Since 2005, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried and now, we’re about to say goodbye to How I Met Your Mother. As someone who has watched the show religiously from the beginning (lemon law, anyone?), I can attest that Ted Mosby certainly never saved the drama for this mama during the past nine years.

There’s no denying that How I Met Your Mother is basically today’s version of “Friends.” Ted and Robin are the new Ross and Rachel – except with a few extra twists and turns.

Over the years, the show has also had consistently high ratings. From around 8 million to nearly 10 million viewers, each of the nine seasons has managed to keep their audience (myself included). And according to The Wrap, the final season is averaging 9.7 million viewers so far – confirming that How I Met Your Mother is going out with a bang.

The How I Met Your Mother actors have also done pretty well for themselves. Time reported last year that both Jason Segel (Marshall) and Neil Patrick Harris (Barney and his bro-code) are two of the highest paid TV actors, both making over $200,000 per episode. Yowza.

But stats aside, how will this TV phenomenon finally end? We’ve already met the mother (finally) and we know that Barney and Robin will get married in tonight’s episode. But what will be the big finale twist that we’ve all been waiting for?

Here are four (plausible and not-so realistic) theories about how this show could end:

Finale Theory #1: Unfortunately, one of the theories floating around is rather dark and a real downer, if you ask me. After an episode where the mother alluded that she wouldn’t be around to see her daughter’s wedding, many predict that the mother is actually dead in 2030. Is Ted simply reflecting and recounting the story for his kids? We hope not, considering he’s elaborated much more on his romance with Robin than with the “mother.” But perhaps they want Ted to ultimately end up with Robin once the mother is dead? Something about this just seems wrong.

Finale Theory #2: Another theory floating around is that Ted, himself, is dying and/or has Alzheimers and wants to tell his kids everything before he’s gone or forgets. Personally, I think this is a stretch. To kill off the main character of a feel-good comedy show doesn’t make much sense to me. And it would probably leave fans throwing the remote control at the TV screen.

Finale Theory #3: The mother lives (phew) and the couple lives happily ever after. Perhaps the mother did get sick but ends up getting better – and it turns out the writers were just trying to throw us all off. Or she wasn’t really sick at all and instead, was alluding to something completely different – a twist we don’t know about yet.

Finale Theory #4: According to Salon.com, one Redditor claims that Ted’s TV is simply just broken and to pass the time he’s recounting stories with his kids. Hm – so far, this theory actually makes the most sense to me.

Honestly, we have no idea. Guess we’ll have to do as Barney Stinson does and just “Wait for it.”

Image via tv.com