Well. That happened. It definitely happened and it definitely wasn’t an April Fools Day joke.
In the moments after the How I Met Your Mother finale I had the urge to come to this site and take down the two posts celebrating the top 20 episodes. The posts that I had busted my ass on, the posts that I had poured my heart and soul into…they all felt meaningless to me. I have never felt more betrayed by a television show in my LIFE. That’s what the finale was. A betrayal of the HIGHEST degree.
(Don’t worry, I won’t take down those posts. I’m proud of them. They just feel tainted now.)
Lest you think I am an entitled fan who is whining because her ship was shattered or I didn’t get the ending I wanted, let me say that I respect that a creator has their right to tell the story they wanted to tell. What I don’t respect is when the creators blatantly ignore their characters’ growth and instead, at the last-minute, shove those characters into boxes they don’t fit anymore, all to give us the ending they claim to have wanted from the start. What Craig Thomas and Carter Bays did last night was essentially thus: they poured a gallon of kerosene over seven years worth of story (as the ending with the kids was filmed in Season Two, as the actors were aging), tossed a match on it and stood back and watched the fandom scream in agony as it all went up in flames.
HEY GUESS WHAT? IT WAS GOING TO BE TED AND ROBIN THE WHOLE TIME. WE FOUND THE ONE LOOPHOLE FROM THE CORNER WE WROTE OURSELVES INTO IN THE PILOT BY HAVING TED MARRY SOMEONE ELSE FIRST, THEN SHE DIES, AND THEN SINCE HE’S CARRIED A TORCH FOR HER THE WHOLE TIME, HE ENDS UP WITH ROBIN ANYWAY BECAUSE SHE SPENT A DECADE PINING FOR HIM TOO. HOW’S THAT FOR AN ENDING??? AREN’T WE CLEVER?
Three Deep Breaths, Kim. Take three deep breaths. Sometimes they can change everything.
WHY EVEN BOTHER INTRODUCING US TO THE MOTHER IF SHE WASN’T THE CENTRAL PERSON IN TED’S STORY?? SHE WAS JUST A BLIP IN THE ROAD ON THE WAY TO ROBIN.
I can’t. Lost the ability to can.
Okay. I don’t even know where to start regarding my feelings and my anger, but I am going to try to break it down. Here we go…
…If the plan all along was for Ted and Robin to be end game why did we spend the last three seasons exploring the Barney and Robin relationship? Why did we spend the entire final season at their WEDDING only to destroy their marriage in the first 15 minutes of the finale? Why get us invested in wanting them to make it as a couple? Why take both of these characters who were so anti-marriage at the beginning of the show, have them fall in love and want to commit to each other forever if you always intended for Robin to end up with the guy who brought her the blue french horn IN THE PILOT? I don’t understand at all.
I understand that sometimes, despite the best of intentions, couples don’t make it. I get it. I do. I’ve BEEN there for the love of God. But to dispense of Barney and Robin’s marriage SO QUICKLY after all the build-up is cheap and it is dirty. As Kelly just said to me on gChat, if you’re going to go the “sometimes love isn’t enough” route, build the story around that. Maybe that’s what they THOUGHT they were doing all season every time Robin or Barney had a freak out about getting married? But instead they chose to end every pre-wedding conflict they encountered by making them seem all the stronger for it. It just REEKS of lazy writing and only breaking them up so it would open the door for Robin to available for Ted. Or to put it more accurately, for it opened the door for Robin to PINE for Ted for over a decade. But I’ll get to that.
…Why have Barney go through the amount of character growth that he did if he was only going to revert back to his womanizing ways of Season One? Honestly, the assassination of Barney Stinson and the man he grew up to be was the saddest part of the finale to me. To have him revert COMPLETELY back to the Barney he was at the beginning of the series, partying with the playbook and sleeping with as many women as possible was just SAD.
And before you say…”But Kim!! He did change! He ended up settling down with his daughter!”..wait a goddamn second and think about what you are saying. The show didn’t even CARE enough to give the mother of Barney’s child a NAME, choosing only to refer to her as “Number 31”. Is she at ALL in Barney and his daughter’s life? Or was she just a uterus to give Barney a resolution? The one woman in the world who can make a man like Barney Stinson settle down is his daughter. Cute, but I DON’T BUY IT. Especially when, right up until he met his daughter, the pregnancy was clearly treated with a great amount of disdain. Why have him say early in season nine “Mom, I’m not marrying some future possibility of starting a family. I’m marrying a girl. Who means more to me than kids,” if a child is the one thing it took to get him to give up his wild ways? DECIDE WHICH WAY YOU WANT IT WRITERS. (Discussion for the comment section: was this story about Barney and his child disrespectful to Robin, since she was unable to bear children?)
I will say that the scene where Barney met his infant daughter was beautifully acted by Neil Patrick Harris. It’s just a shame that it was SUCH character whiplash that it wasn’t at all emotionally earned.
…Why in the HELL didn’t Ted and Tracy get married until SEVEN years later, despite the fact they were living in the suburbs together and raising their children together? AGAIN I DON’T BUY IT. The Ted Mosby I knew would have whisked Tracy off to have her castle wedding the day she found out she was pregnant. The Ted Mosby I knew would have wanted to have been MARRIED to the Mother of his children before they had them. What. The. Damn. Hell.
…Why all the bullshit about Robin appearing in Penny and Luke’s childhood drawings as they made it very clear that after the divorce Robin was an infrequent presence in the gang’s life? And WORSE why make it seem that the REASON Robin dropped out of the gang’s life was because she couldn’t stand seeing Ted happy with Tracy? Way to paint Robin Scherbatsky in a flattering light guys. Way to reduce a character who had always been confident and independent to a shrew who sat in the corner sniveling about the one that got away. Way to turn her into someone who chooses to walk away from the closest group of friends she’s ever known. Way to make her life about one that is not fulfilled because she was alone (AND TED FUCKING SAID IN “SYMPHONY OF ILLUMINATION” THAT SHE WAS NEVER ALONE, WHEN SHE WAS). She WAS alone, she wasn’t part of the gang and she wasn’t part of their big moments. Way to make ROBIN SCHERBATSKY the sad, barren spinster who worked all the time and sadly comes home (with her really bad hair) to her dogs every night. Way to make ROBIN the character that pathetically cries with relief when her ex-boyfriend (whose wife is dead) shows up at her apartment with the Blue French Horn he stole for her twenty-five years ago. Way to have her cry like she’s been just WAITING for him to show up at her doorstep this whole time. Yeah…that’s the ending we wanted for Robin Scherbatsky.
…Why call the show How I Met Your Mother when, as I said earlier, the story had absolutely NO impact on Ted’s Children. WHY have the kids respond, “This isn’t about Mom. She’s hardly in the story. This is about how you have the hots for Aunt Robin.”
I get angry just thinking about it.
Why introduce us to Tracy, why have us FALL IN LOVE WITH HER only to dispense of her essentially in a 60 second montage? Why in the hell do you take the title character, the one we’ve been waiting nine years to meet, the woman who Barney INSTANTLY knows is perfect for Ted, and make her an ARBITRARY part of the story? Given this ending, we’re supposed to believe that deep down Ted still carried a torch for Robin the whole time? Tracy McConnell deserved better than this.
I understand that people die. Sometimes we find our soulmate and we only get a brief time with them. But the way the show HANDLED Tracy’s death was pathetic. We didn’t see Ted MOURN for her. We didn’t see him affected by losing the love of his life. We didn’t see Marshall and Lily and Barney and Robin stand by Ted as he went through the hardest time in his life. We just got a generic “sad hospital bed scene” (I can’t remember which review described it that way, but I LOVE IT). You know, if we had SEEN Robin supporting Ted through his wife’s death and being a single parent of two young children, I ALMOST would have bought them ending up together.
I SAID ALMOST.
But no.
What we got was basically: “I loved your mom, but she’s dead now. Would you kids be okay if I went after your Aunt Robin? That’s why I am telling you all these stories, you know. So you can believe that really I was meant to spend my days with her. She never wanted kids…but I married your mother and had you two, so I get both the family I always wanted AND the girl of my dreams. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I CAN HAVE MY CAKE AND EAT IT TOO.”
But hey. At least we know Marshall and Lily are happy.
When the episode ended, the six of us who had crammed into my tiny apartment stared at the television in shock, many of us with angry tears streaming down our faces. The finale betrayed everything the series had been about for the past three years, ever since it became clear that Barney and Robin were going to get married. I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever be able to watch the show again. I honestly don’t know of a series finale (I didn’t watch Dexter, y’all) that has done SO MUCH to tarnish the show’s legacy. And all because the creators clung to the ending they had decided on seven years before finishing the show. It would have been easy to go, “You know what? This ending doesn’t work anymore. The characters have moved beyond this ending. We can come up with some other way to show the kids reacting to the end of Ted’s story.”
But no. Instead they decided that THIS would be how they resolved it. I’ll never understand it.
What makes it worse is that Craig and Carter aren’t doing any exit interviews. They aren’t trying to justify their choices, and that’s their right I guess. But when Robert and Michelle King write an open letter to the viewers of The Good Wife following their recent shocking plot development, the silence from the HIMYM team becomes DEAFENING. Their radio silence (and no, Craig, as few tweets after the West Coast Airing DOES NOT COUNT as an exit interview) after the finale speaks volumes more than any exit interview could. If they had ANYTHING remotely plausible or concrete to justify this ending, they would be speaking out. But they don’t have a leg to stand on. And so we are left nothing. No comfort, just a stinging sensation on our cheeks from one HELL of a slap across the face.
You nailed everything perfectly. Hell, I was mad at almost every character except Marshall and Lily last night. The worst part is the actors deserved so much better. Neil Patrick Harris brought so many things to what was basically a one-note character. and last night threw all his hard work in the toilet.
Robin was a independent woman who was tough but cared about her friends and grew with them. but all of a sudden she decides that because the person she cared for is married and happy she should be miserable and alone for the rest of her life and break all contact with them? The fuck?
And I could write a book on how much they wasted some great performances by Cristin Milioti this season. She’s going to be a star in the very quick future. But to just have her death be basically a blip on the radar scene? Just a disgrace.
I could mention more but you said it way better than I could.
Sorry about the length of this but a lot of stuff angered me last night. I’m not the biggest HIMYM fan but I enjoyed the show and wanted a better ending not just for the fans but everyone who worked on this for 9 years! Thanks for letting me get a little bit of my chest.
I just want to say I agree with you 100% about everything in this post I just think they messed up so many things. Neil Patrick Harris made what was a one-note character and gave him so much character growth over 9 seasons. And then they flushed it down the toilet. A whole season of Barney and Robin getting married and it’s just over in a 3 minute scene like it was nothing.
Then Robin, a character that grew to be a strong independent woman who loves her friends all of a sudden sees the person she cares most for happy and married and she decided to become a loner and never see them anymore?
And the waste of some very good performances this season by Cristin Milioti. She will be a big star in the very near future. But to have her death scene be a 60 second blip on the radar? No. That is just lazy writing. And insulting.
Sorry for the length of this but I had to type it out. I wasn’t the biggest HIMYM fan but I did enjoy and like watching the show. And after 9 years it’s fans and everybody who worked on it or cared about it deserved better.
The best comparison I can make to the HIMYM finale is the final book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series. Sookie ends up with Sam in the final book because Charlaine Harris had planned that ending since book 2 in the series. However, the majority of the books focus on the attraction and relationship between Eric & Sookie. The last couple of books (mainly just the last) become a full blown character assassination of Eric just to suddenly push Sam & Sookie together despite Sookie’s repeated statement that she only sees Sam as a friend. As a fan of that series (until the second to the last book), it was clear that Charlaine Harris was writing the Eric & Sookie romance because she knew they sold the books. All you have to do is search fanfiction.net to see which pairing produces the most fanfics. But she didn’t want to give up what she had decided years ago despite the character growth in the series so Eric randomly becomes the bad guy despite all the good shown about him throughout the series. He essentially loses everything and then we’re told he likes it that way. I don’t mind if a writer has a vision, but that vision has to be written organically for me to accept it or else the writer has to get off his/her high horse and accept that the story no longer supports that vision.
I agree if they had just spent more of this finale…more of this season…showing us the progression of Ted & Robin coming back together, I could accept it. I may be a Barney/Robin fan, but I accept an outcome if it is shown to work. Instead we got constant reminders that even with their issues Barney & Robin can work, and a conclusion that Ted could let Robin go. It can’t be said that the writers didn’t have time to show us Ted & Robin coming back together in the finale. They had 22 episodes this season to give us it. We didn’t ask to spend an entire season on this wedding. In fact, most of the audience hated it. An entire storyline that proved to not be worth anything could have instead be spent on learning early into this season that the mother would die. We could have watched Ted & The Mother grow close. Watch Ted grieve. Watch Ted & Robin make progress back to each other. I would have given up just one episode to focus on Ted & Robin making a go for it again. Come on, we didn’t need Slappointment in Slapmarra. The Sixth Sense worked because you could watch it again and see all the moments where it makes sense. Watching reruns of HIMYM now would just feel like: BUT THAT DOESN’T WORK WITH ULTIMATE ENDING!
I don’t like twist endings for a twist’s sake. I don’t like cleverness for the sake of being clever. The “It was all a dream!” endings don’t get talked about because they are heartfelt, but because they still piss people off years later. And for a show that was all about the heart, HIMYM failed in the end.
All of this is to say that I completely agree. And I think you did a wonderful job conveying the audience’s feelings of betrayal.
THIS COMMENT THOUGH. -K
Love your comment!! The assassination of the Southern Vampire Mysteries is a perfect analogy (though she did spread the decimation over 2 full books instead of cramming it into 1 episode).
Kim – as always perfectly put!
Thanks laaaaaaaaaaady 🙂
Thank you! I was so shocked that they broke Barney and Robin up in the first 15 minutes. It felt hollow and contrived after all the growth those two characters have gone through. And I really hate that they made Robin the one to walk away from the group, and that they put her in such awful wigs while she did it.
God I’m crying all over again (at work) reading this. Bless you Kim. THIS RAGE WILL LIVE ON FOREVER. I will never be able to watch a single episode of this show which was so close to my heart again. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS TAINTED. Spending YEARS creating these character’s development: Ted growing up and learning Robin WASN’T the girl he put on that pedestal (ONE HE LET GO OVER AND OVER AGAIN), Robin and Barney growing up TOGETHER and learning about love and relationships, THE MOTHER LETTING GO OF SOMEONE SHE LOVED BECAUSE SHE FOUND THE LOVE OF HER LIFE IN TED. Everything feels so cheap. I was TRICKED into watching and loving these characters only to fall on my face with that finale. The narrative makes no sense. Did the umbrella ever even mean something in the end WITH THAT STUPID BLUE FRENCH HORN IN THE PICTURE?! I mean, the writers didn’t just betray the audience, they betrayed their own characters, their own story! Robin turning into that horrible shell of a person is NOT what I ever wanted for her. Ted proving he would always suffer from the “good guy syndrome”. ME hating THEODORE EVELYN MOSBY. Because that’s what happened. I now hate Ted, Barney, and Robin. I never ever thought that would be possible, but here we are. Last week and even the first minutes of the finale were great. Character growth in the last one and so many callbacks and crying in the finale. And then… well my exact tweet said; “Well that turned into RAGE pretty quick.” EVERYTHING from the point when Barney and Robin broke up was SO WRONG. I can’t even bring myself to reblog that beautiful scene when Ted and Tracy speak for the first time. It feels empty, she was a plot device. Another obstacle in the way of Ted and Robins horrid love story. I fell completely in love with Cristin Milioti and her protrayal of The Mother. She deserved so much more than this bullshit excuse of an ending. Like you said where is the grieving? Where is the Ted Mosby that you wrote about in that wonderful post? WHERE IS THE MAN THAT CRAVED THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE WITH EVERY FIBER OF HIS BEING?! This is just a blabbering mess that makes little sense probably but that’s how messed up this episode left me. I feel depressed and enraged by how they turned my beloved show into a cheap narration of events with no real development.
(Also there this which disturbed me to no end: http://trissfuckingprior.tumblr.com/post/81371189101/theres-really-no-reason-to-accuse-barney-of-being )
We spent 9 seasons waiting to meet the mother. When we finally met her, she was wonderful and perfect for Ted. I don’t understand why that couldn’t have just been the ending. Instead, Ted spends approximately 5 minutes with her before she dies and all of a sudden it’s 6 years later. Like you said, we didn’t get to see anybody react to her death. They just skipped over their whole life together. For a show that spent and entire season at a 3-day wedding weekend, they stuffed way too much epilogue into this finale. The scene at the train station was nice and we had seen enough of Ted and the Mother in the flash forwards to know that they are happy together. Ted’s speech about loving her even when she got sick was lovely. I had anticipated the Mother dying but thought that would mostly have been the reason for Ted telling the story, not a stepping stone to him ending up with the actual “love of his life”.
UGH.
All of this, and all of the comments. And YES, the Barney baby story was SO disrespectful to Robin. Barney is capable of changing on a dime, evidently, but not for Robin. Robin can’t be his “home”. Between this, and the implication that Ted was secretly in love with Robin the whole time but “settled” for Tracy because, you know, working uterus, the message the show was sending was that women have no inherent worth separate from the ability to give birth. Barney becomes “whole” because of a baby, and Robin is the woman he leaves over lack of wi fi. WHAT THE HOLY FUCK IS THIS?
There was so much bafflingly wrong with this finale. If Ted and Robin were the end game, then WHY didn’t Craig & Carter write that way? Last night felt like they both wrote 9 years of a show, and then said “oh well, guess we need to make this finale work now”. Part of me thought “well, maybe they weren’t counting on Robin and Barney being as popular as they are, or Cristin Milioti being the most charming adorable human being alive”, but THEY made those writing/casting choices! If they had decided to put the kibosh on Robin and Barney years ago, or made Robin the mother, or made 100 other different choices, last night would have worked. But they basically shredded the past nine years.
The one moment that I did enjoy somewhat was Barney with his daughter (despite the unbelievable 180 from Barney about parenthood), but even that only served to remind me how much of Neil Patrick Harris’s excellent work over the past years was basically torched within the first twenty minutes of the show yesterday.
And IN CONCLUSION!!! 🙂 Craig & Carter may not be giving interviews, but as they are working on a spin off right now, and even people who have never watched a minute of HIMYM are appalled, they better be thinking of one hell of a press release.
I have so much anger in my heart right now. We should have done a double post, maybe. 🙂
Earlier in the series, when Ted tells his kids about Robin’s travels and adventures, it sounds brave. It sounds glamorous. And then, how sad, it’s actually poor, childless Robin being punished for not settling down with the guy who totally freaked her out by coming on way too strong on their first date. Instead of Robin choosing to withdraw from the group because her job required it or because she felt constricted by the domesticity that was prevailing, we get her confessing to Lily (and how MAGNIFICENT was Aly in that scene?) that she just feels like a big ol’ fifth wheel. Well, sixth, I guess. Is that the Robin who fought so hard to be taken seriously in her field? Who knew exactly who she was and what she wanted?
She and Barney fell out of love? Then why did the divorce come directly after a fight about the requirements of HER job, holding Barney to blame for absolutely nothing. And we’re expected to believe that Barney, who has near nightly epic adventures, is worn down by their international lifestyle? Robin is “the most awesome person” he’s ever known – the HIGHEST compliment from the Barnacle. He knew and accepted everything about her, as she did him. That’s WHY THEY WORKED.
Mike Schur has said that the general plan for Parks was to have Leslie date around for several seasons. It’s an easy way to bring in guest stars and to expose more of her character through those relationships. But when he saw her interaction with Ben in – I believe – the “Freddy Spaghetti” episode, he knew that, not only were she and Ben going to get together. They were never going to break up. When Barney and Robin hooked up the first time after marathoning her “Sandcastles in the Sand” video (one of my favorite moments of the series), I ASSUMED a similar thing had happened with Bays and Thomas and the BrOTP-ness in “Zip, Zip, Zip.” But no, they ignored it. They closed their eyes and LA LA LA-ed in the face of so many pieces of character development that we as viewers were naive enough to fall for.
I LOVE me some Schmosby, but this episode had him slide all the way down into the self-involved sad sack territory that we’ve all found annoying along the way. He makes his friends say a tearful “goodbye forever” to him IN THE MIDDLE OF B&R’S WEDDING and then shows up at the bar the next day like it ain’t no thing, all, “I met a girl.” GOOD FOR YOU, ASSFACE. How about a phone call? A text? And THEN, this WHOLE TIME, he’s been subjecting his kids’ to the same “please enable me” song and dance his friends have been getting off and on for years. Where’s the Ted who had to see some penguins, like, right now?
Craig Thomas tweeted after the finale, “We wrote a comedy with dramatic elements till the very end.” As if that explains all. As if we’re a bunch of philistines who just have to recognize the draaaaammmmma of the whole thing and then we’ll truly appreciate it. HIMYM HAS done drama well. Marshall’s father passing. Robin’s surprising emptiness when she learns she can’t have kids. Those moments WERE unexpected, but their reactions were in character and completely in line with the show’s emotional progression. Those moments have shown up on so many best of lists (including Kim’s). They were rough, but we appreciated them as well-crafted, character driven TV. We LOVE these characters, and we want to be with them through everything. Good TV can (and does) break your heart. So to suggest that we’re just not sophisticated enough to appreciate some breaks from the ha-has is false and insulting. And so in line with the we-know-better posture they’ve held throughout this whole thing.
ALSO I JUST REALIZED WE DIDN’T EVEN GET ONE “SUIT UP.” NOT ONE.
Which is minor, but, you know. Still a concern.
Kim, this is fantastic.
-S
Standing O for this comment, Sage. Yes. YES.
Well said, Kim. I’m just heartbroken right now. And I’m angry on behalf of these characters because they all deserved more. All of them (Lily and Marshall were basically reduced to nonentities in the finale who were there to make babies and react to everyone else’s life drama).
I actually think a massive part of the problem is that Bays and Thomas DIDN’T commit to their planned ending. They had this idea, put it on film, and then shoved it away onto a shelf somewhere for future use, only bringing it out and dusting it off every now and then in the form of THE MOTHER IS DEAD hints and Ted’s endless inability to get over Robin. Nothing else about this journey they’ve been taking us on for nine years was informed by that planned ending in any way. So when it came down to the finish line and they tacked it on like some shoddy bit of photoshop meant to make us think they were so clever for tricking us the whole thing ended up reeking like laziness and disdain for the fans. They tried to have it both ways – with their Robin/Ted ending but enough Robin/Barney to appease the shippers, their clever heartbreaking twist, but without the depth and exploration that makes that twist mean anything.
I’ve been thinking about it all day and honestly, they COULD have sold this ending to me. Here’s one way they could have done it: First, by not continuing to go to the “Ted can’t get over Robin” well any time after The Final Page. Show the depth of their friendship, show how far Ted’s willing to go for Robin, but don’t make it romantic and let them both really move on. Then by condensing the entire wedding weekend into 3-4 episodes at the beginning of the season (including all the moments wherein the mother meets members of the group, the rehearsal dinner, “thank you, Linus,” etc). Then after maybe a two-parter “How Your Mother Met Me” that culminates in Tracy and Ted finally meeting on the train platform under the yellow umbrella, the show transitions the last episodes into a coda of sorts. Seventeen episodes for the next seventeen years where we get to see Lily and Marshall in Rome and what comes of it (does it open up new path’s in Lilly’s art career), Robin’s career taking off, Tracy and Ted beginning their life together, the slow crack and fissures that do eventually break Robin and Barney up and aren’t just “SHE TRAVELS A LOT”, the strain that puts on the group, the way Barney struggles to figure out what it means about the kind of man he is when the woman he changed so much for isn’t in his life anymore, Robin LOVING her life while still feeling the loss of something in the group because their lives are so different from hers now, and all the shenanigans in between.
And yes, there would be some kick you in the teeth episodes revolving around the mother’s death, but until last night I would have said that if any comedy could pull that kind of tragedy off with grace it would be HIMYM. AND if that’s the kind of story they obviously wanted to tell, then they should have just buckled down and actually told us that kind of story and risked upsetting people who were just looking for a lighthearted comedy. They should have let us SEE the way it affects the group (Lilly and Tracy had to have been close, how did Lilly respond to the loss of her Front Porch Dream Girl?!?) and the way they pull together around Ted, Ted’s struggles as a single father of two teenagers, Robin being there for him the way he always was for her, the two of them becoming closer now that they’re all grown up and this entire journey has brought them to the same place finally. And then when he finishes telling this story to his children we get so much more than “LOL DAD UR DUMB GO BONE ROBIN” but rather a heartfelt, thankful conversation with the kids about what their mother meant to him and to them and a gentle nudging of “you know, Robin’s in these stories a lot.”
So blah blah blah he goes and gets the Blue French horn and runs off to declare his love again to Robin. Full circle. I could have been fine with it. Yes, it’s heartbreaking. And yes, it’s not the story I thought I signed up for, but at least it would be a full complete story. At least we could have seen it actually unfold instead of still somehow feeling left in the dark about how the characters ended up where they did.
Oh, and with one last tiny epilogue added to that (and I’m stealing the general idea of this from a tumblr post I saw earlier).
Ted in his study at night when one of the kids comes in. “Hey, dad. About that pineapple?”
*cue flashback to Tracy giving drunk Ted the pineapple in whatever absurd scenario*
Ted’s dawning look of realization.
“So THAT’S how you met our mother.”
BOOM. THE END.
Shannon, that comment is gold and makes perfect sense, but then C&C couldn’t have had the SHOCKING finale they wanted. I’m so tired of shock tv. I think that “The Office” may have had one of the most subversive finales on tv by the mere fact that they let people be HAPPY.
THIS. Television has become exhausting because even the comedies insist on breaking my heart into tiny pieces all the time. Just let me enjoy some wonderful characters please and stop trying to make the morning tv blog headlines.
EVERYONE should take notes on both The Office and 30 Rock on how to end a modern comedy. -K
This is the best pineapple theory yet.
Head-canon accepted
Yanno, when you can’t have kids you expect the “barren-crone/mother-as-goddess” story treatment in the usual places — Hallmark ads at Mother’s Day, 95% of the blogs out there, every company with a “Mom’s Panel.” But it’s a pretty harsh slap when it comes from what is supposed to be a warm comedy.
The Marshall and Lily in my life have struggled with infertility and I can’t IMAGINE what her reaction to this episode had been if she watched. -K
As I posed on the HIMYM Facebook and respective forums, maybe it’s time for social media to show it’s power and for the fans to demand a re-write and re-film of the finale?
Never before has a series had an alternative ending, maybe TV History could be created (which CBS would love – extra advertising dollars) if the critics and fans united in calling for a new ending to be recorded as a one-off special?
I wish. -K
There is a petition up at Change.org demanding this very thing, and it’s knocking on the door of 15,000 signatures. Now, to be honest, I can’t see of a senario where CBS will actually DO this, but I’m enjoying seeing the number climb.
http://www.change.org/petitions/cbs-rewrite-and-reshoot-the-himym-ending
Ditto. It’s nice to know we aren’t alone. – K
Wellll evidently Bays & Thomas got on Twitter and said that there is an “alternate ending” that will be available, of COURSE, to those who shell out for the series DVD set. It better be freaking AMAZING, or there might be riots in the streets.
I heard that they “couldn’t deny the chemistry Josh & Colby have on screen together!!!!” which is a halfway decent excuse but doesn’t excuse that shit ending. I’m not going to act like the biggest HIMYM fan, I watched it when I could & 9 out of 10 times, I enjoyed it.
I couldn’t even enjoy the episode because I was constantly saying “what the actual…”. If they hadn’t shoved Robin/Ted down our throats for the last ten years, the constant ‘oh no, I like ___!’, that got old after like three episodes. This is just a big, incoherent rant & I apologize but I think I’m even more furious than I was last night!
I AM SORRY WHAT ABOUT THE CHEMISTRY JOSH HAD WITH SARAH CHALKE? OR WITH JENNIFER MORRISON (EVEN THOUGH ZOEY WAS THE WORST)? OR THE WOMAN THEY CAST AS THE MOTHER CRISTIN MILIOTI?
Bullshit answer is bullshit. -K
Why not name it Before I Met Your Mother? I mean the entire pilot with those kids ‘are we being punished for something?” “Is this gonna take a while?” just ruined the entire personalities of Penny and Luke. The entire plot was ruined and destroyed in 43 mins. The entire season of nine was for nothing dedicated to the wedding of Barney and Robin. This whole thing was planned (Lyndsy and David have known since they filmed back in s1) from s1. I wonder if C and C had the smarts to film alternate scenes with those two in s1 just in case? TPTB introduces us to TM (Tracy) and make us fall in love with her, just to KILL her and bring back the two that dont belong together Ted and Robin. I mean, really? Could you screw this up anymore? Where is the promise of “happy ending” “beautiful”
thanks for lying to us C and C!
Example:
“It’s torturous and frustrating that they’re not together, and from the very beginning I think that’s what we loved about the idea. That one of the central relationships on the show you really want to go this direction but it never will. Our frustration that Cobie and Josh can’t play a married couple is very real. It’s the same frustration these two characters have. They’ll never be together.”
Also, So they wanted to close doors? Hmm, so they ended their friendship? Barney died? Is #31 the spinoff idea? Did everyone split after that wedding? What happened between 2024-2029? Why in the world did C and C dedicate a whole season to B/R wedding (and even an episode ago – the actual wedding) and this is how you treat the characters? I’m sorry if I were an actor in this I’d have been outraged and told the general public so. What are C and C gonna do? The show is over…contracts are void. Come on now. Where is Neil? Why hasnt he spoken up? The before ‘excitement’ was all arouse.
But lets get back to the lying. All articles and interviews are all lies even from Cristin herself. Sad. This show..deleted!
Legen—deadly!
Did you ever consider that the Mother in How I Met Your Mother wasn’t meant to be Tracy but in fact Robin? Wouldn’t that explanation avoid the tragic apocalypse you are suggesting happened here? The main continuity would be saved because the show actually ends when we meet the kids second “mother” whom he clearly was thinking about dating again (the kids were apparently clever enough to see it), and the entire story revolves around Ted’s relationship with Robin very frequently, so the title appears apt to me assuming my assumption is correct.
Ordinarily I would find that this theory holds water except for the fact that early interviews with Craig and Carter SAY that they often regretted saying Robin was not the mother because of the chemistry that Josh and Cobie had together (these interviews are referenced in Alan Sepinwall’s FANTASTIC review of the finale on HitFix). Josh Radnor himself said in his post finale interview on Vulture that it was a fake-out. Basically, Carter and Craig chickened out at their own premise 2 seasons in because they liked Ted and Robin together so much and they had to find a way out of the corner they had written themselves into before the actors were even cast. It was not intended from the beginning to have Robin wind up being the Mother, they only tried to make it so after seeing them together.
Which again, is their right to. But it all felt incredibly forced and false to me. It wasn’t organic to the journey of the characters at all. -K
That is absolutely possible that they changed their minds mid-thought and wrote Robin back in, but isn’t it also possible that this could have been planned from the beginning and Craig and Carter may have told a small lie, in order to preserve the “fake-out” at the end? I agree that the finale felt forced, but as I stated below, they stuffed 16 years into 10 minutes after taking 9 years to tell 9 years of story. It had to be forced in order to get to the ending, and I don’t see another way they could’ve done it without forcing the story in Season 7 or 8 too.
EXACTLY that, which is why most of season nine was SO misguided. We had episodes with Barney trying to get his parents back together and episodes with an effing omlet making contest…why NOT have the wedding happen circa November Sweeps and spend the rest of the season focusing on that 16 years? There was NO need to stuff all that time in half an hour if it was their plan all along. I think the fandom would have been less offended…and like I said I probably would have BOUGHT it had we been given concrete evidence as to why it would make sense for Ted and Robin to find their way back to each other. Instead, it just felt like they were trying to pull a fast one for pulling a fast one’s sake, you know? -K
(Also I enjoy this discussion very much)
Your idea about season 9 probably would’ve made the finale appreciated more by fans, but in a way, it betrays the entire way they’ve built the series. The reason I found the series so unique and intriguing is that it was built to tell a 25 year old story to us as though it is happening live. Any condensing of the plot would’ve forced some great things that we saw in season 9 (the omlet making contest, the slap of a million exploding suns, etc) to maybe be removed for that better explained finale. I think it would make the season more confusing at the same time too. Imagine them opening up an episode 3 years ahead of where they left off the last episode. Then we would all either be lost, angry, or disinterested because they jumped ahead, which is certainly the ultimate betrayal to a story that was purposely written to make a point that no tiny detail would be missed. To me, filling in that 16 year gap should be like a band-aid. Remove it as quick as possible because surely you’ll agree that one badly explained episode (even if it is the last one) is better than 7 or 8 badly explained episodes.
And as for Robin and Ted, I think we got 9 years worth of concrete evidence as to why they should find each other. It was love at first sight for Ted. Time after time, he sacrifices his own well-being for her happiness. Why shouldn’t he get the girl? And as per the precedent set when Victoria came back, the relationship clock doesn’t reset, it keeps going.
I KNOW, IT WAS SUCH BULLSHIT. YOU CAN’T BASE YOUR ENTIRE SHOW AROUND SUCH A BULL EXCUSE. I FEEL SO DAMN BETRAYED.
Get a grip. It’s a TV show.
Gee, thanks for reminding me. I totally thought it was real life. So glad you were here for me.
Hi zot – may I call you zot? You came here and read this and were moved to comment just to be a dick. So maybe the grip that should be gotten is yours. It’s just a TV show. Bye! -S
Actually I only read maybe the first paragraph.
Well then you must really enjoy wasting your time. I see you’re a busy and important person with many friends.
I don’t deny I’m being a bit of dick, but I am truly interested in the level of personal betrayal some (many?) people feel in situations like this. Of course the same thing happened when Lost, Chuck and Battlestar Galactica ended. I liked the Lost and Chuck endings but really didn’t like the Galactica ending.
I didn’t feel personally betrayed though. And though I am indeed mocking that somewhat, I am genuinely intrigued by how personal and intense this is for some.
Well, I have said when I have written about this show previously on this site (we have a tag if you want to see previous writings) why I have incredibly personal feelings about the show and its characters. And to quote a showrunner of one of my other favorite TV Shows, Chris McKenna of Community once said “Nothing is just JUST something if you love it.” And people loved this show and invested in it for nine years. Of course people (myself included) would have passionate reactions when the finale essentially negated EVERYTHING the show has done. That it was all a long con from the very beginning. It said in the pilot that Robin is not the mother, so we spent nine years believing that while she played a big part in his life, they did not end up together. And there was something beautiful about that. Bays and Thomas found the ONE loophole in their story and exploited it in this finale. It rang false to a good majority of the fans.
As for feeling the need to search out a review of the finale and be a dick to the writer? Glad that’s fun for you. But at least read the entire article before dismissing it and telling me to get over it. -K
Thanks for the site views! You’re helping us in our highest viewed day of our history! -K
I believe this is for you. http://www.racialicious.com/2009/12/21/and-we-shall-call-this-moffs-law/
Oh wow! The rage! The horror! I’m not gonna say that the finale was great but I didn’t feel like it was that bad either. I feel like the writers had it in their heads from the beginning where they wanted this to end and they stuck with it. The problem I had with that is that they changed Ted and Robin so much that it didn’t make sense anymore. Robin has been repeatedly painted as the girl who would never settle down for real. She didn’t last with Barney so why would she last with Ted. I could accept it if they had evolved Robin’s character somewhat. As for the marriage between Robin and Barney, I would not have minded the divorce if they hadn’t spent an entire SEASON on their wedding. I feel like they stayed true to their characters somewhat. I’ve been over Ted and Robin for quite a while now. It reminds me of the Friends finale when they got Ross and Rachel back together. I just feel like that ship had sunk.
Yes, your problems with it is WHY people are crying foul. Some more passionately than others 😉 -K
Exactly! I could have even accepted the mother dying if that was truly the end. I just don’t feel like Ted would have gone back to Robin after being so completely in love with the Mother. Its so funny too because I didn’t think there would have been an actress that could have lived up to our expectations. But she did. I truly don’t think the writers thought of that either.
Well, I was just reading a comment thread that pointed out that Future Ted often TALKED about the Mother in present tense (as late as the S9 premiere…she HAS her own set of driving gloves). If she’s been dead for SIX YEARS, Ted would be used to talking about her in the PAST TENSE.
Proving it was a last minute choice to kill her and I can’t. -K
I totally didn’t buy the “she’s been gone for six years…” that’s the only way they could have gotten through that callous treatment of her passing. I fully expected this little 9-season chat with Ted and the kids to be happening the week of the funeral or something.
IF IT HAD BEEN THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL IT WOULD HAVE MADE SENSE.
You/they are wrong. He said “Your mother WAS lying. She HAD her own pair.” You can go back and check if you don’t believe me. Future Ted has never, ever, talked about the Mother in the present tense. I went over the entire series and I could not find a single quote of Ted’s talking about her in the present tense, while he often talked about the gang in present tense back when the death theory was still just a theory. That to me was a huge hint she was no longer with around.
IF the grieving process had been done a little bit more completely and elegantly, I would have MAYBE been okay with Ted – hear me out – seeking out Victoria. –S
I pictured Ted… as sad as this would have been… grieving the mother for the rest of his life. You know, Charlotte says you get TWO GREAT LOVES and Ted had Robin and Tracy.
I never did like Victoria. There was just something her I didn’t like.
You have a couple of valid points with which I agree (eg: there should have been scenes showing Ted and Robin rekindling their friendship; why did they build up the Barney and Robin storyline if they weren’t going to last).
But beneath all that is a deep resentment over the fact that you are upset your favourite couple (Barney and Robin) didn’t pan out. This should NOT have come as a surprise, because we have seen how awful those two are together. There were little hints that it wouldn’t work out in the end.
The “destruction” of Barney’s character and have him regress is something else many people have been complaining about, but I feel those complaints are not valid. Deep down, Barney has always been an irreparably damaged person. Him having a daughter was poetic justice.
And it’s funny how you complains about Robin’s character being reduced to a “shrew” when that’s exactly what happened when they paired her up with Barney. To me, this episode greatly redeemed Robin’s character as she got back to her roots.
Ultimately, this review is another one I am relegating to under the “unreasonably upset B/R shipper” bin.
Thanks for the comment, but please point out to me where, other than me saying “Lest you think I am an entitled fan who is whining because her ship was shattered”, do I make my anger regarding the finale only based on the fact that Barney and Robin didn’t get together? To me, Barney and Robin not staying together was the least egregious thing about the finale. But it WAS terrible to spend an entire season focusing on them getting married to say “Welp, that’s over” just to try and serve the pre-determined ending. Everything about the finale rang false, not just the Barney/Robin divorce. And as far as shipping them, I only ever felt the things the show told me to.
Futhermore, I find it pretty offensive that you laugh off a review you don’t agree with by just calling me a disgruntled shipper. But thanks for the read. -K
I apologize if I misread your motivations.
I still believe the ending tied up the story somewhat nicely. The execution wasn’t perfect, but it was a good ending nonetheless. I’ll write a comment expanding on this… eventually.
I’ll be glad to hear it, Poirot 🙂 (your name makes me chuckle as I am about to play Agatha Christie in a play) -K
My wife and I looked forward to last night for weeks. I had the season 9 dvds on pre-order. I followed Craig and Carter on Twitter. That’s over with. Last night I canceled the dvds and this morning I unfollowed C&C. All I want to say to them is “Are we being punished?” Tonight I box up seasons 1-8, possibly for good. I can’t imagine ever watching them. And as for HIMYD, let it fall into the sea, for all I care. Thank you Kim for saying what so many of us feel.
Thank YOU for reading and commenting, William 🙂 -K
I can understand how you guys can feel betrayed by this show. We are all clearly fans of television and it is showing. I didn’t love or hate the finale. To me, that’s the problem. I wanted to feel passionate one way or another. Kim, that was an awesome comparison to the Good Wife. This show is nowhere near their SEASON FINALE but still they yanked the rug out from under us. Plus, there was an explanation. HIMYM just kind of seemed like they didn’t really know what to do even though the characters had clearly grown from the mold that they had started in season 1. The worst for me was that at the end I was just like, uh ok. For me it doesn’t take away all the amazing episodes and seasons that led up to this. It just made me think that they kind of didn’t have a clue at the end.
I almost feel indifference is worse than extreme passion. -K
I just feel like it will be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time before I can ever watch the show again without thinking it was all a long con. If ever.
But the pain is VERY raw right now. -K
I feel like they just disrespected their entire fan base. From the pilot, they led us to believe that we had just met “Aunt” Robin, the woman who was clearly NOT the mother. Then they had Ted chase her for much of the first season & after repeated rejections, they finally got them together. They spent quite a bit of the second season showing why they won’t work as a couple & ultimately broke them up. Then they spent the next 4 1/2 seasons showing that they were just not meant to be, going as far as pairing Robin & Barney up. Three-quarters into the seventh season, they had Ted profess his love for Robin AGAIN, only to be shot down. They reunited Barney and Robin, had them get engaged & spent an entire season leading up to their wedding, only to divorce them 20 minutes into the finale. And finally we meet the mother, the ultimate soulmate for Ted. No two people have ever been more perfect for each other according to the creators. For nine seasons we waited for Ted to get his happy ending and they kill her off and make him a widower so that they can hook Ted up with the very woman that they told us for nine seasons was not right for Ted–Robin. SERIOUSLY??? If they were going to slap the fans across the face like that, at least play Marshall’s song over the end credits. The only two times I smiled were when Barney had his moment with his daughter and when Ted finally actually met the mother.
And P.S. To C&B, who said that life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to, we are well aware of that. That’s why we do things like watch TV. To ESCAPE the fact that things aren’t perfect in our lives, so it would be nice to watch someone else get a happily ever after.
“If they were going to slap the fans across the face like that, at least play Marshall’s song over the end credits.”
DYING AT THIS MENTAL IMAGE AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING. Thanks for your comment! -K
Agree. On a lighter note what about all the funnies… remember when Ted said to that lady…be cool lady, damn! I died
Sigh. When things were going well in the first 7 minutes 😉
I’m sorry HeadOverFeels, but I cant agree with all of this. I certainly agree with some of it. But the shows title wasn’t How I Met Your Biological Mother, so the title character wasn’t skimmed over at all. In fact, Robin was maybe the second-most explained character in the group. And Ted’s cliched return with the blue french horn technically signifies the meeting of the kid’s new “mother”. Yes skimming over the character of Tracy is in a way wrong and misleading to the viewers, but not really when you consider that she was never the mother the title references Ted meeting. No loophole was exploited, no corner backed out of, just a simple deception that we all fell for, except for Marshall Erikson. You and many others may feel betrayed but I for one don’t. How did you not expect a large montage that would skim over everything between 2014 and 2030, it’s 16 years contained in one episode? Poor plot resolutions were almost a guarantee in that scenario, and in the show’s defense, I did read somewhere that it was edited because it was too long. So who knows if your complaints weren’t created by that.
Of course there were things I didn’t like and you very correctly point them out. The lack of continuity involved with Robin’s departure from the gang, Barney’s immediate reversion to his womanizing self following the divorce, the divorce itself happening so quickly, and the callous nature Tracy was discarded and Ted rebounded. But I sort of see the justification with these decisions. The show itself claims that Robin remains a presence in Ted’s kids lives, which seems unlikely considering her sabbatical from the group, as does her tri-annual wine tasting with Lily also seem unlikely now. But I see how they would need to remove her from the group, sacrificing continuity, just to truly tell the story of how Ted meets the kid’s “mother” Robin and not the “aunt” Robin. This forces them to regress Barney’s character. But think about Barney’s character. Would you really believe that Barney Stintson would become a inconsolable wreck in the wake of his divorce? I certainly wouldn’t buy that knowing the character that we’ve seen over the last 9 years. And knowing that character, no girlfriend or one night stand would’ve been capable of keeping him honest and happy if Robin couldn’t, which they proved the first time they started dating. It had to be his daughter that changes him.
But none of those things completely ruined the episode to me, Ted’s monologue at the end is right, it is about the journey, not the destination.
So yes, Ted won. He got everything he wanted at the expense of some well-liked characters, but he fought for 25 years through 3 different marriages and dozens of relationships to get there. He kind of deserved it
Dan, I want to respond to your very eloquent and thought out comment, but will do so in the morning when my brain is fresh. Thanks for reading and for stating your contrary opinions in a non attacking way. Seriously. 🙂 -Kim
Maybe this was already touched but future Ted says “your mother has [not had] her own pair (of driving gloves)” S9E1 – suggesting she’s still alive. There have been a few references that FT makes that sound like its her in the present. I hate C and C right now. 🙁
As I watched the finale I didn’t feel like I was watching the same show anymore, almost immediately into it I felt like something was very off with all the acting and dialogue… by the end I knew I hadn’t been watching the same characters I had enjoyed for years.
Was it just business as usual in the entertainment industry, trying to hook viewers and give them a “plot twist” that will be gossiped about on twitter and draw lots of attention? Some HIMYM episodes were very beautiful, they captured great aspects of human emotion. The finale was terrible, it ruined every character and what they stood for, for me.
This sounds funny, but when I watched the show on Monday, I thought to myself the entire time, “I bet Kim Rogers is absolutely HATING this.”
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Well it’s good that everyone knows how I will react to things 😉
I agree with you completely! I still feel like this was a bad dream or a terrible terrible joke. I knew that I’ll cry during the finale but I didn’t expect that to be tears of disappointment! And I loved this show so much… Only thing that makes me feel a bit better is knowing that a lot of fans feel the same. I know that everyone is entitled to have their own opinion but honestly, people calling that pile of BS “a perfect ending” are making me cringe.
This is a safe space to share your rage, Joy 🙂 thanks for reading. -K
agreeagreeagreeagreeagree. Sooooo disappointing. Not to be over dramatic, but it almost ruins the series for me when I go rewatch old episodes. Even my HUSBAND gave a major groan of disdain. I thought I was pissed when they had Carrie go back with Mr. Big… but when those kids chimed in I was like DEARGODNO. The only thing I kinda thought was a good wrap up was Barney falling in love with his daughter, but it was gross, and almost unnatural, to see him go back to his philandering ways. And not that they needed to make his baby’s mamma a big deal, but it would have added to his somewhat “growth” to at least see her. And I feel that Marshall and Lily didn’t really get a fair wrapped up ending. Marshall got to be a judge… they had another kid… It would have been cute to see them as older “Ted-aged” parents and see how Marshall turned out to be just like his dad or something. ah well… Those are my feels.
I agree re: Marshall and Lily. They completely got the shaft in the back half of the finale.
Funny you bring up SATC, as we are gearing up to do a whole series on that this summer (that follows closely to our character appreciation posts for Friends). But we are ALSO having a Big vs Aiden set of posts, so you’ll have to stick with us 🙂 Thanks for reading, Jackie!
Awesome comparison to Carrie and Big but at least with them there was back and forth where you hoped they’d get back together(at least I did ☺️). But there was never a time where I thought…hey I hope Ted gets back with Robin. NEVER
#accurate
You will ALSO love our upcoming SATC series 🙂
I’m sure I’ll love it but then I love everything you guys do! I totally stalk this site. And to think I totally found you guys by accident!
Love it!!!
The big difference with this comparison to Big and Carrie is that SATC gave us full seasons to see the evolution of both characters and how they’d worked through their differences, and HIMYM just killed off the Mother we’d been waiting 9 years to meet and slapped Ted and Robin back together in 10 minutes, despite all evidence that they should remain friends :/
Boom.
I guess my biggest problem was I believed what I had been told for years. That you don’t decide to settle down one day, go downstairs and bam, there she is. I’ve been one of those people on IMDB who insisted all season there’s no way Robin would ever be the endgame or that they’d kill the mother. To quote Princess Bride, it was “Inconceivable.” I saw Time Travelers as a story of a man at his lowest desperate to meet the one woman who would change his life, not the depression of a man who lost his wife 6 years earlier. And if he was sad over losing her, why is it that Time Travelers was the first we heard of it?
And I understand the loneliness of losing a wife. My first wife died when I was 33 and I was alone for 6 years. Fortunately I did meet someone new and we’ve been together for 18 years now. So I really don’t need to hear how a wife dying is realistic. Real life has mice and roaches, but not a cockamouse or laugh tracks.
Ted talks about the trips his family took. The kids were 7 and 9 when their mother died. How much would they even remember? Were they grateful to hear about their mother? No instead they felt punished that he was telling them about her.
As it turns out, the cynics had it all figured out, while I, the romantic, was dead wrong. Literally dead wrong. I actually had trouble sleeping Monday night, from anger at my feelings of betrayal. Yes, I was wrong about the show’s resolution, but I tell you in all honesty, I’d rather be wrong for the right reasons, than right for the wrong ones.
William, I love this comment and your candor. And you’re totally right. I had the same interpretation about Time Travelers, if you go back and read my “45 Days” post. I saw it as someone at their lowest not having ANY idea how close to happiness he was. Not someone sad about the days he didn’t get….though when we viewed that episode right before the finale, my entire party went “Yup, she’s most definitely dead”.
And yes, I feel that’s what bugs me the most about this ending. It felt cynical as opposed to the big beating romantic heart that HIMYM always proclaimed it was about. Thanks for reading and sharing. -Kim
As promised, here is why I think the ending made perfect sense:
Barney and Robin’s divorce was going to happen because those two were never going to end up together. Ironically, the reason they originally got together was because neither of them wanted a committed relationship. The cold feet they had shown this season was rooted in valid concerns that were brushed off with “awww” moments. But the problems were real, and they would come back to haunt them.
While many have grown to love Tracy thanks to Cristin Milioti, The Mother was never much more than a plot device. Her death was foreshadowed in “Time Travelers” and “Vesuvius,” in addition to subtler hints throughout the series. I think the scenes with Tracy in this season made more sense with her death. Especially the ones with Ted.
A large number of fans who disliked the ending have said they wouldn’t have had a problem with it if it weren’t for Ted and Robin ending up together. But Ted and Robin has always been an important, if not the most important, part of the show. These two were separated by circumstances. But more than 20 years later, they deserved a new chance at happiness.
I expanded upon this comment in a handful of posts over here:
http://himysm.blogspot.com/
I’ll warn you though that it’s a long read.
I look forward to reading it.
I DO feel my most personal betrayal WAS the fact that Tracy was a PLOT DEVICE that (again, to me) went against everything I thought the series was saying. I’ll never deny that Robin was a huge part of Ted’s life, and if the show had ended circa season 4, I would have been fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine with them ending up together. I just thought when we focused SO MUCH on Ted letting Robin go, especially in the ninth season, that it felt cheap to have him go back to her in the end…to make it feel like he truly NEVER let her go, you know?
As far as Robin and Barney, I totally agree with you that they were always going to have problems in their relationship. Maybe their relationship WAS ultimately doomed. But I did feel that the finale completely ignored the growths they had made as individuals over the course of the later seasons (Barney’s speech at the end of the Hurricane Irene episode is one of the first things that comes to mind…the a day that goes by without talking to you one. Or Robin giving up the job for her relationship with Don.) and reduced them to the characters they were at the start. It just didn’t feel RIGHT to me, hence my sense of betrayal.
I forgot about Robin giving up that job for Don! But she got burned though…which will make a woman say NEVER AGAIN! ya know? I feel like she had a real chance to grow with Barney and they kind of let down with her character.
YEP
Also, I COMPLETELY agree with the “things you would have changed” section in the start of your post. I think I hinted at it in the post or either in the comment thread, if we had SEEN the things you mentioned, I would have accepted the ending more.
That was a great post! I kind of agree about Barney and Robin I just wished the whole last season wasn’t their wedding. As for Ted and Robin, there was really nothing I can think of that made me think that they should get back together on her part. She never really changed except for last season when she was wondering if she should be with Ted. I just kind of was over them as a couple.
I have still not found the strength (or stomach, by how it sounds!) to actually watch the ending. Quick, in one paragraph how SHOULD it have ended… I’ll read the responses once I’ve finished watching.
philo, I THINK one of the comments in the thread stated how it should have ended. But give me time to think -K
I finally watched this episode over the weekend and could not have been more disappointed. It wasn’t even a FUNNY episode, it was so hastily thrown together, it was like a big pile of garbage and super disappointing after the series has been so wonderful. F——.
BASICALLY.
NOW IMAGINE WATCHING IT LIVE.
Sage will attest that I ended up on my fire escape sobbing. And then I made my whole party watch dancing with the stars. -K
it’s like a year later but barney and robin were my ship before i even started watching the show, alright? i saw gifs on tumblr and i instantly loved them.
so throughout the first few seasons i was eagerly waiting for my ship to happen, and it did! and they were so perfect together, until the writers forced them to break up. but then they got married! and they proved to us again and again that these characters have grown, that they can love each other and live with each other’s faults, and they could, i don’t know, even work out together.
but no. their entire relationship is thrown out the window and set on fire.
barney said he loved robin more than kids. barney said she was more than just a number to him. but what happens? 31 here gets knocked up and all of a sudden a baby is all it takes to change barney stinson. despite the fact that for so many episodes, the show has reminded us that it was robin that changed him. they both made mistakes and learned from them. they grew as characters.
and i’m really pissed that in the beginning of the episode after the episode they just got married in, they divorced. way to go, writers.
Intense!
While I have problems with the finale. Robin/Ted and Robin/Barney, mostly.
The theory that Robin and Ted were together and that the Mother was dead in the end, was floated awhile back.
So, I wasn’t surprised.
Personally, I loved the Barney/Ellie thing. NPH knocked it out of the park!
And Dexter had a FAR worse series finale. I promise you! I’d compare this finale to the LOST finale. The theory was out there and it was true. Do I hate the episode for it? HELL NO. I was crying as the credits faded to black, just as I did with HIMYM.
I don’t know. While I can’t stand that Robin/Barney only gave themselves 3years(I mean, they screwed around for longer than they were married, WTF!?!). And that apparently Robin was Ted’s end girl. I still adore all the time he had with Tracy(and OMG, I wish we had more).
I came across this site today after hunting across the web for something else. I inintially landed on one of your top-20 moments pages, when the finale was still in the distance, loaded with disbelief that the creators could ever end the series with the mother being dead. So immediately I hit HIMYM in the search bar to find your reaction to the finale and read this.
Thank you.
Thank you for saying exactly everything that I felt.
I loved this show, and if I can rewrite the finale in my head and pretend it never happened, I’ll still love this show in its repeats to infinity. It was wondeful and emotional and hilarious in just the right amounts, until this finale.
This finale which betrayed everything the characters we spent rather close to a decade loving were.
I’m just so glad to know I wasn’t alone in my outrage that this could be the story they intended to tell from the beginning. Because if it was, then they did a crappy job of it.
The story they built was one of hope and optimism, of growth and change, until this episode.
I miss these characters and lament they didn’t get the ending I feel they deserved – except for Marshall and Lily.
In my head, Barney and Robin lived happily forever after; maybe they adopted, maybe they didn’t. Ted and Tracy had the kids, got married as soon as they found out she was pregnant, and the whole story was told on the evening of a surprise anniversary party or birthday party. And Lily and Marshall, well, at least they got their happily forever after.
Thank YOU Amanda! I still haven’t been able to watch any of the old episodes…I’m still too angry. I hope someday I’ll be over it. So glad you found us 🙂 -Kim
it’s been 6 years and some of us are still furious. that spinoff series never resulted. fans were too alienated.