'How I Met Your Mother': Satisfying Twist

Phew. [Spoiler Alert].

So, as we learned last night, Stella isn't the mother. I can't say I'm surprised; she and Ted were so clearly mismatched, even though I love Sarah Chalke. And, as "How I Met Your Mother" made clear, the kids would probably look quite different if Stella were the mom. Plus, it was obviously too early in the series to have us meet the mother and solve the Big Mystery. (Oh yeah, and I was TOTALLY so very, very wrong in my theory of last season, that maybe Stella's sister was the mother. Stella's sister is a dud.)

But it was a good episode that ended the Stella story satisfyingly, even though the whole quick-wedding-this-weekend construct was kind of forced and Stella's ex was too pathetic the first time we met him. But I liked the psychology at play. The fact that Stella was so anxious about inviting exes to the wedding said everything we needed to know about her own unfinished business, and nothing about Ted and Robin (or is there more to that, too?). It was the classic "protesteth too much" scenario, but it still worked for me.

Into the fourth season of this series, which is doing better than ever in the ratings, I still care about who will be the mother. That surprises me. Usually, when a sitcom keeps playing around with will-they-won't-they type questions, like "Friends" or "Cheers" did, I get tired of them quickly. And so I continue to be a fan of this show, and look forward to forthcoming developments.

I also look forward to seeing Sarah Chalke back on "Scrubs," when it returns this winter on ABC. More on that return later, except to note that, in the forthcoming "Scrubs" premiere, Zach Braff points to the ABC logo bug in the corner of the screen and says, "That's new." It's the kind of heavy meta humor that "30 Rock" does so well, but that has been in evidence on "Scrubs" for years.