This post is a bit late, but after getting some referrals to my blog from Crowdini, I figured I needed to write a new blog post, and this has been on my mind for a while.
*SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL EPISODE OF HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER AND THE REST OF THE SHOW*
Everyone jumped on the hate train saying how awful the finale for How I Met Your Mother was, and I have to say, I see why people think that. It was a hugely eventful, rushed hour of details, twists, and many, many feels. It isn't surprising in the slightest why everyone thinks finale is awful, and "ruined" the show.
Sure, shows that focus around a central mystery such as this one hinge on answering that question, and delivering a satisfying ending. If the tv show "Lost" never delivered answers to all the questions they posed, people would have been pissed (maybe not more so than they already were). So for Carter Bay and Craig Thomas, the main people behind this show, to give you this finale to a 9 season show that supposedly shit's all over your notions of happy endings, answered questions, and overall story resolutions, it seems like an insult. I get the anger, devoted fans staying with a show this long, especially after some criticism that it stayed passed its welcome, just to give you this controversial ending, it hurts.
Not to be full of myself, but here is why those feelings are misplaced, and in truth this ending is almost perfect.
First and foremost, if a bad ending "ruined" a show, you are watching it wrong. Again, as I previously mentioned, I get that the title of a show asks a question, so answering and resolving the question is a huge part of the show and its draw. But there are numerous blogs showing that it isn't completely about Tracy (The mother). And that last link is an article saying why the ending of the show failed. It's good to read both sides of a debate.
How I Met Your Mother is about so much more than the Mother. First off, it was a show about Ted. More specifically, it was about how he became the person he needed to be to meet his future wife. If Ted met Tracy in any other part of the show, he wouldn't have been the right person to be with Tracy, and they would have never married. Ted learned so much throughout the show, about destiny, friendship, not doing stupid stuff after 2am, and by the end of the show, it made him the right person to finally meet and fall in love with his wife to be. It was about his journey.
A 9+ year journey is another thing the show was about. This is why future Ted (Bob Saget) so long to tell this story. It's again about his transformation, but it is also about the transformation of his friends, and their group as a whole. Why do people watch TV shows? It isn't about patiently waiting for the ending of the show (though if is an amazing show, that can be a part of it). You enjoy each episode, each story, each arc, the jokes, the characters, the pineapple, and of course, the mysteries. Even if a show has a bad ending, I'm not going to look back at the whole series and suddenly regret it. I wasn't watching HIMYM purely to find out how it ends. Sure, that was a huge part, but I still love almost every episode for giving me an enjoyable experience.
Now, to actually defend the ending, in more ways than the previous paragraphs.
A common argument that actually has some merit is that the show spent so much time saying why Ted and Robin shouldn't end up together, and they spent a full season about Robin and Barney's wedding. It is true that Ted and Robin kept playing with the idea of getting back together, and ultimately thought it was a bad idea, and I can see why people think this should be true.
But the finale season truly showed us why Robin and Barney shouldn't be together, and why Ted and Robin should.
Robin and Barney have always seemed to be more of friends with benefits than husband and wife material. When Barney first realizes how much of a "bro" Robin can be in a very early episode "Zip, Zip Zip" S1E14, it kind of cements what their relationship is like. They are alike in many ways, in such a way that they are good friends. They both like Scotch and Cigars, elegant clothing and some of the finer things in life. In "The Fortress of Barnitude" S8E19, Robin at first wants to sell the place that has all of Barney's quirks, but ultimate says they should keep it. Every feature in there is a total "bro" feature of Barney. You learn over the course of the show that almost every feature of that apartment is something of Barney's that Robin would hate, in a romantic sense. His porn collection, the lid that automatically raises, all the Star Wars memorabilia. Robin is accepting all these features of a guy that is a man whore, who lies and never commits, and who is straight out weird.
Okay, Robin can accept these features, but about the features where it matters, Robin and Barney do not get along. One of the biggest things that mattered to Robin in the final season is that Barney is a liar. Even when Barney can't tell a lie because he is so drunk "Unpase" S9:E15, Barney still manages to lie about the Ring Bear (That, or he got it after the fact, which isn't much better). In "Sunrise", S9E17, Barney reverts back to his old ways, teaching some new blood about the ways of the "player", how they could live his previous lifestyle. He still was holding onto a form of the playbook as well, something Robin absolutely hated. In "Last Forever" S9:E23/24, Robin wanted to move on with her life, to focus on her career (like she has done many times in the past), and Barney wants to live a stagnant life (like he has done many times in the past) and it shows, among other things, that they were really never destined to be together. Everything Robin wants romantically, Barney for the most part can't or won't provide, and who they are deep down do not connect. It was shown throughout the show this wouldn't work out, but it was especially emphasized in the final season. They were just not meant to be.
And now why Ted and Robin deserved to be together. If you recall in the very first episode, as this daily quirk article explains, everything was about Robin. “…that’s the funny thing about destiny, it happens whether you plan it or not. I mean, I never thought I’d see that girl again, but it turns out I was just too close to the puzzle to see the picture that it was forming. Because that, kids, is the true story of how I met your Aunt Robin.” They spent a whole season on the chase, a season of dating, and several seasons about the repercussions of the break up. It took 9 seasons for Ted to "get over her", and in the end, couldn't.
Whether it was due to his insane love for Robin, or just true kinship to another human being, Ted's acts in the final season showed how romantically they are connected. Robin wants the locket, Ted goes nuts finding the locket. Robin wants someone to be there for him, Ted is constantly supporting her during all the problems this wedding is having. Robin wants someone who won't tell significant lies, or potentially "player" ways.. Well Robin doesn't have to worry about that, because that isn't who Ted is. Ted by character is naturally a "dad". He was meant to be a dad. He is loving, caring, goofy, romantic guy. Though Ted and Robin differ on a lot of personal things, when it comes down to it, they seem to be a match romantically with everything except kids, which plays a huge point in all of this.
If Robin and Ted were destined to be together, why not have them marry and why even include the mother? Because if Ted never had kids, he could never marry Robin. Now, I don't mean to minimize Tracy's importance, she is much more than the mother of Ted's kids, and I'll talk more about her in a bit, but in a way, that is what she is. Ted and Robin could never have gotten married because Robin couldn't have kids, and that would never work for Ted. Like I said, he is a dad by nature, and without having the kids fulfill part of his life, it would have never worked. Robin also needed to follow her career. She has always made it a point about how important her career is, and if Ted and some kids tied her down, she wouldn't have fulfilled her life either. Barney was perfect for that part too. They all played their roles to help them progress into who they needed to be. Even though Robin and Barney's marriage went to the dumps, it still enabled Robin to do what she wants to do, even if it hurt.
While this is happening, Ted and Tracy have their lives and are completely happy. If Tracy didn't died, he wouldn't be missing out on his destiny. They truly were meant to be together, as shown by how perfect they were together. Almost everyone grew to love Tracy in the final season, which is why so many people felt betrayed when she died. It was awful that she died, and Ted truly did experience a horrific loss, but it wasn't about her. In the future, Ted is talking about his life, the progress they all have made through it, and where he currently is. Ted became the person he needed to be to be a dad, and now he is the person he needs to be to finally be with Robin, even if he didn't intend for the whole story to turn out that way.
Tracy, while not playing a huge part, did play her part, both as the mother of Ted's children, and Ted's wife. She was her own character, who we quickly grew to love, and were sad to see her go, but she was just another step in the rest of the groups lives. After many years of grieving and getting over the loss of her, Ted finally could move on to the only other person he was meant to be with. And that is why this ending really does work.
Now for the caveats. It is "Almost" perfect for a number of reasons. As many people say, and I have to agree, the ending was a bit rushed. They threw so much at us within an hour, I didn't know how to respond at first. There was enough material for a whole season there, and they glossed over so many details. Honestly, I am okay with it though, to an extent, because a lot of it would have loss some of the impact if we slowly learned about it over the course of a season. Such as Tracy's death, it was not meant to be a focus of the story. Ted isn't celebrating how that story line ended, but how it led him to that point, where he is telling the story, and if it was told over a season, it would have felt much different. It wouldn't about how he subconsciously wants to be with Robin, but how in the end he misses Tracy. Sure I am sure he does, and if he was telling this story to his kids shortly after her death, the whole show would have been different. But the fact that it is many years after the death, makes the shortness of many of the scenes make sense. He already is who he needs to be, so there is little need to focus on it.
Again, I still wish there was a little more detail and time on the events. Despite how they play into the flow of the story, and how it fits with the ending, it is impossible for it to not feel rushed, and feel like we missed out on a lot, though I don't know what alternative would work. I wouldn't have liked a season of jumping around and depression, which we would totally get if the last episode was a whole season.
Second, and the only other point I really didn't like about the ending, is Barney. They completely destroyed everything about his character. He gained absolutely nothing from the events of the entire series, shown by his reversal to his previous self, his transformation into a new person by the birth of his kid felt entirely rushed, more so than the whole episode, and his resolution of character felt misplaced. I do not feel like he should be here, and gotten there from where he was, by the series of events shown. Carter Bay and Craig Thomas are masterful writers, planning almost everything out far in advanced, and for so much planning, you'd think that Barney would flow into something a little better than what he got.
In the end though, I still think it was a great ending, which really did fit in with everything the show set up for the viewers. And if I didn't change your mind about the ending, and still think it was awful, that's okay. We're all entitled to our own opinions, and clearly there is room for support on the hate train. I just ask that you don't let it affect your opinion of the show as a whole. This whole series was a journey, and beyond realizing that maybe the destination wasn't as good as you were hoping, the ride you went on was still a fantastic one, and that's how you should remember it.
