Fans of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother have waited eight long years to finally meet the title character, but since the mysterious future wife of main character Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) was revealed – in the form of Tony-nominated actress Cristin Milioti – she has appeared only briefly throughout the show’s final season.

Despite the show’s trademark use of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Season 9 has focused largely on the impending nuptials between Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) as well as the events leading up to the wedding and Ted’s much-anticipated meeting with the Mother. In between, viewers have been treated to a few choice scenes with the Mother, including a peek at her relationship with Ted and her first meetings with both Barney and Lily. However, any fans who have been wondering when they’d see more of the Mother can now rest easy.

According to TVLine, the upcoming 200th episode – entitled “How Your Mother Met Me” – will focus on the Mother’s side of the story. As such, it is told from the perspective of Milioti’s character and won’t feature much of the original cast. Here’s what executive producer Carter Bays had to say about the decision to tailor the milestone episode to the show’s newest regular cast member:

"Our 100th episode was very much a celebration of the cast – not that the cast doesn’t deserve celebrating even more after 200 episodes – but this is a different kind of story. It’s about the tale. It felt like a different kind of 200th episode, but it felt like the right one to do in terms of the greater story of the show."

Rumors have circled for a while that fans may finally learn exactly what Ted’s future wife was doing during the show’s first eight seasons and, considering that the Mother once attended one of Ted’s lectures and that Ted briefly dated her roommate, there is plenty of opportunity for How I Met Your Mother to tease fans with all the times the pair almost met and to set up exactly why the Mother is ready to settle down by the time she finally meets her future husband.

This 200th episode essentially serves as a reward for fans, who have waited so long to learn more about the future Mrs. Mosby, and according to executive producer Craig Thomas, it will be well worth the wait.

"You’re going to be so sick of her by the end [of the series]. If she doesn’t get nominated for a guest Emmy for this episode, I don’t know what one has to do to get that. She’s fantastic in it. Anyone who wants more of her will love this episode."

The Mother-centric episode could also provide fans with a nice idea of what to expect from the just-announced spinoff series How I Met Your Dad, which Bays and Thomas are developing with Up All Night’s Emily Spivey. That show will similarly approach a brand-new female character and her search for true love, in the style of How I Met Your Mother.

Are you excited that we’re finally getting a better understanding of Milioti’s as-yet-unnamed Mother character? What do you think she has been up all this time? Let us know in the comments.

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How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays at 8pm on CBS. The 200th episode is set to air in January.

Source: TVLine