"How I Met Your Mother" Season 9 series finale, "Last Forever," airs March 31 on CBS. This week's new episode, titled "Gary Blauman," is the last one before the penultimate episode. And then it's the end. Fans are still talking about the "mother is dead" theory. Now here are three reasons drawn from those who do not believe Cristin Milioti's mother character is dying (or dead).

1. The Mother as the Red Herring. How I Met Your Mother is a 9-year-long sitcom. But Milioti's titular "mother" was only introduced in the Season 8 finale. The mother has been the show's ultimate red herring from the beginning. The show, or the story, is not really about her. If she dies, it will not make sense that Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) is spending 90% of his story time talking about Robin (Cobie Smulders) instead of the mother.

2. The Obvious Misdirection. How I Met Your Mother Season 1 dished its first misdirection episode in the pilot episode. The kids thought their dad was telling the story of how he met their mom. It turned out the first part of the story was about their Aunt Robin. HIMYM co-creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays had a plan from the start, Cristin Milioti said.

That the mother dies is an "insane" idea, Milioti also said. After all the "suprises" Thomas and Bays have delivered on the show, why would they give "obvious clues" about the mother dying? How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episode 20 ("Daisy") just made things too easy to be plausible in the HIMYM universe. ("What mother is going to miss her daughter's wedding?")

3. If someone is dying on "How I Met Your Mother," it is Cobie Smulders' Robin Scherbatsky. The entire series is the story of how Ted met Robin, how they started dating, and how she would become Barney Stinson's (Neil Patrick Harris) wife. This is the "alternative" among HIMYM fans speculating that someone is definitely dying on the show.

HIMYM showrunners have no qualms about tackling life's biggest dramas, including death. (Jason Segel's Marshall Eriksen lost his dad.) One lead character dying before or in 2030 is not entirely unthinkable for the series. The question is, Who dies?

"There was one thing your aunt Robin never was; she was never alone," Ted Mosby tells his kids in How I Met Your Mother Season 7, Episode 12 ("Symphony of Illumination"). This is the episode in which Robin is narrating a story to her fake kids. Could it be one discreet clue to the show's series finale?

Lily (Alyson Hannigan) has a 2030 scene with Robin - the one where Robin finally comes clean about the first time she's ever held Marvin Waitforit Eriksen. Some fans argue Robin couldn't be dying. She's alive in 2030, as seen in HIMYM 8x16, "Bad Crazy." However, Cobie said something that some fans could not let go.

"I immediately started weeping and had to leave," Ms Smulders said about the How I Met Your Mother Season 9 series ending.

More HIMYM Scoop, Spoilers, Speculations

'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9 Spoilers: Ted Dies, Mother Dies in Fan Theories; Finale Clues, Answers on 'Daisy' [Watch]
'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9: 10 of Best Moments, Final Five Episodes; Is There a Funeral in Series Finale? [VIDEO]