I was a little skeptical at the beginning of this episode. With this being the last season, I’m a bit possessive of the undeniably last few episodes. Naturally, I want as many classic HIMYM episodes as possible and a “How Your Mother Met Me” episode, sounded pretty risky.
Obviously, I watched anyway and I’m glad I did. It started with The Mother losing her boyfriend, Max the night of her 21st birthday in 2005. After grieving for three years, her roommate convinces her she needs to get back out there (same night Ted and Barney went to the club for St. Patrick’s Day.) The Mother bumps into her old orchestra camp instructor, Mitch and takes him back to her apartment to donate her unused cello. Turns out he was the same guy who tricked Robin into
“The naked man trick” (loving the fluidity of the story lines.)
After realizing she forgot her yellow umbrella at the club she runs out of her apartment, leaving the naked man behind who had just suggested she follow her dreams of ending world poverty, only to find her umbrella was taken. Ted took her umbrella.
That advice landed her in Economics class to start her journey towards her dreams. Here is the first time Ted and The Mother are in the same room (she even laughs at his shell fish joke, cute!) but of course, it turns out Ted was in the wrong room. This is also where she meets her roommate, Cindy who later dated Ted. But we know it didn’t work out for him and Cindy because in 2010, Ted seemed to like her roommate (The Mother) more than her; based off his findings of her things in the apartment.
Later we see The Mother telling Darren (Evil Darren) the story of how her roommate discovered she was a lesbian and moved out, Evil Darren (future lead singer of her band) admitted he was only listening to her story to “meet the bass player of his favorite band.”
Darren joins her band and then flash-forward to 2012, The Mother is carrying back her bass to the van when a man (Lewis) offers to buy her a drink. She’s reluctant to accept the drink or even go out with him because of her love for max. However, she agrees to date him anyways and that’s how she started dating Lewis. The relationship doesn’t turn out to be as loving as she hoped it would be.
Moving into 2013, after Ted runs into Cindy and her new girlfriend, he gets “Super Freakanomics” to play at Barney’s wedding. The Mother stays in Lewis’ Farhampton beach house near the inn. After her confrontation with Evil Darren at the inn, she returns to the beach house to find Lewis waiting with an engagement ring. Shocked, she steps outside to have a heart to heart with her lost love, Max in which she asks for permission to move on. After getting the sign she needed, she declines Lewis’ proposal and returns to the inn. At the inn, the clerk (who has been making fun of Ted for being single) assigns her the room right next to Ted's. Before going to bed, she plays her ukulele on the patio and sings her rendition of “La Vie En Rose.” Ted is in the patio right next door.
We are left with Marshall and Lilly having had their huge fight, Robin asleep the night before her big day and Barney sobering up. Ted goes to tell Barney about the singer next door, but finds the bed Barney was sleeping in—empty.
Did anyone else notice the common emotional attachment to musical instruments? Ted and his blue French horn to the one he’s always loved, but lost (Robin) and The Mother to her ukulele to the one she loved and lost.