'How I Met Your Mother' recap: The season finale includes a big surprise for fans

'How I Met Your Mother' aired its season finale May 13 and provided the answer to the longest mystery on the show. 'How I Met Your Mother' is a CBS comedy.

It may have been a long time coming, but the How I Met Your Mother season 8 finale accomplished the inevitable: it revealed the Mother!

Broadway actress Cristin Milioti, who famously played “Girl” in the stage adaptation of Once, will be filling the role of the series’ title character (above). But her reveal came at the end of the episode. Before that, many important things happened to Ted, Marshall, Lilly, Robin and Barney. Well, mostly to Marshall.

How I Met Your Mother is always at its best when it makes an earnest effort to progress the life stories of its characters and, as expected, the season finale doesn’t disappoint. Ted, who was briefly struggling with his feelings towards Robin, decided that selling his dream house and moving to Chicago would be his best option. After all, Lilly and Marshall are moving to Rome, and Robin – who he may or may not still have feelings for – is marrying Barney. Fortunately, there are a few twists to this finale tale that make sure everyone’s favorite group remains intact.

Marshall, who was away visiting his mother in Minnesota, received an important phone call that will force a change to his and Lilly’s plans to move to Rome in season 9. After previously having submitted himself to become a judge, Marshall received a call to welcome him to the last remaining spot available for a bench seat. Marshall is going to be a judge! That is, unless Lilly nixes the idea. Meanwhile, Barney and Robin hurt, then help, an obnoxious couple’s relationship – and that’s pretty much all that occurs with them; but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Even though Barney and Robin didn’t receive that much play in this season’s finale, the many episodes that came before it complimented their story nicely, even though a few felt a bit old and familiar. To present the Mother, the producers made use of the strength that Marshall and Lilly’s story holds, to help welcome in the long-awaited, eventually-will-be bride of Ted. After Ted’s emotional conundrum set the stage for some welcomed reflection, Marshall’s joyous news kicked in before everything felt, again, a bit too old a familiar. And then, as if given her own storyline, a familiar yellow umbrella at a NY train station tips viewers off to the Mother’s upcoming arrival. And as the episode comes to a close, the Mother steps up to buy her ticket: “Hi. One ticket to Farhampton, please.”

Though the How I Met Your Mother season 8 finale did feel like it ended a bit abruptly given many stories – and obstacles – at hand, the journey was fulfilling and the Mother was, finally, revealed. Now, producers will have time over the course of their off-season to help craft a tale for viewers to fall in love with this mysterious woman who Ted will eventually ask to be his wife. And that, it seems, is where the real challenge lies.

Anthony Ocasio blogs at Screen Rant.