How I Met Your Mother Creators on Setting Up the Final Pieces

How I Met Your Mother’s Season 8 premiere ended with a big moment for the series – Ted and the still-unidentified Mother seen at some point “a little ways down the road” waiting at the same train station, presumably about to meet.

If you’re worried they’ll be a swerve, and she’ll walk away before Ted talks to her or some such, don't fret. HIMYM creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays recently spoke to the press about Season 8, with Thomas firmly stating, regarding that train station, “That’s the moment we’re gonna meet the mother. We can honestly say that. That’s where it happens. We’re moments away.” Said Bays, “That moment is something we’ve been building to for a long time and we’ll see more of that moment as the series goes on.”

Bays noted that back in Season 6, Ted said, “When I met your mother, it was the day of a wedding,” and added, “We specifically at that time made it the day of a wedding, not at a wedding. I think a lot of people were a little misled by that, which I feel a little bit bad about. But it’s not actually at [Robin and Barney's] wedding, it’s at that train station.”

Said Thomas with a laugh, “We like jumping to endings and then not telling you the middle. It’s very sort of awkward storytelling when you think about it, but we enjoy it! We’re gonna fill in all of the blanks on that day for sure. That day is the biggest day in the history of the group, obviously, and that’s where the series is heading. We’re getting close now.”

Just how close is still being figured out, since it’s still not clear for sure whether Season 8 is the final one for How I Met Your Mother or if it will be renewed for Season 9. But as Carter and Bays explained, for now, they are moving forward as though this is the final year. [Click the link below for more on the unusual situation the show is in]

How I Met Your Mother Creators on the Potential for Season 9

Asked again about whether the show might bring in the mother before the very end and continue with her as a character, rather than introduce her at the very end, Thomas replied, “That’s one of the biggest questions of the series and people ask us all the time. I feel like I haven't come up with a good way to dodge it yet, so I’ll just say, 'I’m dodging that!' It’s certainly something we’ve talked about and considered. But I don’t wanna say whether we’ve committed to it. Wait and see.”

Bays and Thomas said that through the eight years of the show, their plan for how HIMYM would end hasn’t changed. Said Thomas, “It’s the same plan. It’s the same plan we’ve always had. So if you hate it when you see it, just know that we committed really early to it. We were 29!”

As for what else is to come before that ending arrives…

Romances of Doom!

Right now, Ted has reunited with Victoria (Ashley Williams), Barney is engaged to Quinn (Becki Newton) and Robin has begun dating "Crush" (Michael Trucco) . But because of the way How I Met Your Mother works, we know all these relationships are doomed. Which is why the showrunners don’t mind spoiling that coming soon is what Bays joked is “the break up month!” for all those couples.

As Thomas noted, “We’ve shown you the end of all these relationships. We know that Ted doesn’t marry Victoria, we know that Barney doesn’t marry Quinn. So we’re showing you this sort of path of carnage of these relationships. I think ultimately the challenge was can all three of these breakups be completely different from each other? Can there be a funny one, can there be a dramatic one, can there be this? And I think we’ve done it. That’s the goal of breakup month – to show you three completely different disillusions of relationships. I think everyone, including the guest cast – like Michael Truco, Becki Newton – everybody got to be great in all of it. We’ve shot all of that now and we’re happy with it."

Meanwhile, “[November] sweeps will really heat up that progression of Barney and Robin getting back together and I think we’ve come up with a fun, weirdly appropriate way to reunite them in a whole new way that I hope that everyone will like. It’s a weird way to get them back together, but it’s really fun.”

New Kids on the Block

Thomas Lennon popped up in the season premiere as Victoria’s fiancée, and Bays and Thomas revealed he’d be in at least one more episode. In addition, his fellow The State alum, Joe Lo Truglio will be introduced as the partner to Martin Short’s character, Garrison Cootes, at Marshall’s law firm.

As for "Crush", while he was briefly seen back in Season 6 and in the premiere, future episodes will establish that he’s what Thomas described as, “sort of a struggling, cable access chef. He’s really awful and searching for his perfect chef catchphrase.” Added Thomas, “We don’t want to give away too much away about the character, because we kind of have a little reveal about him. His relationship with Robin will delightfully implode during breakup month.”

The Past Returns

How I Met Your Mother has had a ton of memorable guest characters over the years. So with the end in sight, might we see some more familiar faces again? Revealed Bays, “Yeah, we have a plan actually – and this might be a very expensive plan. We have a plan to bring back many, many people that we’ve had on the show. Not to completely steal their idea, but I enjoyed the Seinfeld finale, when you saw everyone that’s ever been on the show and we have a way to do that that sort of fits in with the universe of our show. So hopefully there will be a cavalcade of familiar faces going into the final episode.”

In the meantime, True Blood’s Joe Manganiello is confirmed to be returning this season as Brad, Marshall’s old friend. Said Thomas, “He went to law school with Marshall and he’ll come back as a lawyer and will feature into the trial [involving Marshall’s firm].”

How I Met Your Baby

Adding a baby to a long-running sitcom can be a tricky thing. So will that addition become central to Marshall and Lily’s storylines and How I Met Your Mother itself this season? Said Thomas, with a knowing laugh, “This is what I’d like to believe… We are tending to the fact that they have a baby more than some other shows have, I think, but I don’t feel like the baby takes over the show… It feels like they have a baby, but not like the show is all baby, all the time. That’s what we’re shooting for.”

Bays and Thomas noted that they were often using what Thomas described as a, “Really creepy, lifelike stunt baby. It’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever touched – and I’ve touched some creepy things! So a fun game this season is pick out the creepy, fake baby if you want to do that sort of as a drinking game at home.

Robin Sparkles Forever!

As our time with Bays and Thomas was wrapping up. I had to ask the duo: If How I Met Your Mother is wrapping up soon, we have to see Robin Sparkles again, right?

Replied Bays, “That’s always hanging out there as a thing we want to go back to - I think one more time before we hang it up.”

Added Thomas, “We have an idea. The challenge is always to do it and have it be completely different than the others. I’d like to think that all three that we’ve done have been different and we have a way to do it that I think would be completely different from all the other three. So yeah, we want to do it before the series ends.”

How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays at 8pm on CBS.

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Border Patrol agent fatally shoots California woman

CHULA VISTA, Calif. –  A Border Patrol agent fatally shot a 32-year-old mother of five Friday in suburban San Diego as he rode on the hood of her car after she ran into him, authorities and family members said.

The agent fired after being driven several hundred yards on the hood, Chula Vista police Capt. Gary Wedge told The Associated Press. The woman was later identified in a police statement as Valeria Alvarado.

The shooting occurred about five miles north of the Mexican border as plainclothes agents were looking to serve a felony warrant in the area to someone other than Alvarado, Border Patrol Deputy Chief Rodney Scott told U-T San Diego.

Scott said the agent was stuck atop the car as Alvarado drove.

"Fearing for his life, he discharged his weapon to get the vehicle to stop," Scott said. No other agents fired.

Alvarado was declared dead at the scene, and the agent was taken to a hospital. His injuries were not clear.

After talking to investigators, family members including her husband and cousin told U-T San Diego that Alvarado was a housewife and mother of five children ranging from ages 3 to 17 who went by the name Monique.

"I love her to the fullest. That's my heart," husband Gilbert Alvarado said. "Where's the evidence my wife threatened a trained officer? I want justice."

Family members said Valeria Alvarado grew up in Chula Vista where the shooting took place but had been living about five miles away in the Southcrest neighborhood of San Diego, and they did not know why she was in her former hometown.

Hector Salazar, one of several neighbors who witnessed the incident, said he saw a man in civilian clothes on the hood of a black car aiming a gun at the windshield.

Salazar told U-T San Diego the man started pulling the trigger, and he heard about five shots. Moments later, other plainclothes agents approached the car, he said.

The person named in the warrant the agents were serving was not apprehended, Scott said.

The FBI and Chula Vista police are investigating.

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France set to ban words 'mother' and 'father' on official documents under plans to legalize gay marriage

France is set to ban the words "mother" and "father" from all official documents under new plans to legalize gay marriage and give equal adoption rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples.

Under the proposed law, only the word "parents" would be used in marriage ceremonies for all heterosexual and same-sex couples, a move that has sparked widespread outrage, The Telegraph reports.

Changes to the civil code would mean swapping all references to "mothers and fathers," in legal documents, with the word "parents."

The proposed law has been met with resistance by members of the Catholic Church.

"Gay marriage would herald a complete breakdown in society," Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the head of the French Catholic Church, told Christian’s RFC radio last week.

"This could have innumerable consequences. Afterward they will want to create couples with three or four members. And after that, perhaps one day the taboo of incest will fall," he said, according to the report.

"Who is to say that a heterosexual couple will bring up a child better than a homosexual couple, that they will guarantee the best conditions for the child’s development?" Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told France's Catholic newspaper, La Croix.

Pope Benedict XVI urged French bishops to fight against the law, The Telegraph reports.

French Catholics also have published a 'Prayer for France,' which says, "Children should not be subjected to adults' desires and conflicts, so they can fully benefit from the love of their mother and father," according to the report.

The law will be presented to France’s President Francois Hollande's cabinet for approval on October 31. Hollande has pledged to legalize gay marriage.

Click for more from The Telegraph.

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How I Met Your Mother: "Farhampton" Review

Warning: Full spoilers from the episode to follow.

It's been a long time coming -- a looooong time coming -- but with this season of How I Met Your Mother possibly acting as its last, it's clear after watching "Farhampton" that the show definitely has its sights set on the end. This, of course, was mainly due to the fact that we got the closest we ever have to seeing the mother, and for once, it almost feels like the end of our tale is within reach. Unfortunately, that fleeting exhilaration of that final moment was more or less undercut by the 21 humdrum minutes preceding it.

Once again, Barney and Robin were back on the long road to reuniting -- did I mention? -- again. In what is possibly the most roundabout way of writing someone off a show, it's borderline infuriating that we'll soon be forced to witness the train wreck that will eventually become Barney and Quinn's inevitable breakup. More than anything, I almost just feel sorry for Becki Newton, whose presence on the show now only serves as a constant reminder that she's leaving. We already know how the story ends, must we spell out how it all happens? At this point, I think we can put the pieces together. It's kind of like watching The Sixth Sense and knowing the whole time that (spoilers?) Bruce Willis is a ghost. It's simply not as interesting to watch.

How I Met Your Mother Creators on Crafting the (Probable) Final Seaosn

However, Lily and Marshall's storyline was easily the laziest of the bunch. Not only have we seen the "sleep deprived parents" bit in countless other sitcoms, but it seemed like there were some mixed metaphors going on between the initial zombie references and the bizarre recurring fish tank gag. Hopefully their season arc will improve, as theirs is currently the only one without a predetermined destination. It's a shame they got the shaft this week, as their hackneyed B-story could have easily been reworked into a stronger social rules bit. Admittedly, though, I did chuckle when Quinn explained why she had overheard the dazed couple's conversation, "'Hey, Quinn. Let's all hang out in Marvin's room!'"

Meanwhile, we also got a followup from Ted and Victoria, who, last we saw, had driven off into the sunset together. But as someone well versed in the etiquette of being left at the altar, Ted was appalled to learn that Victoria had not left a note for her fiancee Klaus. After all, "it's common courtesy!" Honestly, this arc -- while ultimately about as meaningless as Barney/Robin/Quinn's -- was perhaps the most entertaining. Ted's not so stealthy attempts at leaving the note were among some of the better sequences, particularly Barney's remote distraction of Andrea the Giant. ("Quinn's on board!")

However, it was Thomas Lennon's portrayal of Klaus that truly elevated this story. His conversation with Ted at the train station definitely added a bit of much needed weight to the episode. Although Band of Horses' "Funeral" wasn't exactly the most appropriate underscore for the montage, Klaus's speech was still a rather well-written summation of the presumed events to come, and provided a nice lead-in to the aforementioned mother sequence.

"Farhampton" was not without its occasional redeeming qualities, but as far as HIMYM episodes go, this one was certainly not a standout. In fact, the only substantial joke was Barney's one-minute recap of the entire series thus far, which seemed oddly fitting for HIMYM's potentially final premiere. Likewise, Robin's bridal cold feet at the top of the episode also provided an additional nugget of intrigue (although this obviously won't be addressed until later on). Aside from that, the episode was pretty lacking in both laughs and dramatic content. While it's a plus that Season 8 is heading somewhere assuredly interesting, I only hope the road ahead is a little more scenic.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

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Family wants answers on missing 3-year-old West Virginia girl

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –  Her mother is in prison for welfare fraud. Her stepfather is lying low. Her six siblings, some just infants, are in the custody of child welfare authorities. And Aliayah Lunsford, the brown-eyed 3-year-old who vanished from her West Virginia home a year ago Monday, is still missing.

"It just seems like everybody's forgotten her," said Aliayah's great-aunt Vickie Bowen, "but we're never going to forget."

In the year since Aliayah disappeared from her family's rented house in the Bendale section of Lewis County, Bowen has concluded the girl is probably dead, though she avoids using the word.

"But we still need to know. We need that closure," Bowen said. "We need to take care of her."

Aliayah's mother, Lena Lunsford, told police her daughter was in bed, wearing purple pajama pants and a pink sweat shirt, at 6:30 a.m. Sept. 24, 2011. But she said the child was missing when she checked on her a few hours later.

Six months later, an FBI official said investigators had a working theory about what happened — and it didn't involve a break-in. The agency has since refused to say what agents believe happened to Aliayah or whether they think she's still alive, though it is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to her recovery or an arrest.

Authorities have made no arrests and named no suspects, only describing the people of interest as "a small universe."

Lewis County Sheriff's Deputy Lt. David Parks declined to discuss details of the investigation this week and referred questions to the FBI, which didn't return several messages. However, local authorities have put information about Aliayah in a brochure for people attending a hunting and fishing expo this weekend.

"It's something that stays in our minds all the time here," Parks said. "It's not something you can forget: There's a little girl missing."

Parks said the case is still active and tips are still coming in, though relatives complain they've had no updates in months.

"If there were more to do, we'd be doing it," he said. "Unfortunately, right now we're doing what we can with what we have."

Aliayah Lunsford's case has gotten little attention beyond the boundaries of her small home state, failing to resonate with the public in the way that Caylee Anthony's story did even though both girls were toddlers with chubby cheeks and brown hair.

The body of the 2-year-old Florida girl was found a month after she was reported missing in 2008. Anthony's mother, Casey, was charged with murder after telling a string of lies to police but was later acquitted.

However, Aliayah's case is different in several ways: Neither the immediate family nor the police sought national media attention. Investigators have been tight-lipped about the case, the family and their working theories from the start.

Aliayah's parents were also poor, and their family relationships were splintered before the girl vanished, so there has been no prominent spokesman.

And Aliayah has never been found, dead or alive.

The girl's mother was indicted weeks after Aliayah's disappearance on charges she illegally swapped welfare benefits for cash five times in two months. She was sentenced in May to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to selling $114 worth of credit on her food-stamp card for $50 cash and reported to prison in late June.

Attorney Mike Woelfel, who has represented Lena Lunsford in unrelated civil matters, has said Lena doesn't believe her daughter wandered off and has cooperated with investigators. She's also certain "no blood relative of Aliayah knows what has happened to her," though Woelfel has never elaborated.

Woelfel said he spoke to Lena Lunsford on Friday, and she told him she still believes "Aliayah is out there, alive."

"She's told the FBI everything she knows," he said, "so she's basically powerless to do anything other than sit and wait."

Lena Lunsford filed for divorce from her husband, Ralph Keith Lunsford, after her daughter's disappearance, and is still waiting for it to be finalized. She'd been ordered by a judge to live apart from Ralph after he acknowledged buying and using synthetic drugs called bath salts.

Both parents have repeatedly refused to comment on Aliayah's disappearance, but in a court proceeding, Ralph Lunsford acknowledged police had considered him a person of interest and repeatedly questioned him in the case.

Lena Lunsford gave birth to twins after Aliayah disappeared and before she went to prison. Bowen, their great-aunt, has never met them. Nor does she know where the other children are.

"Until we find answers for Aliayah," she said, "there's no chance of seeing them."

After a year with no solid leads, Bowen is frustrated — but she and a group of about 10 people still search regularly for Aliayah.

"If we hear anything, anything at all, we're there. No matter how unbelievable it seems to us, we go check it out," she said.

On Monday, Bowen and others will plant flowers near the welcome sign in Weston to honor Aliayah. They'll distribute flyers with her picture and post them at area businesses. They're even planning a small afternoon demonstration at the Lewis County Courthouse.

"We're not giving up," Bowen said. "There's no way we're going to give up. A child does not simply disappear."

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Norman Bates Cast for Psycho Prequel Series, Bates Motel

Following the news from a few weeks ago that actress Vera Farmiga (The Departed) had been cast as Norman Bates' controlling mother, Norma, for A&E's Bates Motel - a Psycho prequel series focusing on the formative years of future killer Norman Bates - comes cool news of the casting of Norman himself! - via TVGuide.com

After what TVGuide.com's William Keck called an "exhaustive" search, Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) has landed the role of a younger version of Norman, a role made famous by Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic, Psycho.

Ex-Lost EP/Showrunner Carlton Cuse is currently the EP/runner of Bates Motel, which will begin production of its 10 episode order in 2013.

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