Ron P. Jaffe/FoxQuick spoiler warning: do not keep reading if you have yet to watch How I Met Your Mother's series finale. (Though come on, how are you that lazy?!)
The How I Met Your Mother creators' Christmas gift for Cristin Milioti? Informing her that The Mother was dead. Seriously!
Though many fans of the beloved CBS sitcom were theorizing that Tracy (aka The Mother) had passed away, which was revealed to be true in the final episode, Milioti told reporters at the 2014 Summer TCA Press Tour, "I didn't know from the beginning, I had no idea."
While at NBC's TCA day to promote her charming new romantic comedy, A to Z, Milioti told the hilariously sad story of how she learned of her HIMYM fate.
"They told me at the Christmas party," Milioti said. "Craig [Thomas] was talking to me and we both had a couple of drinks. And he gets very giddy and happy when he's had a few, and he was like, 'Do you want to know how it ends?' And as complete joke I said, 'What, do I die?' And he was like, 'Do you want to know?' and I said, 'Yeah, I do.' And he told me."
Her immediate reaction? "I sat there sobbing. He wrote me an e-mail the next day, being like, 'I'm so sorry I told you that way, you seemed really upset.'"
Of course, Milioti wasn't the only one sobbing over The Mother's fate as she quickly became a fan favorite after (finally) being introduced in the season eight finale. After her death in the series finale, Ted (Josh Radnor) eventually ended up with Robin (Cobie Smulders), an extremely polarizing finish that inspired a whole lot of backlash on social media.
Milioti admitted, "I'm not on any social media, so I didn't feel the full brunt of it." (She is contemplating joining Instagram, by the way.) But she had a feeling when filming the finale that it would inspire a major reaction from the fans.
"I think that's a testament to the show that it was divisive because people were super invested and i know that while we were filming it, I had a sense that it might be very divided," she explained. "Because of course there are people that are always going to think Ted and Robin should be together and others that didn't."
Polarizing finish or not, Milioti said she loved her one-season stint on HIMYM. "I was so warmly welcomed to How I Met Your Mother that it felt like i had been there much longer than I actually was. I was so embarrassed ,I was crying just as hard as everyone on the last day, which is a testament to those people."
A to Z premieres Thursday, Oct. 2 on NBC.
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)