A classic ballad, familiar faces, near-misses and an unexpected tragedy filled How I Met Your Mother‘s 200th episode on Monday night as the titular Mother’s story was revealed.

In a surprisingly emotional episode showcasing the wonderful Cristin Milioti as Ted’s future wife, HIMYM journeyed over the past eight years to…

SEPTEMBER 2005 | As The Mother and her friends mark her 21st birthday at theother MacLaren’s Pub and talk about what a great giftgiver her boyfriend Max is, she gets a call. Cut to her in mourning as Max’s present lies unopened – she was right, he did nail the gift: a ukelele so her breakfast doesn’t have to sing acapella. And so, The Mother’s journey begins with the heartbreaking death of her boyfriend.

APRIL 2008 | The Mother’s friend is determined to get her back out there and drags her to that St. Patty’s Day party where Ted ends up snagging her yellow umbrella. The gal pal urges The Mother to put herself out there because the love of her life could be right around the corner. And if she doesn’t, he may bump into somebody else. Cue Ted bumping into that random brunette, who is just that: Random. Meanwhile, the gal pal bumps into Barney, but rejects his pick-up line about shamrocking her world.

At the party, The Mother runs into her old orchestra instructor, aka The Naked Man. After his big move fails on her, she confesses that she feels so lost. He asks her what’s the one thing she wants to do and her surprisingly beauty pageant-like answer is to end poverty. Every decision she makes must be in pursuit of that, he tells her.

FALL 2009 | To accomplish her goal, The Mother realizes she needs an economics degree and meets Cindy ( a returning Rachel Bilson) in class. They hit it off so quickly, she invites Cindy to move in with her. She also pours out her heart, calling herself oldfashioned. She believes you only get one love, and she already had hers, so she’s on permanent hiatus. Cindy’s response: You know what comes after The One? The Next One! And here comes Ted into the wrong classroom, telling a corny shellfish/selfish joke that totally makes The Mother laugh.

JANUARY 2010 | The Mother gets her yellow umbrella back after Ted and Cindy break up. Then she tries to console her roomie, who says Ted has a thing for The Mother. Yes, it sounds crazy, but he fell in love with all her stuff – and how could he not? Then Cindy plants a kiss on The Mother! She truly is irresistible, isn’t she? The Mother is totally cool with the smooch, even calling it nice since she hasn’t been kissed in a while. But eventually, Cindy finds her One and The Mother meets super groupie Darren while searching for a new roommate.

APRIL 2012 | The Mother hits it off with Louis, a perfectly nice guy who remembers MacLaren’s as Puzzles. (As she leaves the bar, Ted enters in that infamous green dress.) They start dating, but it just isn’t love. His enthusiasm for her breakfast show tune is seriously lacking, for one.

AND NOW | That brings us to the wedding weekend, during which The Mother is staying as Louis’ Farhampton home. She gets quite the surprise when he shows up to pop the question. She asks for a moment to ponder the proposal and goes outside to “talk” to Max.

“Would it be OK if I moved on?” she tearfully asks. She takes a gust of wind as his yes, but still says no to Louis. (Don’t you want to see the poor guy’s search for his soulmate now? There’s a web series idea!)

The Mother checks into what was supposed to be the mother of the bride’s room at the Inn. As she plays her ukelele and sings “La Vie en Rose,” a mesmerized Ted listens in from the porch next door.

What did you think of “How Your Mother Met Me”? Vote in the poll below and then hit the comments to justify your grade.

We haven't even seen the latest iteration of Google TV yet, that's "Android with Google services for TV" these days -- but a new rumor from The Information's Amir Efrati points to a Nexus-branded set-top box directly from Google in the first half of 2014.

Previous rumors have noted TV-connected hardware focused on videoconferencing and gaming, and this new rumor also focuses on the latter, indicating that at this stage it runs Android game apps with a touchscreen controller, but doesn't carry live TV. The suggestion is that an "aggressively priced" gaming box (that also plays streaming internet video and is controlled by phone or tablet) would give Google the advertising foothold it's looking for on your family's TV screen.

The $35 Chromecast dongle has been well received and achieves many of those goals, but we'd like to see what Google could do to separate itself from competitors like Apple TV and Roku or Android-powered hardware like the Ouya -- not to mention the next-gen consoles from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. What's not mentioned here are other rumors that Google might look into IPTV services, however after Intel bailed on that route it's not surprising.

One more competitor that could throw its hat in the ring is Amazon, which has also been the subject of rumors about a TV box on the way. The only thing we're sure to be purchasing anytime soon however, is an HDMI switch to plug all of this stuff in.

Just a couple of weeks after news broke of a possible How I Met Your Mother spinoff,The Wrap reports that CBS have indeed decided to move forward and greenlight a pilot for the project - called How I Met Your Dad now (yes, they slightly tweaked it from How I Met Your Father).

The project will not center on any of the existing HIMYM characters and is essentially a thematic spinoff, taking the same approach as the hugely successful series, from a female point of view. It is expected that the spinoff characters may be introduced on How I Met Your Mother before the end though, backdoor pilot style.

How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are writing and executive producing How I Met Your Dad with Emily Spivey, a former SNL and Parks and Recreation writer, who also created Up All Night.

While How I Met Your Mother is wrapping up this year, after nine seasons, it's doing so while still the highest-rated comedy among CBS's current Monday night lineup - hence the desire by CBS and producer 20th Century Fox to somehow continue what I guess we can now refer to as a franchise.

My suggestion on how to make How I Met Your Dad feel like more of a true spinoff? It should star Lynsdy Fonseca and be set in the year 2039. Romantic comedy + future tech!