The devoted fan base of How I Met Your Mother is exchanging and debating countless conspiracy theories of how season 9 will end, but Ted uttering cryptic lines in the "The Time Travelers" episode might be the final clue to the puzzle.

"I am always going to love you. Until the end of my days... and beyond," Josh Radnor's character "Ted" told his future partner as he elaborates on their love-before asking for an extra 45 days or even an extra 45 seconds with her.

Many are guessing that the show will thread a darker tone as it ends after that scene revealed a sort of "running out of time" plot line.

It did not help that even actor Jason Segel suggested that possibility in a GQ interview: "You want to know my theory? We're going to find out at some point that the mother's dead. And adult Ted has been telling them all these stories about the mother they never knew. It'll retroactively cast the entire show in this dark-comic light."

Speaking to eonline.com late last year, HIMYM creator Carter Bays explained: "There's certain things as you create a show that over the years your expectations of what the show is going to be change and you write it differently and you change your game plan, and we've done that with a lot of things on the show but there are certain core fundamental things that we don't want to veer away from, and one of those is how the series ends. And with that in mind, this decision was made years ago and I don't think we've ever even shaken from how we want to end it. I think it'll be a fantastic series finale. The series finale is kind of why we've done the show all along and whenever we do get to do that finale, we're very excited about it because I think it's going to be really heart-breaking, and sweet and wonderful."

How I Met Your Mother Season 9 spoilers will surely keep adding up as episodes drew nearer to its fateful finale, but fans are keeping their fingers crossed that it will be worth the wait.