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For nine years, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), và Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) navigated life và love in thủ đô new york City, all of which was mix within the larger story of how Ted met the mother of his children. However, the show"s series finale stirred up some serious controversy after years of buildup when it aired in the spring of 2015, so we"re here to tell you why HIMYM"s grand finish felt, khổng lồ many fans, like more of a splutter. After all this time, here"s the full explanation of How I Met Your Mother"s big ending.
From its very first episode, How I Met Your Mother made its mark on the television landscape by taking a typical sitcom and turning it directly on its head. Rather than simply tell the story of Ted Mosby, a Manhattan-based architect looking for love in all the wrong places, it places his tale within the context of a much-older Ted in 2030 telling his children the story of, well, how exactly he met their mother. Voiced by Bob Saget (for some reason), Older Ted leads both his kids and the audience through the full story of how he met their mom, as well as all of the obstacles he encountered along the way.
This complex framework gave the show a totally quality spin & its own mythology. Between Ted forgetting important details (like an ex-girlfriend he refers to as "Blahblah") or his attempts khổng lồ sanitize his past ("eating a sandwich" has nothing to vì chưng sandwiches whatsoever), this is a show that requires you lớn watch it in order and to pay attention, or you might have trouble understanding the intricate narrative.
Ultimately, How I Met Your Mother is a show about love, and during nine seasons, the five main characters experience plenty of ups và downs in their relationships. As the main character, Ted is a hopeless romantic, và in the very first episode, he spots Robin across the room and immediately falls for her. The two over up dating throughout the show"s second season, but when they realize they want completely different things out of life, they ultimately split up & remain good friends. Afterwards, both date other people, and Ted"s parade of girlfriends continually drum up suspense about which one might be "the Mother."
As the most stable couple of the group, Lily & Marshall get engaged right at the start of the show, & despite a small blip where Lily leaves Marshall to lớn attend art school in California, the two get married and have children, marking every major life milestone together.
However, the show"s least likely couple ended up being one of its most important. Despite the fact that Barney Stinson spends the majority of the show operating as the world"s biggest womanizer, he eventually falls in love with commitment-phobic Robin, and the two get engaged as the show moves towards its conclusion. Robin & Barney weren"t planned from the beginning, but thanks to lớn palpable chemistry between Harris and Smulders, the writers decided khổng lồ craft a storyline involving the two, & the rest was history.
Despite intense contract negotiations between CBS và the stars of How I Met Your Mother (Jason Segel, for example, reportedly almost walked away from the show to pursue his successful film career), the show was ultimately renewed for a ninth và final season, which kicked off during the fall of 2013 và concluded in the spring of 2014. Throughout its entire run, HIMYM made a name for itself thanks khổng lồ its unconventional choices & unusual framework, & the show seriously upped the ante for its final season, making the risky choice khổng lồ center almost the entire 24-episode season around the weekend of Robin & Barney"s wedding (with a few notable exceptions).
This structure was definitely a gamble, và in the end, many viewers wondered why HIMYM made such a risky choice for its final season. Despite cameos from stars lượt thích Lin-Manuel Miranda và returning turns from previous guest stars lượt thích Scrubs" Sarah Chalke, Twin Peaks" Kyle MacLachlan, và Once Upon a Time"s Jennifer Morrison, the uneven final season — which featured an entire episode in rhyme, as well as a totally tone-deaf conclusion lớn Barney & Marshall"s slap bet — felt stretched out & inconsistent for most fans, và the final blow of the finale was still yet khổng lồ come.
Despite an uneven final season, there was at least one standout episode during HIMYM"s swan song, & that was the sixteenth episode of the season and 200th episode of the show overall, "How Your Mother Met Me."
After audiences officially met the Mother, played by the incredibly endearing Cristin Milioti (a Broadway ingenue who would go on to lớn star in projects lượt thích Black Mirror and Modern Love) at the over of the eighth season, they clamored for more, and this episode provided all of the Mother backstory fans needed. Finally, viewers got the chance khổng lồ see the entire narrative of the show through the Mother"s perspective. The episode perfectly contrasts her life with Ted"s, as she grieves the tragic loss of her boyfriend và moves on with her life, culminating in a heartfelt performance of Edith Piaf"s "La Vie En Rose" — which, as it happens, she performs on a balcony right next khổng lồ Ted"s hotel room. The episode was soundly praised by critics, marking a rare bright spot in HIMYM"s troubled final season.
As the show came to its conclusion, audiences wanted to lớn see how their favorite characters ended the series, và the show"s most lovable couple, Marshall & Lily, had an eventful journey lớn the finish line. Throughout the series, Marshall, a big-hearted lawyer who wants to save the environment, và Lily, a kindergarten teacher with a passion for art, always worked towards their goals while supporting one another, và their ending ultimately proved perfect for the inseparable sitcom couple.
After moving out of the show"s signature apartment — which Lily, Ted, & Marshall had shared for most of the series — Marshall takes a job as a judge, a choice which causes some serious distress between the couple during the ninth season as they argue over Marshall"s job prospects just as Lily is offered a job opportunity in Rome. However, they manage to vì both, living in Rome for a year before returning to lớn New York, where Marshall takes a vacant position left behind by a judge in Queens. With three children — their youngest daughter, Daisy, was conceived during the final season — the two continue their lives together, and Marshall eventually runs for a position on the new york Supreme Court.
Viewers never expected Barney, a sworn Lothario, to kết thúc up married by the over of the show, so they were pretty thrown when the entire final season revolved around Barney"s wedding to lớn Robin, who was also an enormous marriage-phobe. With that in mind, it"s unsurprising that Barney & Robin"s marriage eventually doesn"t work out, & three years after their wedding (which, for viewers, is just minutes later), the two get divorced.
Before long, the suave, suit-clad Stinson is up khổng lồ his old tricks in New York, using catchphrases and outright trickery khổng lồ seduce the women of Manhattan & beyond, but eventually, something unexpected puts a halt to lớn Barney"s bawdiness. One of his many conquests gets pregnant and keeps the baby, and though Barney is initially unwilling to become a father, he changes his tune once he meets his newborn daughter, Ellie. Some fans found the ending lacking for a variety of reasons — upon becoming a father, Barney becomes unnecessarily harsh khổng lồ young women who he thinks are acting inappropriately, & weirdly, the mother of his child is never named or seen — but there"s little doubt that Barney"s ending gave Neil Patrick Harris a chance to lớn show off Barney"s emotional core.
Once audiences finally met the Mother, it was immediately clear that she was perfect for Ted, with their shared sense of humor, common interests, and seemingly unbreakable bond. However, throughout the ninth season, it became unpleasantly clear that the Mother was headed for an unfortunate end, và after plenty of clues và theories, most viewers" suspicions turned out to be completely correct. In a flash-forward khổng lồ 2024, the Mother passes away, just four years after her 2020 wedding to Ted Mosby, leaving her grieving husband and two children, Penny and Luke, behind.
Meanwhile, Robin has finally achieved her lifelong dream of becoming a successful journalist after divorcing Barney, but her previous relationship with Ted still looms large in her life, especially after he confessed his feelings for her shortly before her wedding. Though Robin & Ted have been living separate lives, his children, who have listened to his seemingly endless story, tell him that it"s obvious to them that he still loves "Aunt Robin," và in a flash forward to lớn 2030, the final moments of the show see Ted appearing outside of Robin"s window with a xanh French horn, a chất lượng instrument he gave to her back in the show"s first season as a thắm thiết gesture.
Understandably, loyal viewers of the series were largely and loudly frustrated with the show"s conclusion, which seemed lớn throw out the entire premise of the show by killing the Mother và pairing off Ted và Robin, who"d figured out multiple times during the show that they were ultimately not meant for each other. In one hour, How I Met Your Mother seemed lớn undo all of the good will it had built up over nearly ten years, which makes it all the more disappointing that this ending had been planned from the very beginning.
Many of HIMYM"s episodes open with a shot of Ted"s children sitting on a couch và listening to lớn their dad"s story, but obviously, since those kids got older throughout the years, most of those shots are silent, since they were filmed years before the finale. For that same reason, Bays and Thomas, the showrunners và creators, also filmed the final scene — where Penny and Luke tell their dad lớn go after Robin — back at the beginning of the show, setting the finale in stone despite the various twists và turns the show took during the ensuing seasons. As for those kids? They knew the ending the whole time, although David Henrie, who played Ted"s son Luke, claimed he forgot what the ending even was in the years that followed.
In the wake of HIMYM"s finale, fans và critics expressed their disappointment in droves, & eventually, Bays and Carter mollified their long-time viewers just a little bit once the entire series was released in a special DVD box set.
After the uproar over the Mother"s death in the finale, Bays & Carter released an alternate ending to the entire show, which focused on a moment that had come and gone in the actual finale — the moment that Ted met the mother of his children, whose real name was Tracy McConnell. As the two stand on train tracks near Robin and Barney"s wedding in Farhampton, they strike up a conversation under the Mother"s signature yellow umbrella (which can be seen countless times throughout the series), và as the scene ends, Bob Saget"s voice reappears, saying, "And that, kids, is how I met your mother." It"s a pitch-perfect ending, leading audiences khổng lồ wonder why Bays & Carter stuck with their original, arguably worse plan, which is less "how I met your mother" & more "how I got back together with my ex-girlfriend."
Fans might not have been thrilled about how How I Met Your Mother ended, but throughout the show"s intensely & carefully mapped-out run, sharp-eyed viewers might"ve picked up on clues along the way that revealed the show"s entire endgame.
Some moments flashed all the way back lớn the beginning, lượt thích when the Mother"s real name, Tracy, was revealed in the pilot. & if you were rooting for Robin lớn find a cooler partner than Ted, you were always going khổng lồ be disappointed. At one point, when the two men are fighting over Robin, Barney tells Ted that he"ll take Robin until she"s 40, & Ted can "have her after that," literally predicting the kết thúc of the show. Và as the ninth season approaches, the show drops some seriously heavy hints about the Mother"s eventual passing, including a tearful moment where she wonders what kind of mom would miss her child"s wedding (indicating that she was already sick by the time that the scene occurs).
Ted is also frequently seen reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (and mentions that it"s his favorite book), which tells the story of two lovers who can only be together after one of their spouses dies. These are just a few examples, so during your next rewatch, see what clues you can find about the show"s eventual ending.
After investing years in this mystery, it stands to reason that both fans and critics would flock to lớn the mạng internet to voice their extreme displeasure over the show"s ultimate misdirection, and they definitely did, using words like "betrayed" and remaining petulant about the show"s finale for years after it aired. Some critics even went so far as to write that the finale "bailed" on the entire premise of the overall show, particularly because the series went out of its way to lớn say that Robin was not the titular Mother during its own pilot. (Technically, she isn"t the mother of either of Ted"s children, but still.)
Beyond that, Ted và his children had six years to lớn mourn the Mother và move on, but viewers had about two minutes, giving audiences a whiplash effect when he went after Robin after all. Even for a show that trafficked in twists và turns, most fans felt the ending, conceived so long ago, simply wasn"t true to lớn the entire show.
However, as the years have gone by, some forgiving fans have come around to lớn the finale, saying viewers should "forgive" the show, but after nine beloved seasons, the finale is a legacy most people can"t forget, & it still regularly finds a place on lists of the worst season finales in television history.
Fans and critics certainly made their feelings about the How I Met Your Mother ending known, but as for the five bộ vi xử lý core members of the cast who were clued into the ending before anyone else, they had more time khổng lồ think about it, & one by one, they"ve all touched on their finale feelings in the years since the show ended.
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Firmly in the pro column is Harris, who liked Barney"s ending & felt that, overall, it was true lớn the series, saying that a happy ending just isn"t always meant to be. Harris was joined by Radnor, who told Vulture shortly after the last episode aired that he was a "fan of the finale" and that the ending stayed away from safer, less interesting possibilities. (Years later, however, Radnor would essentially say he wanted people khổng lồ stop asking him about it.)
Smulders was a bit coy about her feelings, saying she "wept" at the table read và was thrilled that Bays và Carter saw their vision come khổng lồ fruition, while Segel, always evasive, never even bothered lớn watch it in the first place, even though he obviously knows what happens. Finally, Hannigan was quite blunt, saying she didn"t agree with many of the finale"s choices, but she chalks it up to the finale"s short timeframe, saying that a lot ended up on the cutting room floor that could"ve better served the show"s last episode.