The How I Met Your Mother Series Finale: How it Pissed Me Off

It was more than a slap in the face; it was a humiliating kick in the crotch.  That was my first reaction to the series finale of How I Met Your Mother (heretofore known as HIMYM) and after thinking about it for a day it has only gotten worse.  This whole season has been a little (okay, a lot) less funny and enthralling as the previous eight, but all of that would have been forgiven if the finale gave those of us who have been fans since day one the closure we deserved.   They failed.

When HIMYM first premiered I was hooked from the very beginning.  The show had relatable characters that were fun and the promise of something big to come one day.  Over the years Ted, Barney, Robin, Marshall and Lily became more than just characters in a show; they became family and we cared about them deeply.  I looked forward to Monday nights because I knew I would get some good laughs every week.  Even on those rare occasions when the show didn’t deliver laughs they still gave us great stories.  Will I be able to remember this?  Will I ever get the sour taste of the finale out of my mouth? 

The Mother was first introduced in the season eight finale.  She was beautiful and I could not wait for ted to

finally meet her.  Throughout season nine we saw how Tracy, whose name was not revealed until the final moments of the final episode, met all the cast members.  We saw her with Future Ted and we could see how perfect they were together.  It was magic.

Unlike the previous eight seasons, season nine took place over one weekend and revolved around the wedding of Barney & Robin.  It had flashbacks and flash forwards to give us the whole story, but ultimately this was a mistake.  Too much time was spent at the Inn.  I suppose it may have helped had I had any idea who Billy Zabka was (I’ve never seen any film with the words Karate Kid in the title) to understand the fuss, but I just thought he was a waste of time.  Anyway, let me explain everything I hated about the finale.

What was the purpose of spending an entire season getting ready for a wedding if only to have the two characters divorce after three years?  It made no sense.  So Barney & Robin have a beautiful wedding, recite moving vows and then have a fight about Robin working too much and Barney not having WiFi so he can post his boner of the day joke?  Ludicrous.  It was a cheat in so many ways.  Yes, Robins dream has always been to be a world traveling reporter (more on that in a bit) and I understood that, but they could have made that work.  So the divorce was strike one. 

A few years later Barney becomes a father.  I was okay with that and the scene he had with his newborn daughter was beautiful, but why was the mother of his child only ever referred to as Number 31 and then never seen?  That was insulting to the audience and a cheat as well.  And then Barney becomes the moral police and tells women in a bar to put some clothes on?  I know things change after one becomes a parent, but really Barney?  Strike two. 

I watched every episode of this show.  I anticipated meeting the Mother and even though they did not officially meet until the finale we saw them in several flash forward scenes during season nine.  They were perfect for each other.  They both had the same sharp wit and seeing the two of them together clearly showed us that they cast the right woman in the part.  We wanted a happy future Ted and by all accounts we had that…until she died.  Sure, Ted had 15 years of happiness, but is it too much to ask that Ted & Tracy have a lifetime of romance like Marshall & Lily?  Sure life is not always fair in these matters, but this is fiction and in a fictional universe I want my happy ever after.  I do not want to see the love of Ted’s life dying young and leaving him to raise two children.  Strike three.

But even beyond strike three it gets way worse.  Not only does Ted lose Tracy, but six years after he does

he gets that dang blue French horn and goes running back to Robin, telling us that the whole series was a lie from the beginning and  that Robin had been his love all along.  NO!  I will not accept that.   Let’s look at an episode from season two, shall we?

Going back to episode one, we knew that Ted & Robin would never be a couple for the long term.  She was Aunt Robin as he revealed to his kids.  That I knew.  But the episode I was looking for was the one that declared it once and for all that Ted & Robin would never be.   I had to find this on Wikipedia because I could not remember the details, but I found it.  It was the episode titled “Something Blue” where Ted & Robin break up after Marshall & Lily get married.  Think about what happened in the finale for a second.  Robin’s marriage ended because she wanted to live her dream.  Now go back to season two where Ted & Robin break up.  She reveals her dream to travel, but that is not Ted’s dream.  Robin said she did not want children, but Ted does.  Ted himself says that they are headed in different directions.  Future Ted reveals that they both got exactly what they wanted out of life; Robin went on to travel the world and Ted met Tracy.  Ted says he no longer considers Robin “the one” and can now move on. 

But apparently he never did.  As the kids declared in the finale the story was never about their mother, but rather about how Ted has and always will have the hots for Aunt Robin, thus declaring the fairy tale romance between Ted & Tracy moot.

I’ve been disappointed by finales before and I am sure I will again, but none of them ever hurt like this.  I loved this show and now I feel cheated and betrayed.  Killing the Mother was bad enough, but then throwing Ted back to Robin?  Despicable.  How can I ever trust again?