How I Met Your Mother: 4 Ways It Could End

1. Ted Is Dying

Though the story leads up to Ted meeting The Mother, it has largely been about Ted's life and his quest to find success in both his romantic and professional life. He's making absolutely sure his children know everything about him because Ted is the one who is ill, not The Mother. A possible clue to this is the same 45 day speech he gives to The Mother. At the end he says "I will always love you. To the end of my days and beyond," putting a very interesting emphasis on the last sentence. If Ted is dying, it also gives a very valid reason for his emotional breakdown in 'Vesuvius' because he and The Mother know he may very well not live long enough to his daughter's wedding. His need to live in his old stories could partially be explained in this episode as The Mother tells him life only moves forward, but he's afraid of the future and leaving his family behind. Another telling scene is Ted commenting on how the feeling of being with the gang for the last time was too intense to deal with, that it was best, as The Mother put it, to "leave it unspoken and just enjoy each others company", clearly hinting at a deeper understanding between the pair. A problem with this theory is if Ted was ill in 2024, wouldn't the kids know before 2030? Perhaps he briefly recovered from whatever illness he had only for it to come back a few years later and plans on telling the kids once the story is done. Either way, it seems Ted or The Mother may not live past 2030, giving their tale a bittersweet ending. Knowing Carter Bays and Craig Thomas' love for red herrings though, this could be an elaborate trick to get the audience guessing only to surprise them with something completely different and unexpected. How I Met has thrived on these plot twists before so it would be no surprise to see Bays and Thomas with one last ace up their sleeves.