How We'll Meet Their Wives

I know there are a lot of newsworthy things to talk about from the John Edwards trial to the long, long arm of Darrell Issa's House committee.  But it's late as I type this, so I'll keep it light and talk about television . . .

We're getting closer to the end of the 2011-12 television season, which means "How I Met Your Mother" should spring a few surprises on us. As anyone who's watched the show knows, Barney is dating a blonde stripper.  We already know the season ends with Barney getting married and Ted meeting his future wife there, and a recent episode with a scene taking place three years into the future (2015) shows Ted as a husband and a father.   So what we do know is that "How I Met Your Mother" is going to take a radical turn as it moves toward what will likely be its series finale in May 2013. (Eight years is probably long enough to keep us guessing who Ted's wife will be.  And Ted's story, already boring his kids, is beginning to bore the viewer.)

Right now, it looks like Barney, the soon-to-be-ex-playboy, will marry his stripper girlfriend.  Don't bet on it; series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have led us down many a dead-end path before with their sudden plot twists, always keeping us (second-)guessing.  I predict Barney will marry someone else. Nora, the Indo-British lass?  Highly unlikely.  He's broken up with her twice already, and - even the British would understand this - two strikes in this case are an out.  Robin? She's currently unattached.  She and Barney have been linked before.  More likely, but not plausible.  Hey, she let Barney dump Nora for her but elected to stay with a boyfriend who's since left her.   My personal guess is that Barney will end up marrying a character we haven't been introduced to yet and, in the spirit of the ending of an Agatha Christie mystery, Ted will meet and eventually marry a previously introduced character we should have suspected as the "mother" of the show's title all along.

Oh yeah, CBS has only shown reruns of "How I Met Your Mother" in the past week or two.  So we've been lulled into a a bit of complacency.  So if - no, when - the show's seventh season ends in a few weeks with a plot twist you never saw coming, remember - you have been warned.