HIMYM and the Foundation

As How I Met Your Mother enters the homestretch of its final season, wrapping March 31 on CBS, speculation has been rampant that Ted's titular bride-to-be has been dead the entire time his adult self has been narrating the series. (The most recent, overtly cryptic, episode only fueled the morbid argument.)

Cristin Milioti very politely disagrees. The actress…seemed genuinely put off by the suggestion the series would end on such a dark note.  "That's insane," says Milioti. "There are some crazy conspiracy theories, which really makes me love the fans more... That is so crazy."

Calling the finale "beautiful," she also notes that there weren't any alternate endings written or filmed in an attempt to maintain secrecy. "They've had this vision for nine years, and it's in great hands…They know exactly what they want to do."

Could she be bluffing? Of course. She's had a few convincing performances of late. Milioti also chatted with THR about her turn as Leonardo DiCaprio's on-screen first wife in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street -- and how none of her co-workers noticed she was in it. 

“… It merely required the use of that much-neglected commodity—common sense. You see, there is a branch of human knowledge known as symbolic logic, which can be used to prune away all sorts of clogging deadwood that clutters up human language.”

“What about it?” said Fulham. 

“I applied it. Among other things, I applied it to this document here. I didn’t really need to for myself because I knew what it was all about, but I think I can explain it more easily to five physical scientists by symbols rather than by words.” 

Hardin removed a few sheets of paper from the pad under his arm and spread them out. “I didn’t do this myself, by the way,” he said. “Muller Holk of the Division of Logic has his name signed to the analyses, as you can see.” 

Pirenne leaned over the table to get a better view and Hardin continued: “The message from Anacreon was a simple problem, naturally, for the men who wrote it were men of action rather than men of words. It boils down easily and straightforwardly to the unqualified statement, which in symbols is what you see, and which in words, roughly translated, is, ‘You give us what we want in a week, or we beat the hell out of you and take it anyway.’ ” 

There was silence as the five members of the Board ran down the line of symbols, and then Pirenne sat down and coughed uneasily. Hardin said, “No loophole, is there, Dr. Pirenne?” “Doesn’t seem to be.”

---

 “But then,” interposed Sutt, “how would Mayor Hardin account for Lord Dorwin’s assurances of Empire support? They seemed—” He shrugged. “Well, they seemed satisfactory.” 

Hardin threw himself back in the chair. “You know, that’s the most interesting part of the whole business. I’ll admit I had thought his Lordship a most consummate donkey when I first met him—but it turned out that he was actually an accomplished diplomat and a most clever man. I took the liberty of recording all his statements.” 

There was a flurry, and Pirenne opened his mouth in horror. 

“What of it?” demanded Hardin. “I realize it was a gross breach of hospitality and a thing no so-called gentleman would do. Also, that if his lordship had caught on, things might have been unpleasant; but he didn’t, and I have the record, and that’s that. I took that record, had it copied out and sent that to Holk for analysis, also.” 

Lundin Crast said, “And where is the analysis?” 

“That,” replied Hardin, “is the interesting thing. The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Holk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications—in short, all the goo and dribble—he found he had nothing left. Everything canceled out. “Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn’t say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed. There are the assurances you had from your precious Empire.”

Asimov, Isaac. Foundation (p. 69-71). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.