'How I Met Your Mother' Season 7, Episode 23 Recap - 'The Magician's Code'

When this season opened, it was clear that we would be seeing Barney's wedding by the finale. The question was who the bride would be. In this hour-long finale, we got our answer... but we also got more questions that will only be answered next season.

Before all that, though, there was the matter of Lily's labor. Marshall and Barney are still stuck in Atlantic City, with no way of getting back to New York. Barney has a few ideas, including stealing a motorcycle, but the only one that works is boarding a bus to Buffalo, and getting a generous group of senior citizens to fake heart attacks.

So Marshall makes it back for the birth of his son after all, and Barney gets his wish to choose the kid's middle name: Waitforit.  I think we can all agree with the gang when they say that it's the coolest middle name of all time. Oh, and his first name is Marvin. Less cool, but more meaningful.

Now that Marshall and Lily are all squared up, the second half of the hour is devoted to getting Barney and Ted's love lives in order. Barney left things on a bad note with Quinn, so he's thrilled to come home and find that she hasn't moved out. She has, however, redecorated his entire apartment with excessively pink Hello Kitty paraphernalia.

The couple take off for a Hawaiian getaway, but get stopped at security because of a mysterious box that Barney has packed. Claiming it's a magic trick is a wise choice on Barney's part, but mentioning the explosives isn't, and refusing to show them the trick because of the "magician's code" is an even worse idea.

So, Barney and Quinn are held for hours by airport security, until Barney is finally coerced into showing them the trick. After an elaborate ritual, the box opens, revealing a flower with an engagement ring inside. So, that answers the question of whom Barney is going to marry. Or does it?

Ted, meanwhile, gets an earful from Robin about his pursuit of "the one." She claims he has never given it a fair shot, because he's always pursuing the wrong women: her, Zoe, pretty much anyone else so far... except for one. Yep, it's Victoria time again.

Ted gives Victoria a call and finds that she's actually in town, and available for coffee before her "thing" this afternoon. As it turns out, that "thing" is her wedding: she shows up to the bar in her wedding dress, relating to Ted how she has been having doubts and wondering what might have been between them.

Ted, having been left at the altar himself, decides to drive her back to the church... but at the last moment, he keeps on driving, hand in hand with Victoria.

Jump forward to Barney's wedding, where we see Ted without anyone with him. Did the Victoria thing work out? We won't know until next season, but we do know this: the bride is Robin, not Quinn.

It looks like season eight will have a lot of ground to cover in terms of how Barney got from being engaged to Quinn to almost standing at the altar with Robin. We'll also have to find out how Victoria fits into all this: she doesn't seem to go with the mythology as far as the yellow umbrella is concerned, so it's unlikely that even she is the Mother.