Last night was the highly-anticipated series finale of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother; the final episode of nine seasons; when we finally got to see how Ted met the Mother, and learn her name; and the end of the story of the cast’s longtime friendship. Even though the final season was average at best, I was giddy all day yesterday waiting for eight o’clock.
And then in 60 minutes, that giddiness was gone. As Robin so eloquently said often during the show, “What the damn hell?”
Here is your forewarning: This post contains spoilers. Every media outlet, social network site, and fan blogger has sounded off on the finale. I have no ground-breaking conclusion or unique perspective to offer. I’m just a fan of the show, who was incredibly disappointed and let down at last night’s finale, and is seeking written therapeutic release so I can move on with my life. As my husband so kindly reminded me last night and this morning, “It’s a TV show. They aren’t real people. Get it together, Shannon.”
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I always try to focus on the positive, so I’ll lead with that.
Tracy McConnel, aka, the Mother was exactly who I pictured Ted would marry. She was sweet, funny, quirky, and beautiful. They cast well for her important, but minimal, role.
Lily and Marshall lived happily ever after as we expected they would. No surprises, but a satisfying wrap-up to their beloved love story.
We finally saw Barney’s soft side when he held his daughter for the first time and it was legen…….wait for it……dary. Simply beautiful, and as someone who gets to witness a father’s love for his daughter every day, it really pulled on the heart strings.
And now for the moments that tarnished nine years of a good thing:
They had us watch an entire season that spanned the wedding weekend of Barney and Robin just to have them get divorced 20 minutes into the final episode (3 years in “real-life”). What a waste of a final season.
We waited nine years to meet the Mother and they gave us a rushed 10 minutes of how they met? Nine years for 10 minutes. Seriously?
We’re supposed to believe that Ted allowed them to date for seven years and have two kids together before getting married? Not a chance.
Although it was foreshadowed all season, I still can’t believe we waited nine years to meet the Mother only to learn that she got sick and died shortly after? For a comedy, this story twist just didn’t fit.
And finally, above all, I can’t get over the final two scenes where Ted’s kids call him out for liking Aunt Robin and encourage him to go after her…and then he does. What the damn hell? This made it seem like Robin was his true love all along and the Mother was second best. Not cool, HIMYM producers. Not cool. I was never on the Ted & Robin bandwagon and this episode certainly didn’t change that.
I am a sucker for happy endings, so my ideal final scene would have been this: Turn the camera back on Ted, and as he says, “And kids, that’s how I met your mother,” have Tracy enter stage left. And Ted would finally have gotten what we have been hoping for him to all along.
But then again, happy endings don’t produce viral media coverage and a million tweets, I suppose.
Fellow HIMYM fans, what are your thoughts?
our sweet simple life 