BEWARE: the following piece will have spoilers for the HIMYM series finale. Don’t read it if you haven’t watched it yet! Though, if you haven’t watched it yet, you’re probably better off anyway.
Then, the writers decided to cram the next 16 years of the characters’ lives into an hour-long series finale. We find out that not only did we spend 22 episodes leading up to a wedding that ends in a divorce three years/ten minutes later, but that the writers have one more huge curveball they’ve had planned for nine years: the real woman Ted ends up with.
If you’ve been a longtime fan of the show, you might’ve been happy with this ending…if it had come after one of the first couple seasons. Sure, the finale hit numerous high notes successfully when they included many of the show’s long-running gags in their last few episodes like the end of the slap bet, the story behind the yellow umbrella, and the return of “Judge Fudge.” But the writers also managed to discredit nine years of character development when they had a newly divorced (and over 40) Barney not only go back to his womanizing ways but rewrite his Playbook and show Lily, who used to be overwhelmed by the thought of one child, end up with three kids and no mention of how her art career panned out.
But the real reason fans aren’t happy with the finale? Instead of hearing a great story about how Ted met his soulmate and the mother of his children, we find out that the mother has been dead for years and that this story has really been about how he’s always been in love with Robin. Yes, Robin. Though it ends with a sweet nod to the ending of the pilot episode, blue french horn outside her window and all, it feels forced, rushed, and out of place in this mess of a finale.
There are so many reasons why this ending left such a bitter taste in the mouths of the show’s fans. First of all, we’ve been continually told and shown that the relationship between Ted and Robin would never work. We watched them date not once but twice and both times ended up with them parting ways. Though they had their sweet moments, their relationship ultimately flatlined when they couldn’t agree on the two things that Ted wanted most: marriage and children.
Then there’s the fact that when we did finally meet the mother, we fell in love with her. The writers had been teasing their perfect relationship - the mother (revealed to be named Tracy McConnell) and Ted were truly soulmates; we get sweet moments like Ted running to her door and confessing he wished he got those extra 47 days with her to their first official meeting under the yellow umbrella in the rain and we realize that the reason that Ted and everyone else never quite worked was because he was waiting for Tracy. Watching their one season love story was ultimately more compelling than watching his relationships with everyone else, Victoria and Robin included.
But it wasn’t the rushed way they pushed Ted and Robin back together - it was the fact that they spent an entire episode this season having Ted come to the realization that he needed to let Robin go - and him confessing that he no longer loved her in the way he used to. ”The truth is..I don’t love you like that anymore. And you don’t love me. You love Barney. And if you think I’d ever be part of ever screwing that up like that then maybe you don’t know me at all Robin.” — This quote is from last week’s episode, by the way.
It was the fact that they kept pointing out the fact that while they loved each other in the deepest, most personal way possible, they weren’t in love with each other the way he was going to love the mother and the way that she loved Barney. It was the fact that they only killed the mother because of an ending scene they filmed in 2006 because the actors who played the kids were getting too old looking.
On top of that, Carter and Bays, the writers of the show, only had Barney change his ways once he had a love child with a woman we don’t ever learn the name of - something Robin could’ve never been able to give him. So does this mean the wedding was always meant to be a disaster? The most touching moment of the finale was when Barney first met his daughter - but Robin never would’ve been able to give that to him and he has always made a big deal of never wanting a child in the first place.
Then there’s the fact that we hear about Marshall going back into corporate law, a job he hates, but ultimately ending up not only with his judgeship back, but with Supreme Court prospects while we hear nothing about how Lilly ended up except for the fact that they’re on child number three.
Oh, and Robin becomes a super prestigious international reporter that spends all of her time traveling - a job that breaks up her marriage to Barney and hurts her relationship with the gang. She spends nine years traveling and rarely seeing anyone until she comes back for Ted and Tracy’s wedding and has a touching moment with Barney.
So are we really supposed to believe that Ted is still in love with Robin even though they’ve rarely even heard from her in the past nine or so years? Lilly makes a comment about how even she never sees or hears from Robin - how are we supposed to believe that she’s the same Robin we last saw in the empty apartment building giving Lilly a tearful confession about not fitting in anymore? How are we supposed to believe that she’s the same Robin Ted confessed his love for after their first date?
The finale had so many perfect moments - Barney meeting his daughter, “Fudge Supreme,” and Ted’s re-proposal to Tracy - but the last five minutes sent everything crashing down around the writers. Could no course correction have been done after realizing the show was departing from Carter and Bays’ original ending? Sticking to an ending filmed before the writers truly knew where their show was going to go was true dedication - sure, there were hints that maybe, just maybe, Ted and Robin were actually meant to end up together. But was this curveball really the best way to end the show?
What are your thoughts on the HIMYM finale?