What a great rendition of “For the Longest Time”
• Robin Scherbatsky – Coconut Rum, Peach Schnapps, Vanilla Vodka, Strawberry Creme Liqueur, Cranberry Juice, Sugar, Maraschino Cherries
• Shawn Wheeler – Irish Whiskey, Creme de Menthe Liqueur
• The Colclasure – Amaretto, Vodka, Apple Schnapps, Lemon and Lime Juice.
• Barney has weekly balding scalp checks

“I love you, I’m always going to love you. From the end of my days, and beyond.”