(S04E22) Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are a couple of clever guys, aren't they?

They're not only good at playing with time and space in their show -- something they did exceptionally well in this episode -- but they're also pretty good at tweaking the wording of an episode to make the audience feel like they're getting somewhere in the story when in fact things have only inched forward.

Just think about the words they used to describe the monumental outcome of Ted's day. Did they say everything you thought they said? Ruminate on it a second before you rejoin me after the jump.

Ok, so we see the yellow umbrella... big clue. We see all the little events that led up to Ted being on that corner at that time, where he runs into none other than his estranged wife-to-be Stella (more on that in a sec). And we have Old Ted telling his kids that without those moments "you might have never been born." Notice, though, Old Ted never came out and said that this was when he met "the mother," did he? He just said that's when his life changed, which led to the birth of his kids. So as far as we know, Stella's only a piece of the puzzle that leads Ted to the love of his life and mother of his chirldren. But what we're led to believe at first glance was that the person that tapped Teddy on the shoulder at that light was going to be "The One Who Would Be Mother."

Could it be Stella? I don't think so. During the "Shelter Island" episode, we already saw an alternate-reality Old Ted talk to two blond kids, saying "and that's how I met your mother," right as Stella walks in. But there's still always a chance. The fact that it was Stella on that corner was a bit disappointing; if an ex who isn't Robin needs to come back into Ted's life, it should be Victoria. Stella and Ted had zero chemistry, and Victoria was the only non-Robin-girlfriend anyone ever rooted for. But, hey, with Scrubs ending and/or morphing, more appearances of Sarah Chalke can't be a bad thing, right?

About the time-shifting... we really haven't seen the guys do this kind of intense playing with time in quite awhile, but it worked very well here. It was even well-played to make Barney's attempt at his 200th sexual conquest (my Best Barneyism of the week) just be one of the little events that led up to Ted being at that corner. In many episodes, that could have been the A-plot; here, it meshed nicely with Robin's bagel-induced food poisoning and Marshall's addiction to charts and graphs. Though it was funny to see Barney do some "Speed Flirting" when he found out that he may have screwed up The List and only had 198 conquests.

More fun stuff:

• Having Ted go back and hug people in each event that led him back to Stella -- even the puking Robin -- was a nice dramatic touch. If anyone knows the song playing in the background in that scene, let us know.
• Which Marshall chart did you like the best? I think the Ceclila Venn diagram (shown in the pic above) was mine, though the charts of graph interest and projected interest were funny because of the fairly steady (but not straight) line that represented Marshall on both graphs.
• I liked the callback to the "Intervention" episode. Even though they vowed not to use interventions again, it was necessary in the case of Marshall.
• 200 women did seem like a low number for Barney, didn't it? I thought it would be closer to Wilt Chamberlain proportions. Shows that love (and lust) is a numbers game, though... Barney may have been hitting worse than Jim Abbot, but he still got a lot of tail.
• At this point, they might as well just show Cobie with full baby bump and just make jokes about her getting fat, a la Jane Leeves on Fraiser. They're not even trying to cover it at this point, even in a joking manner.
• Barney offering to do all the work if Marshall lets him sleep with Lily was a good way to bring the absent Scooby gang member into the episode. "I will end your life," was Marshall's reply.
• Does Galoshes the Weather Clown just go out after the show ends (at 5 AM) and just get completely shitfaced? I would if I had his job.
• Barney actually wore a tux to his 200th celebration at MacLarens. Classy guy.
• After the hollow victory of getting back at Matthew Panning, you knew Barney was going to turn his gaze at Robin. That's the couple I really want to see more of going forward, don't you folks?
• Milt the nutty homeless guy was played by Dan Castellaneta from The Simpsons. Always good to see the voice of Homer Simpson doing live-action roles, even if they're small ones.