http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/01/18/climax-of-how-i-met-your-mother-filmed-8-years-ago/

It's focused entirely on the Mother. The title cards have been changed to feature the Mother, Cindy her roommate (Rachel Bilson), her band-mate Darren from the second to last episode, an unnamed redhead friend and her most "recent" boyfriend Louis (Lou Ferrigno Jr.). Carter Bays says Millioti should get an emmy for this one. They went back and re-adapted scenes from the Pilot to fit Cristin's character in along with making references to events from the last 8 seasons.

Yeah, there was the whole dead boyfriend plotline that was probably hit or miss for several fans. CB&CT needed an analogue to Ted's relationship with Robin without being a carbon copy of it... and a tragically killed character is probably the only way to do that. Yes, a lot of the dramatic punch was missing with Millioti's scene on the beach house porch since we didn't really 'care' about her and the boyfriend's relationship, but there would've been too much second guessing if CB&CT had fleshed out the Mother's and Max's relationship prior to killing him off.

Really, my only beef with the episode was how they depicted the "close calls" with the Mother and Ted with the scene of him running across Columbia's campus and then her playing of a song which was "coincidentally" released on iTunes this week right next to his room. The audience already knows they don't meet until well after the Wedding, so what does the extremely close calls do besides antagonize viewers?

That, and saying St. Patrick's Day 2008 festivities took place during April. I'm gonna pin that one on the editing department moreso than the showrunners.

I personally bawled like a little baby when Marshall was told that his dad had died, as well as the funeral/pocket dial scene. I don't know if there is ANY scene on a TV show that has ever gotten to me like that one...Was just a weepy mess during those episodes...cried in front of my wife's friends, who weren't paying attention to the show. It was kind of embarrassing.

No. "Last words" is a tough episode to watch. When Fingerbakke's voice comes through clearly after the obvious pocket dialing it hurts anyone who's had any sort of positive relationship with their father or distinct father-figure in their lives.

I agree. I do like the idea of the close calls, though. Given the storyline in the episode, I don't think you could set up a story where she falls in love at first sight. They did a good job in using the close calls to show that she was developing an interest in Ted even when she wasn't interested in anyone else.

If anything, the episode really raised a tough bar for the writers to hit. They had the challenge of proving to the viewer this season that the mother was worth it for Ted and they've kind of done that. Until yesterday, when they hit that out of the park. After yesterday's episode, it's flipped. Now they have a challenge of proving that Ted is worthy of the mother especially now that he has to measure up to a dead guy. Let's just hope the gimmicks are over. The writers spent a lot of time turning Ted into a bit of a dick. If they're not careful, they might set up an ending where people are disappointed that Ted meets the mother... but this time, it's because of Ted (not because the mother wasn't what they hoped she'd be)

which is in the air because of the whole Locket and Ted as the wedding wildcard plot lines