It took me all of three minutes to start tearing up as I watched the 200th episode of “How I Met Your Mother.” Titled “How Your Mother Met Me,” the milestone episode set out to explain why The Mother (name still unknown) had not been snatched up in the past eight and a half seasons Ted (Josh Radnor) has been looking for her.

She was not out dating all the wrong people; in fact, she was not dating at all. It turns out, the night the series began was not only The Mother’s 21st birthday, but also the night her long-term boyfriend died. I did not expect this to be The Mother’s backstory, but as the episode went on, I became glad the writers took this approach. We already saw Ted date his way through New York City, we did not need to see The Mother do the same. Instead, the episode focused on her finding the courage to open herself back up to love. The reason she and Ted did not find each other earlier was because neither of them were ready for it yet.

We only had a 1/2 hour to see what The Mother had been up to for the past 8 1/2 seasons, but the show made the most of it. The episode showed us The Mother’s side of all the near run-ins she and Ted had over the years. From the fateful St. Patrick’s Day party where Ted accidentally stole The Mother’s yellow umbrella and ran into Bump Girl to the time where Ted mistakenly taught her economics class for a day. We also learned The Mother knew Mitch, aka “The Naked Man” from season four, before the rest of the gang met him. It was a callback I was not expecting, but yet was glad to see.

We also learned what brought The Mother to Farhampton a day before the wedding. It turns out she and her boyfriend, Louis, were staying at his beach house. As Ted informed us in last season’s “The Time Travelers,” Louis was the last boyfriend she would have before she met Ted.

The Mother returned from her van-stealing escapades to find Louis waiting on one knee to propose. She excused herself to go outside and have a heart-to-heart with Max, asking for a sign that it was time for her to let him go and move on. The show had been criticized for not using Cristin Milioti that much in the first 1/2 of the season, but the writers more than made up for it with this scene.

After declining Louis’ proposal, The Mother checked into the last empty room at the Farhampton Inn. As it turned out, the room was right next to Ted’s, and he just so happened to be outside when she sang “La Vie En Rose,” on the balcony.

Was the episode perfect? No. In an effort to cram all the time jumps in, the editing seemed a little bit off at times, however I will still include this in my list of all-time favorite episodes, including “Slap Bet” and “The Final Page.”

“How I Met Your Mother” only has seven episodes left before it signs off on March 31, and, after seeing this episode, I am only more ready for Ted and The Mother to finally meet. After all, it has been almost nine years in the making.