How I Met Your Mother - General Discussion

[Kromm]

My take on it is this (and may not go down well with either "side" on the debate over the finale).

Cristin Milioti was genius.  Adorable,  Perfect.  

For another show. Or mayhaps, if this show had allowed itself to BE a different show.

Since we now know they were always committed to the ending we saw, the biggest crime wasn't even shafting the character.  It was probably in ever letting her on air in the first place.

Wha? You might be saying.  You just praised her.

And I meant it.  Not just in a loose theoretical sense, but also based on what she did on the show.  But as good as what she did WAS, since the creators were committed to that cold almost perfunctory dismissal of her at the end (and to me the implication that Robin was the ultimate goal, because hello?  Ted ranted about her for hundreds of hours to his kids), that created a few burdens for them (which they failed at).

1.) it created the burden that Robin needed to be propped up, TRULY, as "the one that got away".  Instead of last minute wedding jitters which she and Ted dealt with, and ridiculous balloon metaphors, and garbage about vows which were reduced to meaningless pap the next episode, the show's obligation ACTUALLY had been blown by that AND years of "they're not meant to be" stuff before that.  Robin came off as unworthy of the level of dedication Ted had, and Ted's dedication was dismissed as stupid, insane obsession.  

2.) The Mother arguably should have never been onscreen.  The moment you commit to her not being the endgame, you have two VIABLE (non-shitty) options.  Make her a real fully realized character and EARN the pain of the audience and play that out over a great number of episodes. This plan needed the Mother to be onscreen for years.  And then, most importantly, her death can't have been capped off almost as an afterthought with a "go get Aunt Robin!" (sour) cherry on top. With this plan the death of the mother needed hours--I'd say at least half a season--to deal with.  Or its shallow, stupid and insulting.  The SECOND option is to never show her at all.  Keep her a ciper.  A SYMBOL.  See the back of her head at a wedding at most.  Yes, its still cold.  But then the audience isn't kind of half-in half-out with her.  They aren't emotionally invested, and Robin (if she'd never been SO fucked up as a character) could be a valid endgame without a feeling of insult.  The moment you make the Mother onscreen, and worse yet make her WONDERFUL, and EVEN WORSE a clearly discussed "object of destiny", then you create a really sick dynamic.  A bad one if you don't also give the proper time to devote to her death.   So never showing her at all would have been the much kinder (and more honest) writing choice.

Edited April 1, 2014 by Kromm

[fabaa]

Why did it take Ted and Tracy so long to get married after they met?

They were going to get married at the castle, but she got pregnant. Then she had another kid and Ted wanted to make the wedding something big.

I will admit that this episode was pretty rushed but upon reflection, I guess that's why there was so little focus on the mother this last season and rather on the concept of Ted and the gang learning how to grow up with each other as their lives were changing so drastically. How one day you could be the best of friends with someone and then suddenly they drop off the face of the earth, just the same as that stranger you meet could one day become your best friend.

Exploring relationships like this is where I felt HIMYM was always strongest (and some of those concepts hit close to home) so I liked that it began with the gang meeting Robin, losing her, and then maybe reconnecting once again. It was rather hopeful.

By the end of the episode, both Ted and Robin had gotten most of what they wanted out of life like the rest of the gang had; there really wasn't anything anymore holding them back from each other.

Life is unpredictable and so was that finale, and ultimately I'm happier for it.

So true, thats why I do not hate the finale. As much as I love Barney/Robin, I did not take it so hard when it was revealed they got a divorce. I did find myself hoping that they would reunite after Barney matured from having a daughter. Still.. I always knew since season one that the mother is dead and Ted is telling the story about "Aunt Robin".

The only disappointment is how they focused on a weekend of a wedding (that did not end happily ever after) instead of their usual storytelling structure.

[Kromm]

Mark me down as disappointed. The one scene I really liked though was when Ted actually finally meets the mother (imagine that). I like Cristin Milioti and wish they would have done more with her.

I think one of the few things I've seen an almost total consensus on is that Cristin Milioti was wonderful.  My feeling is that she can now call her own shots on a future project and pretty much get anything she wants.  

Good for her.  She came out of this a winner, even if we can debate till the cows come home if the show itself did.

[ApathyMonger]

I think one of the few things I've seen an almost total consensus on is that Cristin Milioti was wonderful.  My feeling is that she can now call her own shots on a future project and pretty much get anything she wants.  

She has a pilot for NBC, A to Z: http://tvline.com/2014/02/12/a-to-z-cristin-milioti-nbc-comedy-series-cast/

 

The potential series chronicles the relationship between a young couple, Andrew and Zelda, from meeting to breakup. Milioti will play the alternately serious and hilarious Zelda, a lawyer at a public-advocacy firm who loves being a grown-up and doesn’t understand why anyone over 20 would go see an animated movie or eat ice cream sundaes. Destiny and fate are not in her vocabulary; she believes she controls her own destiny.

Ginsberg from Mad Men is the other lead.

[SimoneS]

I stopped watching this show in season 2 and only caught the repeats now and then, however, I tuned for the finale. I don't get why they did not just make Robin the mother. Was that too easy so they had to put Ted and Robin with different people? Why waste all time with Barney and Robin's romance and courtship? I never thought they belonged together anyway so their divorce felt inevitable.

Edited April 1, 2014 by SimoneS

[Iceman91]

  I'm part of the minority that liked the episode, I always like Robin/Ted and I wasn't crazy about the mother so I didn't have a problem with the ultimate conclusion. Now saying that I agree that there were huge issues with the pace of the finale and the structure of this season.

  Building this season around Robin and Barney's wedding was a huge mistake. If they really knew all along that Barney and Robin were going to divorce what was the point of passing all this time on their wedding? I'm talking about the wedding, but you could say the same about the last 2,3 years, the writers passed an insanely long time trying to force  the viewers to love Barney and Robin when the effort wasn't worth the result. And of course passing all the time on Barney/Robin and Ted getting over Robin meant that you were going to rob the Ted/Robin reunion of any emotional value for most of the spectators.

 As for the episode itself it was badly paced, they put in one season worth of plot and decided to waste time on Barney' antics that stoped being funny a long time ago.  The result of this was that there wasn't any time left for the big emotional moments, the biggest mistake being the way the dealt with the mother's death. We learn that she is sick in just one scene and then we jump to the daughter saying it wasn't about the mother but about the mother, it gives the impression that the mother, in the end, was just an afterthought and I understand why it angered a lot of fans.

 One solution for this final season could have been to put the wedding sooner, and stretch the events of this final over several episodes. Think how better the mother dying would have been if we passed more time with her and how better this last scene could have been if we saw Ted dealing with the death of his wife and reconnect with Robin. Thomas and Bays would have lost the twists that they love so much, but their final would have gain so much in emotion.

 Last remark or rather question: I see everybody talking about the scene with the children filmed during the 2nd or 3rd season as proof that it was the plan all along but am I the only one under the impression that the dialogues were recorded recently and dubbed over these scenes?

Edited April 1, 2014 by Iceman91

[Athena]

The outrage to this finale made it to work so I buckled and watched. I knew I would eventually, but curiosity got the best of me. As an early viewer of this show, I had affection for it, but it died slowly as the years wore on. As with someone else, it went somewhere around Barny/Robin 1.0. I couldn't stand the triangle and Ted's chasing of every girl for the "One" and Robin. I also really liked Barney/Robin at the onset, but the writers made them both so unlikeable. I felt Barney had no real development at all. I bought he would change for his daughter, but it felt cheap. It didn't change nine years and the only time he felt real was when he was with Robin in the early days to me and then that ended.

Oddly enough, I didn't have a strong negative reaction to the reveal. I saw it coming. There has always been strong elements of Ted/Robin as end game. I do feel kinda used though since it has been nine years for this. The good thing was that I skipped almost all of this last season and most of the last couple so I didn't have to drag myself to the end.

I'm just glad the show is over. It should have ended years earlier. I like most of the cast so I hope they go on to far better things. I won't tune into the spin off, but I knew that I wouldn't stick with these showrunners long before I saw this finale.

[tharsei]

This was very depressing.  I am easily fooled, which usually makes watching TV and movies very enjoyable -- I never see the twists coming!  But they fooled me into thinking Barney and Robin could live happily ever after, and they fooled me into believing that Ted and Robin weren't right for each other and weren't going to be together.  Joke's on me, but my heart hurts now.

[KarenClassic]

I was so annoyed by the ending that I forgot to mention how sad the Mother's wedding dress was.  I'm glad this article reminded me to mention it.  It look like it wasn't ironed and looked so unflattering- and she is so cute that you know it is the dress. 

[girlonthepark]

Just watched the finale. There were parts I liked but ultimately, I felt like the creators got so caught up in their "this is the plan!" Plan that they kind of forsook any of the things that they had established/made work in the later seasons in favour of it. It smacked of a child using a hammer to smash awkward puzzle pieces together to make the picture they want ("this looks right, right?"). The longer the seasons went on, the more obvious it was that Robin and Ted shouldn't be together but they forced it and ended up with a fan service ending. IMHO, the show should have ended one of two ways.

1) Ted concludes the story about the mother (who should have had WAY more screen time this season!) with the idea that sometimes, the road to love is rocky and plans don't always go the way we hope, but love is an adventure and something to be grateful for, no matter how we get there and no matter how it ends.

2) Robin goes after Ted. Honestly, after all his romantic gestures, I feel like it might have gone over better for me if she did the chasing this time. Even a subtle gesture like have it be his birthday and have her give him a framed map to Argentina or something (a place that they had talked about going to back in the day) with a note that reads "I'm game if/when you are" and then maybe they stand looking awkwardly at it for a minute before he clumsily takes her hand or something? I don't know but something to change their dynamic a bit.

I used to love this show but I feel like it will be a while before I revisit it.

[Kromm]

Another crime of the finale:  they didn't even TRY to explain SagetVoice.  They just ignored it.

In truth, as much of a piece of shit as the finale was, SagetVoice could have helped.

What was most prominently missing was proper context given to Ted's grief.  SagetVoice was the perfect potential mechanism to address that.  Ted's imaginary vision of himself as the perfect father, embodied by someone who looks and sounds like Danny Tanner, who we see Ted talking to/imagining when he's trying to decide if he should pursue Robin again.  Rather than some insulting aside to the kids, that "yeah, its okay Dad", instead seeing Ted talk it out. Express to his SagetVoice Self how much he misses Tracy.  How bad he feels about the kids growing up without a Mother.  How he feels he wronged Robin way back in so many ways.  Maybe telling SagetVoice that Robin and he were wrong way back when but that both of them have changed a lot--for the better.  We needed to hear Ted say certain things to make what happened okay.  Saying it to SagetVoice could have accomplished this.

And they blew it.  SagetVoice was just ignored, as well as this creative path out of their mess.

[KarateKate]

Tracy seemed to be perfect for Ted. After nine seasons of build up, the meeting scene under the yellow umbrella in the rain with "Downtown Train" behind it as they saw a glimpse of missed connections was lovely. Truly it was.

But it wasn't a lovely moment surrounded by a story that supported it without major shoehorning.

Likewise, NPH's Barney falling in love with his daughter was just a beautifully acted high point in the character's moral arc. But it came at the expense of a lot of extra Barney *ick*.

[side note: I totally agree with the poster above that posited Barney wasn't as bad as presented, because all of what we saw was from Ted's story. Even Ted realized in one story (St. Patrick's Day, wasn't it?) that he (Ted) was extra douchey and wasn't really telling the story to show that. Likewise, I feel Barney got extra "dogged". I mean, he's the ex-husband of the woman he is subconsciously pitching to his kids, so you don't tend to paint exes in the best light, even if they're your friend]

I didn't get that Ted was saying Tracy wasn't The One. But that at that point, six years after her death, he just watched Season One of Friends and Joey told him "What are you talking about? One woman? That's like saying there's only one flavor of ice cream for you." Tracy was The One. Robin wasn't the one that got away. But she was the one that came back, and was alive. I thought very realistic to life that he would turn to Robin... but that doesn't necessarily make good tv. Case in point.

[Eucrid]

Just because you have footage from 7/8 years ago doesn't mean you have to use it. This episode could have finished with Ted and Tracy meeting at the station under the umbrella. That would have been pretty satisfying even with some other misteps in the finale.

[Athena]

I didn't get that Ted was saying Tracy wasn't The One. But that at that point, six years after her death, he just watched Season One of Friends and Joey told him "What are you talking about? One woman? That's like saying there's only one flavor of ice cream for you." Tracy was The One. Robin wasn't the one that got away. But she was the one that came back, and was alive. I thought very realistic to life that he would turn to Robin... but that doesn't necessarily make good tv. Case in point.

The execution was the worse. I actually think they could have made me believe the Robin thing in the first two seasons, but not now. Personally, I'm not a true believer in The One in the sense there is one perfect partner or soulmate out there for everyone. I do think that Tracy is probably the great love of Ted's life though. She is definitely more compatible for him, but she dies. It happens and it also appens that people come together years later. Ted is lucky. I think back to one of the lines I remember most from this show: You only need two things for a relationship: timing and chemistry. Robin and Ted did have chemistry at one point. Maybe not as much as they did with Tracy or Barney. In any case, Robin and Ted liked each other, but they wanted different things so their story resumed twenty years later. 

Edited April 2, 2014 by Athena

[Kromm]

The title of this article on Yahoo TV is somewhat condescending to fan outrage, but the actual content of the article contains some cited tweets that are genuinely funny in their venting at the show.

‘How I Met Your Mother': 14 of the Funniest and Angriest Reactions to Series Finale

[MollyMelrose]

An alternate ending:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0caCEG1nH3E&feature=youtu.be

[Kromm]

You know who I feel sorry for?  David Henrie.  Why?  Time Mag has a nice rundown of the post-show careers for everyone.  Mind you, he hasn't even been part of the show for 8 years.  Even so its sad to see this nice list of projects for them and then we get to poor David.

 

Lyndsy Fonseca and David Henrie (the kids): She’s in Moments of Clarity, due later this year, and he’s in a bunch of movies coming up, including Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.

Oh my.  In Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.  Yeah its a paying job.  Yeah, its a nationally released theatrical movie.  But even STILL..

[arc]

 

2) Robin goes after Ted. Honestly, after all his romantic gestures, I feel like it might have gone over better for me if she did the chasing this time.

Even a tiny thing like Ted not "going big" by not holding the blue french horn might have helped...

As for the fan-edited alternate ending: I liked it a lot.

[Rinaldo]

I'm rather embarrassed at how much better that "alternate ending" is making me feel. 

[Rinaldo]

I actually don't disagree with that, given the premise. But I think there's a third way: ditch the stuff you filmed years ago, and figure out an ending that matches the way your show has evolved over the years.

[MrsClaus]

That alternative ending is so much better than that crapfest from the other night.

[Pallas]

Umbrella meet: The real joy and surprise on Ted's/Radnor's face when Tracy tops him with, "Terribly mistaken," is delightful.  He is thrilled to his toes -- you can actually feel him opening wide in gratitude, accepting this gift in humility and wonder. He's changed before our eyes.  No more ridiculous weekend, no more Chicago, no more crazy, defiant "But!" to the universe about wanting and deserving Robin. He takes life on its own terms and sees that when he does, he and life aren't on opposite sides any longer.  

That moment was the show's doing, in its own words, "the best thing we do."  

[Kromm]

I actually don't disagree with that, given the premise. But I think there's a third way: ditch the stuff you filmed years ago, and figure out an ending that matches the way your show has evolved over the years.

I did qualify it right there with "Since we now know they were always committed to the ending we saw".  The "ditch" option is the real one if that hadn't been true.

[Kromm]

Umbrella meet: The real joy and surprise on Ted's/Radnor's face when Tracy tops him with, "Terribly mistaken," is delightful.  He is thrilled to his toes -- you can actually feel him opening wide in gratitude, accepting this gift in humility and wonder. He's changed before our eyes.  No more ridiculous weekend, no more Chicago, no more crazy, defiant "But!" to the universe about wanting and deserving Robin. He takes life on its own terms and sees that when he does, he and life aren't on opposite sides any longer.  

That moment was the show's doing, in its own words, "the best thing we do."  

Ain't it funny how destiny works?  An entire universe of odd almost meets and common things happen for years and years, you finally meet and have this moment of destiny and then...

...you don't marry her for years, she dies, you bore your kids with her with stories of another woman who treated you like a second tier choice for most of your adult life until you were married and only THEN became a jealous cow, and then you hook up!!!

Whooooo!  Destiny!  Creating perfect moments, kids, long ass stories, corpses, lonely bitter jealous spinsters, and hookups!

Edited April 3, 2014 by Kromm

[Lily Adler]

Tracy was amazing. I just can't with the writers right now and hope that Milioti has a great career on television or whatever venture she may pursue.

[arc]

Yeah, they definitely should have ditched the old ending they shot.  Sure, Henrie and Fonseca weren't going to look like teenagers forever and sure, maybe they never wrote out a version of the story that would have supported a new ending -- how could they have thought of every eventuality? -- but ideally they would have seen how the show had evolved since they'd first thought of the ending and came up with one that fit what had transpired since.

I don't think keeping the mother offscreen would have been viable once they got that surprise ninth season either though. They'd paced out the clues and near-misses and left themselves with little else to give the fans besides actually showing her.

Hey, unrelated, I just figured out that "T.M." could also stand for "The Mother"... I know "Tracy" was fixed in stone since long ago, but (I'm a new fan) was "McConnell"? Or any "M" name?

Edited April 3, 2014 by arc

[arc]

That alternative ending was great! And also already taken down by a copyright claim from the studio. Boo.

[Kromm]

That alternative ending was great! And also already taken down by a copyright claim from the studio. Boo.

Wow.  Making them look like even bigger assholes.

Yes, I'm sure they regularly order stuff taken down for much less reason. But doing it with this comes out looking like sour grapes about the complaints, and actual people everywhere on the Internet pointing to that alternate ending video as an improvement.

Plus... hello... it probably falls within "fair use" SPECIFICALLY because its been changed from the original (but is still fairly short).

Edited April 3, 2014 by Kromm

[Spooneroonie]

I didn't like all the choices they made but I felt that we weren't left with unanswered questions the way some shows do.

But.....The Pineapple Incident! I have no earthly idea why this is the thing that bothers me so much.

[SilverPoet]

Josh Radnor was on the WTF podcast with Marc Maron and I thought his interview was really interesting! Marc had only seen like three episodes of HIMYM, so the interview was about the show and the success of the show vs specifics, but also a lot about Josh's process and his acting history and studies.  

The comments Josh makes when Marc asks about if the fans will be satisfied with the finale are really, really telling IMO.

Episode 484. http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast

Edited April 3, 2014 by SilverPoet

[Subrookie]

I went back and watched some of the shows from Season 1 and 2 after this finale. I was until a few years ago mostly a casual watcher of HIMYM, but realized after watching some great episodes again like "The Pinapple Incident" and "Slap Bet" that I must have watched this show more than I thought originally.

I can't believe how good it was in it's first 2 or 3 seasons. This finale (and the entire last season) didn't do the characters or the show due justice. I feel lucky to have seen those early episodes when they first came out, but the way the ended the show just makes me angry.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Subrookie

[Omar G.]

Radnor was also on Professor Blastoff (with Tig Notaro, Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger) this week.  After listening to him on both podcasts I'm quite sure I'm Radnor'd out.

http://professorblastoff.com/6imte3az291jl3qjpuxllr3rbvkw49/2014/4/149-screenwriting-with-josh-radnor

[Jediknight]

Umbrella meet: The real joy and surprise on Ted's/Radnor's face when Tracy tops him with, "Terribly mistaken," is delightful.  He is thrilled to his toes -- you can actually feel him opening wide in gratitude, accepting this gift in humility and wonder. He's changed before our eyes.  No more ridiculous weekend, no more Chicago, no more crazy, defiant "But!" to the universe about wanting and deserving Robin. He takes life on its own terms and sees that when he does, he and life aren't on opposite sides any longer.  

That moment was the show's doing, in its own words, "the best thing we do."  

Yeah you can see Radnor played that moment as the moment Ted realized that Tracy's the one.  This isn't Stella, Zooey, or any other girlfriend, Tracy is actually the one.  That whole scene is one of my favorite scenes the show's ever done.  All that buildup for that moment, and it delivered big time.  If you end it on their train station meeting, it's a perfect ending, and goes down among great finales.  All the missteps before it don't matter, because that was the culmination of the show.

Of course they pissed that all away with it being all about Ted and Robin being together.  They may not have wanted to the predictable route, and wanted something different.  They forgot one thing, predictable doesn't always mean bad.  There are times where predictable is good.  In Lord of the Rings it was predictable that The Ring would be destroyed, and Sauron and his forces would be vanquished, we got that and it was great.  In Return of the Jedi it was predictable that the Rebellion would beat the Empire, the Emperor would be killed, and Darth Vader would get redemption, we got that and it was great.  They were logical endings that the story needed to have.  Ted and The Mother at the train station was the logical ending that this show needed to have, and they thought it would be great to swerve everyone, with something a whole lot of the fans feared and didn't want to happen.

This ending is going to do a huge number on How I Met Your Father.  Who's going to get invested in that, when Bays and Thomas gave us this?  I never watched Lost, but for as bad of the reception as the finale got, JJ Abrams can still fall back on Alias.  Alias gave us a good finale and satisfying ending.  Bays and Thomas haven't done that, and have actually given us a reason not to get invested in the spin-off.

[ShellSeeker]

Oh, bummer, the alternate ending is no longer available. Can someone tell me what it was? Whatever it was had to be better than the original.

[Lisin]

Basically it just cut out at the part where Ted says she got sick and then ends before the part where the Kids are on the couch telling him to go be with Aunt Robin. It ends with Ted and the Mother under the yellow umbrella. 

[Aussie Grrrl]

I loved it...it got rid of the train wreck that was Barney and Robin. Tracy was fun and refreshing but the story was never about her. So i wasn't invested in her at all.

[TigerLynx]

They had nine seasons, and an hour long finale to do this story, and they still screwed it up.

[arc]

Yeah, Sepinwall posted an alternate link to Ricardo J Dylan's "alternative ending" (on Vimeo this time) in his followup blog post and that was taken down a day later too.  But as uneasy as I was through the finale - because it rushed the next 15 years, because they killed off Tracy, maybe, because they trashed Barney and Robin's marriage a few minutes after the wedding they'd been building up the entire final season, because they really trashed Barney right back to OG sleazy Barney -- that alternative ending cut really underscored for me how much it was the tonal/pacing missteps of the final minutes that really ruined the finale.  Hell, he coulda left in that Tracy died; people do die even in sitcoms. Just close on meeting the mother, which was written and acted so sweetly, and we're good.

Maybe the official ending works for Ted telling the story to his kids who've spent six real years since their mom died, but to the TV audience, she'd been dead for a minute or so.  Fire up the funny music, because it's time to laugh again! W.T.F.

And the real ending didn't even subvert the cliche of ending right at the hopeful start of a relationship, because the real ending did exactly that.  Just with Ted and Robin.

Edited April 5, 2014 by arc

[rose313]

How Your Mother Met Me was also one of my favorite episodes. She is so cute and funny. As both the mother character and as an actress, and from reading a few of her interviews, as a real person. When they first cast her, my first thought was "Why did they cast someone who looks like Lily?" I changed my mind as soon as I learned about her, she is wonderful!

Edited April 4, 2014 by rose313

[Kromm]

This ending is going to do a huge number on How I Met Your Father.  Who's going to get invested in that, when Bays and Thomas gave us this?  I never watched Lost, but for as bad of the reception as the finale got, JJ Abrams can still fall back on Alias.  Alias gave us a good finale and satisfying ending.  Bays and Thomas haven't done that, and have actually given us a reason not to get invested in the spin-off.

Yeah, it will damage response to the new show. What I predict is that the co-show-runner they're bringing in will do more and more of the talking (its already started) and that a lot of code-talk will go on along the lines of "it will be like HIMYM, but new!"  Increasingly with an emphasis on how they're not going to do the same thing twice, but dodging any acknowledgement that the previous way was "wrong". They'll be clear to say it won't be the same, but hinge it more on not wanting to seem predictable rather than as any kind of admission of fault. 

Edited April 4, 2014 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Yeah, Sepinwall posted an alternate link to Ricardo J Dylan's "alternative ending" (on Vimeo this time) in his followup blog post and that was taken down a day later too.  But as uneasy as I was through the finale - because it rushed the next 15 years, because they killed off Tracy, maybe, because they trashed Barney and Robin's marriage a few minutes after the wedding they'd been building up the entire final season, because they really trashed Barney right back to OG sleazy Barney -- that alternative ending cut really underscored for me how much it was the tonal/pacing missteps of the final minutes that really ruined the finale.  Hell, he coulda left in that Tracy died; people do die even in sitcoms. Just close on meeting the mother, which was written and acted so sweetly, and we're good.

Maybe it works for Ted telling the story to his kids who've spent six real years since their mom died, but to the TV audience, she'd been dead for a minute or so.  Fire up the funny music, because it's time to laugh again! W.T.F.

And the real ending didn't even subvert the cliche of ending right at the hopeful start of a relationship, because the real ending did exactly that.  Just with Ted and Robin.

Bingo. This is the wall that seems to divide defenders of the ending from the rest of the crowd.  People may or may not be able to accept or rationalize the Mother dying and Robin being the next one at bat.  That's going to vary along a whole spectrum with viewers depending on a lot of factors and how they viewed the show. But in a way that's totally different from accepting HOW they did it.  It's a lot more to be able to just accept the undertones of the Mother being alive on screen one moment and six years dead the next.  In a drama, maybe.  In a comedy?  It feels like a slap in the face.  

It also violates deeply a principle most good TV writers, and virtually all viewer desires, seem to cleave to--show, not tell.  The way this was resolved was that we were simply TOLD that the Mother was dead, six years had passed, and everyone was okay with it.  We weren't SHOWN this was the case.  Nothing of that emotional transition, of the grieving.  NONE of it.  Think about this a bit and how much you, as viewers, have hated what we jeeringly refer to as exposition.  This was exposition--cutting out the work in the middle and just telling the audience how they're supposed to be processing this.  If normal exposition (normally complained about when plot elements are crushed up into a ball and spat instantly out at us) is hated, how much worse is it with character-based exposition instead of plot?

Edited April 4, 2014 by Kromm

[Bees]

God what a load of crap. 

You know I could forgive many transgressions of this finale and chalk it up to just me being a douchebag. Like Barney and Robin divorcing. I can forgive that. It happens sometimes. Though man it felt really crappy that they spent the whole season on the wedding only to get divorced not even halfway into the finale. But I a know a lot of couples that seem so right on paper and tend to end up divorcing. That's okay. 

I can forgive them for Barney being a babydaddy. That scene with Barney and his daughter is well-acted and tugged at my heartstrings a bit. I didn't like the circumstances behind it but man that scene was well-acted. 

I can even forgive The Mother dying. Once again, not a fan, but it's life. And that final scene with Ted finally meeting her was adorable and awesome. I loved that. Granted Tracy dying was pretty dang tropey in its own right, it was at least able to shrug off a bit. 

However I can NOT forgive the whole going back to Robin thing. I just can't do it. It rendered the entire series pointless. It also was a huge slap in the face to a lot of the diehard fans. To me, I initially watched the show because of the fact that Robin wasn't the Mother and the belief that Ted and Robin weren't going to end up together. I loved that. It shows a couple that doesn't quite work out who despite really caring about each other, fall into that whole realm of irreconcilable differences and bad timing. They showed that sometimes love isn't enough and that's okay. And even though that love they had faded away, they were still great friends. And I loved the whole dynamic. And I thought it sent a great message to send as well. For them to be like "LOL j/k BACK TO ROBIN NOW" was just insulting. And I thought the Dexter finale was bad. At least you knew that finale was going to be bad. This one you thought maybe there'd be some upside. Nope.

[Happy to be here]

I was actually thinking about how I would have ended the series because you can't complain about the ending and not bring your own.  Personally I would have had Ted meet Tracy at the train station and them hit it off there and then realize the wedding was still probably going on so Ted asks Tracy for a dance and she says why not.  They head to the wedding where they dance to the song: "Bless the Broken Road" By Rascall Flatts which except for maybe one verse is a perfect Ted Mosby Song.    After a few verses the show turns to flashbacks and

"Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you"

and so on.

And that kids, is how I met your mother.  And then Ted starts talking about how the future isn't perfect.  Barney and Robin eventually did break up and Robin went off to follow her reporter dreams and Barney knocked up #31 who died during child birth or ran off and forced him to step up and take care of a little girl on his own.  Years later Robin comes back into his life and they hit it off again and she falls in love with both him and his daughter.  They never marry but they are together to this day.  As for Marshall and Lily; Marshall gets his dream of becoming a judge and then runs for mayor (or whatever) but a few weeks into his term a video of  Beeraclease (or whoever) force him to resign and take a job at an evil law firm and the gang to this day joke that he never got to save the world but if he wants to destroy it he pretty much can.   Then Ted starts talking about his life with Tracy and the kids break in and say that they know she is dying but Ted blurts that she isn't and that she will get better and its the kids that say it is ok that they have known for awhile now but then Tracy come in and says that she got the results and that she is in remission and then thanks the kids for keeping Ted busy and hands them each $50.00.  Ted is annoyed and Tracy laughs that she might like his stories but he is a bit long winded.  Ted tries to deny it but he is just happy that his wife will be fine.    He ask her if she will ever agree to marry him and she comments that she will when he asks her correctly and mentions that  he told Robin he loved her the day they met.  Ted just smiles and then flashsback to the moment right after the dance ended and we see the gang all looking on as they watch Ted and Tracy dance.  They each bet on how long it will be before Ted Ted's it up.  Then the camera turns to Lily with a strange look in her eye and she simply says, "This one is going to last forever."    And scene.  End show.

[dolley]

I wish it had gone just like that, Chaos Theory.  In fact, I've decided that for me, it did.  Now I love the ending.  Thank you.  Oh, one favor.  Can you get rid of the wigs? 

[Kromm]

Cristin Milioti brought this up, not me!

In line with that, I'll start with one that involves her.  Ready?

--What if... she was not TOLD about the ending?

The way the ending is played out (and one of the huge angry complaints of so many, is that there's no real grieving period shown--no real conclusion to the Mother's side of things.  We know she's sick, the actress certainly did too since she played at least on scene talking obliquely about it and another in an actual hospital bed.  But what if that's ALL she knew?   She could have simply been told that the ending flashed back to the train station and ended there, and that the sickness was just a hanging plot thread tied up by OldTed talking to the kids.  Did she really have to be aware her character would die?

[BookWoman56]

With the finale, HIMYM joined Sex and the City in the category of shows where the finale so enraged me that I will most likely never rewatch any episodes of it. HIMYM accomplished this by doing essentially the same thing as SATC: spend years showing the audience why two people are a completely dysfunctional couple when they attempt to have a romantic relationship, and then ignore all that evidence to reunite them in a contrived, unconvincing plot twist in the last five minutes of the series.

Aside from that, though, I simply can’t get past the total WTFuckery of Ted sitting down with his kids, and telling them the story of how (a) he met this woman he obsessed over for years, despite declarations on her part that she just didn’t love him that way and in fact loved someone else enough to marry that guy; (b) that by a miraculous coincidence on the day the object of his obsession marries someone else, he just so happens to meet their mother; © that this woman he had been obsessed with shut herself off more or less from the entire circle of friends because she couldn’t stand seeing either her ex-husband move on or her ex-lover be happy; but (d) now that the mother is oh-so-conveniently dead, he wants to hook up with this woman. The kids would react by assuming that their dad married their mom on the rebound from this woman, that their entire marriage was based not on mutual love but their dad needing a consolation prize, and that this woman they know as Aunt Robin is the woman their dad never got over. In all seriousness, they’d be wondering if their dad hadn’t been having an affair with Aunt Robin while their mother was still alive. There is just no way in hell the kids react to that story by saying, yeah, dad, go boink Aunt Robin.

Many years ago I knew a guy whose parents sat him down the day before he left for college and gave him the speech of how they’d really been miserable for the past 6 years but had stayed together and pretended to be happy for his sake, but now that he was leaving home they were getting a divorce. This announcement fucked him up for years, much more so than a divorce would have done when he was 12, because their 6 years of “happy family” act convinced him that every so-called happy marriage was in fact a sham. What Ted just did to his kids is more or less the same thing. If they thought their parents were made for each other, they now would think their mom was just a pit stop in their dad’s journey to get together with the real love of his live. That is a horrible, horrible legacy for Ted to give to his kids.

[DrSpaceman]

I have posted elsewhere how much this ending sucked for many reasons, but since it can't be said enough, will repeat it here, this was awful, one of the worst endings in history, for many reasons. And it goes well beyond just the fact that the mother died. The whole last season was a waste.

20 or so episodes on a wedding that lasts 2 years and one hour to cover the next 17 years? What a waste.

Oh and since it can't be said enough either.......I hate Lilly. Selfish manipulative little twit

[daisieclickie]

I keep thinking about how much I hate what the show said about Robin and Barney's lives post-divorce. I don't buy that the show spent so much time showing us how those two characters had grown and evolved to the point where they were able to be in a giving, supportive relationship, just to basically take it back and revert Barney until deus ex baby changes him forever. But more than that, I hate that they basically showed us hand-wavey glimpses of her post-Barney, pre-Ted life that kind of only hints that she's very successful, career-wise, but still wistful about what she'd lost in both Ted and Barney, and estranged from her friends. In that sense too, the show is basically reverting her to Robin 1.0 who then spent the next 16 years burying her sorrows in her career, until Ted magically reappears in her life? Blergh.

I'd buy it more if they'd even hinted in some way that Robin had a fulfilling life with friends and relationships and people in it in the intervening years. I feel like, by showing her returning to an apartment full of dogs, they were basically admitting that she had returned to the loner Robin of the beginning, and that just kills nine seasons of character development for her as well.

To sum up: I am very sad about the Mother not being around more and I am somewhat annoyed about Ted, but I am actively angry about the reversion of YEARS of character development of Barney and Robin. They basically said that they grew up and became more loving people over nine years in their twenties and thirties, just to spend their thirties to forties exactly as they had before, with no growth at all. That is horrible.

[WendyCR72]

So Robin had no growth and was, in essence, alone and miserable. That's OK! Ted's wuv would bring her back to life!

Yes, over a week later and still DESPISE the ending and have zero desire to watch repeats. I did see at TV Shows On DVD that Bays is jabbering about an alternate ending to this shit. Probably the only way many would dare even think of buying S9 or The Complete Series (set for release, too.)

Unless the whole finale was burnt and re-shot, don't care.

[Kromm]

So Robin had no growth and was, in essence, alone and miserable. That's OK! Ted's wuv would bring her back to life!

Yes, over a week later and still DESPISE the ending and have zero desire to watch repeats. I did see at TV Shows On DVD that Bays is jabbering about an alternate ending to this shit. Probably the only way many would dare even think of buying S9 or The Complete Series (set for release, too.)

Unless the whole finale was burnt and re-shot, don't care.

They're cobbling together the alternate ending from existing footage they already had.  Probably all they need to cap it off is a few minutes of Radnor OR Saget's time (see how clever they are?  one of them can say "fuck off" and they still have another option).

They also appear to be lying and acting like the alternate already existed (or at the very least was always planned for the DVD), but we all know that's not true.