In Defense of the Season Finale of "How I Met Your Mother"

I know, this is coming almost a decade too late. Spoilers for the season finale (if you haven't watched it yet, where have you been?)

How I Met Your Mother is an epic show. It's one of those shows that you can start from the beginning, or just flip on a random episode and eventually you've binge watched the entire show.

And then you get to the season finale, and you join the endless hoards of people who believe the writers ended the show in the worst way possible.

I don't belong to that group of people. I think the finale of HIMYM was perfect.

This isn't to say I wasn't pissed and heartbroken when they introduced the mother only to kill her off a few episodes later. I wish we had gotten more time to really fall in love with her character, but at the end of the day, The Mother did become one of the most beloved characters in the show. You're rooting for her all the way through the final season, every scene with her interacting with the core five is beautifully written and fully fleshes out her character without needing nine seasons to do so. So, when she and Ted finally meet under the iconic yellow umbrella, it's satisfying in the best way.

How I Met Your Mother is no stranger to devastating moments. The loss of Marshall's father was proof that the writers were not afraid to pivot away from the nonstop humor and laugh tracks in each episode. I don't know anyone who didn't cry when Marshall listened to his father's voicemail, his father's final message to him before he passed away unexpectedly.

Robin's infertility and the episode that introduced that was equally devastating. Stripped of the decision of whether or not she desired children, she is faced with the reality that even if she did want them (which she adamantly did not, something that drove a major wedge in her relationship with Ted) she no longer had that choice.

Barney's relationship with his father humanizes him in a way I did not think the show could. Barney's character is a genuinely terrible person, but in the most lovable way. He is deemed irredeemable by those who condemn the manipulative methods he uses to sleep with women. But, the moment you watch him try to unscrew a basketball hoop attached to his father's house, you can't stop yourself from empathizing with this deeply disturbed character. I definitely shed a few tears watching Barney finally confront his father for leaving him and his brother to be a better father for his new family.

How I Met Your Mother is no stranger to devastating moments.

So, why were we surprised when they hit us with this twist? There is no deeper motive to reminisce than when you have lost someone and Ted Mosby reminisces by forcing his two children to listen to the full story of how he met their mother. His children are right when they tell him that this story was a way for him to finally come to terms with his lingering feelings towards Robin.

The people who think Robin and Barney are endgame are people who didn't truly understand what each character in the show really, truly wanted in their lives. Lily and Marshall were soulmates, that's easy to see. Not every character in the show will have the same love that Lily and Marshall have.

For a while, it felt like Robin and Barney's relationship was a little forced. The writers needed a new arc and they decided that two characters who were adamant on not wanting to be tied down or married should get married! Do you see how this probably makes no sense? Barney and Robin was an incredibly fun relationship to explore and watch grow throughout the show, but it was ultimately doomed to fail. These characters had one fundamental similarity: they didn't want to get married to anyone. No matter how much they loved one another, they valued their independence more.

Robin's driving force in the show was to prove her strengths as a television personality, and this probably stemmed from the neglect she received from her father (but we won't get into that psychoanalysis here...) Robin wanted to be taken seriously and she wanted to be successful. She entered relationships here and there, only for them to fizzle out because Robin truly was not the relationship type. She was selfish, and she deserved to be in pursuit of her goals.

The writers needed a new arc and they decided that two characters who were adamant on not wanting to be tied down or married should get married! Do you see how this probably makes no sense?

Ted, on the other hand, is a hopeless romantic. As an 8th grader watching the show for the first time, I related to his borderline tendencies and his restlessness when he doesn't have a significant other. In every season, Ted's identity revolves around his current girlfriend, and his reality is crushed when they dump him, leave him at the altar, dump him again, rinse, repeat. A common thread in all these heartbreaks is due to Ted's inability to get over Robin and see her as a potential love interest. Up to the moment Barney and Robin tie the knot, Ted is still hopelessly pining after her. As long as Robin is available, Ted will be in love with her.

But, when Ted meets The Mother, his true soulmate in the show, Robin becomes a thing of the past. There's a future here with her, and Ted is finally able to live the life and experience the love story he'd been aching for for nine long seasons. We didn't need an entirely other season to see the way their lives together panned out, all we know is that Ted finally got what he wanted: marriage and a family.

But, Ted is chronically monogamous, and it would have made no sense for him to be left without a significant other at the end of the show. So, we get the blue french horn ripped off the wall of a restaurant and presented to Robin as the titular moment that concludes the show.

Why does this work? Because Ted and Robin finally got what they wanted: marriage and success, respectively. So, when their paths ultimately and inevitably cross again, they are able to build the relationship both of them deserved with one another. And, it's gorgeous.