Was the "Bump Girl" ever intended to be Ted's future wife in How I Met Your Mother? The Bump Girl was an attractive woman that Ted physically ran into at a deceptively important club night in season 3. Following the interaction, many fans started to place their bets that she would go on to become the mysterious "Mother."
The Bump Girl scene occurred in How I Met Your Mother season 3, episode 12. The episode, titled "No Tomorrow," took place on St. Patrick's Day. Ted (Josh Radnor) originally intended on ignoring the festivities and decided to take part in a game night with Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan). Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) then convinced him to attend a St. Patrick's Day party at a local club. That night Ted learned about Barney's "no tomorrow" mantra that involved living today like there would be no consequences. Ted took that message a little too seriously, learning some harsh lessons come morning.
What made the episode so immediately important was how it was framed as a key step in how Ted met the Mother: at the top of the episode, future Ted told his kids that she was there, but they didn't meet. The episode ended with Ted grabbing her famous yellow umbrella, starting a chain of events that led to their meeting. Naturally, fans were on the lookout for any potential Mother candidates in the crowd, and they found one with Bump Girl.
At one point during the night, Ted bumped into a woman while walking through the party. The pair exchanged quick apologies and then went their separate ways. The fact that the show took the time to focus, albeit briefly, on this never-before-seen woman made fans suspicious. Is it possible that the series creators intended the Bump Girl to later be revealed as the Mother?
While it was a popular fan theory, the Bump Girl and many other women that Ted encountered throughout the series were probably meant to be red herrings to throw fans off. Indeed, the fact that the Bump Girl's face was shown was an indicator that she would not be used as the Mother. In other episodes, the Mother's face is always obstructed to hide her identity. It's possible that the writers kept the Bump Girl as another back-up plan similar to Victoria's character but it doesn't seem likely. If the Bump Girl ever was intended to have a bigger part in the show, that would have been rendered moot as a twist given the mass fan theorizing.
By the end of the series, Tracy McConnell was revealed to be the previously unseen Mother character. She was definitely not the Bump Girl who appeared at the party; the 200th episode, "How Your Mother Met Me," revealed that Tracy bumped in the Naked Man and a drunk Barney but not Ted at the club.
Regardless, "No Tomorrow" is considered one of How I Met Your Mother's best episodes - and one of the most important. Ted thought if he continued doing bad things that night, good things will keep happening. He was sadly mistaken as proven by Marshall the next morning. After he came to that realization, he was led to Tracy's umbrella which would bring them together years later. It's as if fate rewarded Ted for leaving that insensitive and reckless behavior behind.