‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 9 spoilers: The 200th episode, Cristin Milioti, and ‘Slapsgiving 3’

Thanks to “How I Met Your Mother” having its 200th episode party this week, there is suddenly a whole heap of news out there related to the show that you can actually start dishing out … including what we believe will be the most interesting episode of the show to date in “How Your Mother Met Me.”

You may have heard this title already, since it’s been floating around the internet for weeks. But this is the name for the landmark hour, which will give Cristin Milioti’s character a ton to do as we start to find out more and more information about her, and where she came from prior to getting on the train to Farhampton. So far, what we know about her is that she attending one of the classes taught by Ted Mosby at least briefly, so she would already know who he was to a certain extent. Meanwhile, she also roomed for a time with Rachel Bilson’s character of Cindy, and was apparently the more popular of the two. For those date-conscious, “How Your Mother Met Me” will air on Monday, January 27.

Speaking to Zap2It, executive producer Craig Thomas claims that really, he wanted the entire goal of the final season to be to have more of the Mother in the second half of the 24 episodes, just so that viewers could be eased more into her and show her only when it made sense:

“We wanted to find the right balance when she appears. We like the idea that the audience tunes in not knowing if they’ll get her. … I don’t want to say how much or how little [she turns up], because I like the idea that the audience doesn’t know week to week. She’ll pop up in some unexpected ways.”

Also, a poster at the event said that the 299th episode of the show was entitled “Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra.” It’s pretty easy to get excited about that, right? Thomas also said that there is an episode coming up that will feature some of the characters in “China,” and while it may sound strange now, it will make sense when you actually see it.

While we’ve been skeptical of a few things at times on this final season, we have to say that we’re still hooked … especially when you have a creative episode coming up kind of like Monday’s “Bedtime Stories.” Click here to watch an extended preview, and marvel at how the show is really working in this sort of children’s storybook theme.

Photo: CBS