I remember watching “How I Met Your Mother” (“HIMYM”) with a friend of mine back in 2008, during season three when Ted and Robin’s relationship was fresh in our minds and our hearts. We lamented the fact that the creators of the series, beloved Wes alums Carter Bays ’97 and Craig Thomas ’97, did not have the foresight to make Robin the titular mother. We whined about what a perfect couple Ted and Robin made and how them dancing into the sunset would be the only ending to the series that would make sense. Oh, how foolish and naive we were. I guess this is a simple case of “be careful what you wish for,” because we could not have anticipated the shitstorm that was waiting for us at the end of the road in March 2014.
A couple of weeks ago, the final episode of “HIMYM” aired, and the Internet exploded with rants and comments on every blog and message board fans could find. Spoiler alert (although I’d honestly be surprised if you haven’t heard by now): Ted does finally meet The Mother, but within the next hour of screentime, she dies, Barney and Robin get divorced, and Ted presents that iconic blue horn one more time as he and Robin rekindle their love. My 2008 self would have loved this ending and cried tears of joy watching this generation’s Ross and Rachel finally get together. Yet my 2014 self, like the rest of hyper-invested TV fans, was upset by the finale, and rightfully so.
My friend and I were hoping for a happy Ted-and-Robin ending six years ago. Think about how different things were in 2008. Bush was still president. Michael Jackson was still alive. We were all still making “Slumdog Millionaire” references. Over time, people change, relationships grow, and television series evolve. Ted and Robin may have made perfect sense together earlier in the series, but we have since watched nine years of developing storylines that led us away from our early dreams of their happy ending.
Bays and Thomas have acknowledged that they decided exactly how the series would end back in 2006, and have used this foresight as a bragging point. Maybe they could brag about that if they had carefully planned and organized each detail of the series around this predetermined finale, but alas, they did not. By the final seasons, the series went in a totally different direction (as television series are wont to do), so the Ted-and-Robin ending felt like the creators were stubbornly shoving their formerly workable idea down viewers’ throats.
We spent the entire final season at Barney and Robin’s wedding. Please allow me to rephrase this for emphasis: we spent 24 episodes—12 hours of television—at the wedding of a couple that the creators convinced us to root for. And then, in the scene after their first dance as a married couple, they got divorced.
During those final 12 hours of television, we also spent time getting to know and falling in love with The Mother. The creators presented us with a very specific picture of these characters, one that was pointing toward a story about Ted and The Mother as one couple and Barney and Robin as another. And yet the finale completely flipped that on its head, acting as if the last nine years of development never happened. That’s just cruel to do to an audience that had so earnestly gone along for the ride.
I speak a lot about Bays and Thomas and the mysterious “they” who control the series because it’s important to remember that “How I Met Your Mother” was constructed by unseen hands. What they presented to us was very specifically selected, and what they showed us in this final season strayed away from the Ted-and-Robin romance. We watched Ted and Robin grow up and grow apart; we saw how their relationship with each other led them to relationships that ultimately seemed best for each of them. If they knew that they wanted to end with a reunion of Ted and Robin, perhaps this last season should have built up to that moment as opposed to cramming it all into the final episode. We should have gotten some more time with The Mother, been able to grieve for her, and seen Ted and Robin’s love rekindle for more than just 20 or so minutes if we were expected to like the ending we finally got.
“How I Met Your Mother” was an exhausting journey, and we fans trailed along as gamely as possible for every step of it. We hung off of every saccharine romantic moment and dizzying flashback and inside joke we had with the gang. No matter what, it was always fun to hang out with them each week; unfortunately, the creators’ vision just got too muddled by the end of the series, and they refused to adapt the ending they began with to the show they actually had. Let’s just hope they heed the viewers’ advice and give us something more satisfying in “How I Met Your Dad.”
23 Comments
Reed
I agree with you on season construction, and how it could have been better, however that doesn’t necessarily mean that the finale was flawed. You take those final 10 minutes in a vacuum and it is a beautiful ending to a beautiful story. Just my opinion.
Anonymous
Disagree. Like the daughter said: it was always about robin….
JJ_96
Completely agree with you!
ichuck7
I completely disagree. I liked the surprise ending. It took the one thing we took for granted (that this was a show all about how Ted met his wife) and created a surprise ending. I was hoping Ted would get together with Victoria, not Robin, but even so, it was well played.
If fans like you got their way, it would have been a happy but boring ending. I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but I’m mildly offended that you presume to speak for ALL dedicated fans.
The last season dropped hints all along the way. Rewatch it.
Sri lanka
Guys its allways been about Robin Robin Robin if you did not get that ,u missed the plot …. his daughter summed it up well ” u have the hots for Robin” the trick wad how to do the full circle without making it obvious. …
Jai
“u missed the plot”.. lol!
Looks like you missed the title!
Izzy
As if I’ll be watching How I Met Your Dad after this disappointment! It’s irritating when you become emotionally involved with characters and then have the rug pulled out from under you. I’m not likely to watch a Bays/Thomas production anytime soon.
JJ13
i’ll be watching it. i just hope they learn from this fuck up.
Mike
What rug? becuase the mom dies? Guess what? That’s how your journey is going to end too. Not all stories end with happiness…if you want that, go watch Wonder Pets….
overwhelmed
Her dying wasn’t the bad part. Going back to Robin was the bad part. Having the kids root for it was even worse. Maybe if they gave Ted and Robin terrible partners and had him divorce someone illsuited it may have worked, but they rushed the ending after a whole season of a prepping for something different.
EvidenceBasedPolicy
People keep saying crap like that. I don’t watch sitcoms for grim reality – I have enough of that in my actual life. I watch sitcoms to escape life and laugh a bit. Happily ever after endings are entirely appropriate in the context of a sitcom. Endings that leave you wounded and crying are not.
Anonymous
Sounds like someone can’t handle the realities of death and divorce…
John
… which is why we watch television.
Jai
Uhh we cannot handle a douchebag Ted never learning that the ultra-selfish Robin NEVER loved him even once. Even when they were together in season 2. We can handle realities when they are presented as… ummm I don’t know…realities?!
Writers actually showing us that Robin and Barney do make ‘some’ sense in their weird little world and then telling us they could not make it work because of rotten wi-fi? Yeah that is real!
The kids sounding bored when Ted begins to tell about their dead mother in the pilot. Aaand the same kids (Penny esp) urging Ted to bang Robin when he just finished telling them the heartfelt moment of how he met their (dead) mother…wow that is so realistic!
Ted going on with his life in the most regressive manner possible (that damn blue french horn)- yep too much realism there!!
I would have preferred Barney and Robin getting divorced over legitimate reasons and just being themselves. I would have liked Ted moving on with some new face (which we did not even need to see) and NOT go back to Robin!
I am sorry for the rant but I am sick of people saying divorce and death are just realities. Well here is a reality check: as a Sitcom finale, HIMYM sucked big time!
overwhelmed
Yes! Exactly. Like your kids are just gonna be like, “Wow, you spent this whole time talking about how much you are obsessed with Aunt Robin instead of helping us remember our dead mother…we totally want that.”
Jessica Setiawan
the reason i continue to watch the show it is because barney and robin…to see them apart after few seasons of up and down is really disappointing…i think the writer trying to make ted and robin like rachel and ross which is a total big mistake…now i can shoved all HIMYM DVD to the basement…not likely to watch it ever again…
Ms Sara
The scene in Time Travellers shows how deeeply ted loved the mother, and how she was the best for ted. It seemed much more pure than any of ted’s apparent “obsession” for robin. THIS is why the finale dissapointed me.
Also its pretty clear that robin is extremely insecure – she always likes the guy who is already “taken” – ted when he was with stella , barney when he was with nora/quinn , ted when he is with the mother !
Also if the creators wanted to show ” reality ” – yeah right ! People finding true love and living happily ever after is also “reality” !!!
Skippy
Barney and Robin were telepathic with each other!! How did they break Barney and Robin up just like that?
heath
Ive been spoiling the ending 4 myself today and I just cried when I found out robin and barney split up and that tec and robin will get back together I hate this ending but I will always love himym xxxxxxx
Mike
I loved the ending….not all stories end in happiness…divorce, death, etc is a part of life. I thought the ending was real and unique….the fact that so many people hated it proves it was good…when you elicit that much emotion on something…you are doing it right.
overwhelmed
So people dislike something…and that makes it…good?
Mike
the author is incorrect, the entire final season was not all the wedding…the final season was not linear…several scenes from earlier and later…
Anonymous
Oh thank God! I’m sorry, but Robin and Barney were simply not made for each other.
By the way, Ted and Robin’s relationship is supposed to be slightly based upon Ted’s favorite novel, “LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA”.