Future Ted tells his kids that, during the spring of 2013, he was making the final touches to the house he bought, while Barney and Robin were preparing for their wedding.

Meanwhile, Barney and Robin are sitting in a bar when an obnoxious couple, Krirsten and Calvin, start bothering them—demanding to see their cigars and stealing their reserved table.

After their break-up, Robin and Barney smoke happily in a park when the couple finds them, saying that after the fight, they decided to get married.

During a closing montage, with all of the gang heading to Farhampton for the wedding, the titular "mother" (Cristin Milioti) is finally revealed to the audience for the first time, as she steps up to a counter at a Long Island Rail Station, carrying her signature yellow umbrella and bass guitar, and asks for a ticket to Farhampton—where she will eventually meet Ted.

Milioti's scene was filmed on March 27, 2013;[1] John Lithgow unknowingly assisted her in making the flight to Los Angeles in time for the shoot, without knowing about her role in the show.

Milioti was driven to the studio under the cover of night, and members of the production staff served as extras during the train station scene.

[6] TV.com's Bill Kuchman described the episode as "monumental" and said that it "did a fantastic job" of keeping the show's future "under wraps", adding that the production team took a risk in casting a relatively unknown actress as the Mother.

[6] Bill Kuchman of TV.com described the episode as "monumental," praising how it "did a fantastic job" of keeping the show's future "under wraps."

[7] Alan Sepinwall echoed this sentiment, commenting on the choice to cast the lesser-known Cristin Milioti:[9] "So that we would have no preconceived notions about the Mother.

She is the Mother; she was put on this world to cross Ted Mosby's path on the night of his best friend's wedding and make him forget all about Robin Scherbatzky and a move to Chicago.