'How I Met Your Mother' Ends Season with Baby and Two Surprises

For over a year now, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the masterminds behind How I Met Your Mother, have been promising us that the Season 7 finale would reveal Barney Stinson's bride. After a season of teasing us with Robin, Nora and Quinn, HIMYM finally showed us that Barney would be marrying ...

Well, let's get to that after the jump. In the meantime, it was no secret that Marshall and Lily's child (who, in realtime has been waiting around for over a year now) would be born during the finale. Over the past seven years, I've become invested in the lives of these characters (and I know I'm not the only one), so I was extremely happy to see Marshall make it back for the birth of his son. Barney was right — if anyone deserved to be there for the birth of his son, it was Marshall Eriksen.

With their friends present, Marshall and Lily welcomed Marvin Eriksen into the world. Marvin Waitforit Eriksen, that is. It was a very touching moment to learn that the Eriksens named their baby after Marshall's father. The death of Marshall's dad last season was some of the most heartbreaking TV I've ever seen. After everything Marshall went through last season, it was great to see him honor his dad like this. Even if "Marvin" is a bit old-fashioned sounding, at least we know the kid will never go by his middle name.

Turning our attention to Ted, I was shocked to see Victoria, his cupcake-baking ex-flame, return for this episode. When she came back at the beginning of the season, it was well-known that Ashley Williams was going to be back to play Victoria. This time though, it was a total surprise. I thought for sure Ted wouldn't let Victoria skip her wedding, not after he was once the jilted groom. Ted and Victoria driving off into the sunset sure set up a cliffhanger. HIMYM is renewed through next season, meaning that we could be nearing the end here. If Victoria's the mother, Bays and Thomas sure got one over on all of us. We would've met Ted's future wife back in Season 1 and never realized it. (Victoria's obviously not the mother, though. Where't the yellow umbrella? When was she Rachel Bilson's roommate?)

So Barney's bride. Seeing Barney propose to Quinn was a great moment for the show and a huge milestone in Barney's evolution. Knowing that Becki Newton was going to be on The Goodwin Games, Bays and Thomas' new show, next season, I knew that Quinn couldn't be Barney's bride. HIMYM isn't the kind of show that would have a main character's wife that no one ever saw. Not after asking fans to care so much about these characters.

Robin.

It was always Robin for Barney, wasn't it? Yeah, things may have not worked out for them the first time around, but Robin changed Barney. She made him realize that he wanted more than just another notch on his bedpost. He wanted to fall in love. And he's wanted Robin for years now, even leaving Nora for her earlier this season. Now we know that Robin's the bride. How we get to that point is just another story for HIMYM to tell now.

There are few shows that I look forward to getting home and watching more than How I Met Your Mother. For the past two seasons now, HIMYM has been on a legendary run. Let's get summer moving so we can see what Season 8 has in store for us.