How I Met Your Mother: Last Forever

Posted by: S.P. Young • April 1, 2014 @ 8:05pm

"Yet mom's hardly in the story."

So how did you feel about the way How I Met Your Mother concluded? After nine long seasons, we finally got our answer. Was it worth the wait? Consider how the show went on for too long, and how it seemed like the latter seasons really dragged its foot on the reveal. Heck, it was a surprise the mother, Tracy, even made an appearance in the season 8 finale. How many of you were stunned at how irrelevant Tracy's role turned out to be in a series where its name revolved around meeting her?

About half way into the series finale, it looked more and more as if the series was actually about Robin, especially after she more or less left the "gang." Here was the story of a young woman from Canada moving down to the States to seek employment, and finding new friends along the way. The divorce story made sense. Barney was ultimately going to go back to his old ways sooner or later. But he also grew up after unintentionally becoming a father. It almost makes sense, if Robin reconciled with the new Barney that had finally matured after all these years. But that was not to happen. This was how Barney's story ended, but "Aunt Robin" still had some story left to be told.

After leaving Robin and Barney's wedding, we finally got that long awaited scene where Ted approached Tracy. The mandatory yellow umbrella was present, which gave the two of them plenty of conversation. It was a nice little scene, which offered that sigh of relief of how Ted finally found true love with Tracy. Aside from the umbrella scene, there were too few moments in this episode (and season) between Ted and Tracy. It would have been good for the finale to actually show in greater detail just how things between Ted and Tracy progressed immediately after the umbrella scene. Instead, we had a bunch of fast forwards.

It was in one of these flash forwards that revealed that Tracy would get sick and die. The kids then tell their father that the whole long winded story of how their old man met their mother was really not about Tracy, but that it was about Aunt Robin, and that Ted should pursue Aunt Robin.
A lot of times a series finale playing it too safe can be a let down. But for a show such as How I Met Your Mother, we just want to see how it all started. Let us see the relationship between Ted and Tracy. That is why we waited all these years. Because we want to see Ted watch a woman's eyes light up when she looks at him.

We did not watch this show to find out the mother died.

How I Met Your Mother is one of those comedies that never took itself too seriously. In the times that it tried to be serious and tragic, it just failed horribly at being sentimental. Think of how the storylines of Marshall's father's death, or Robin being sterile, just did not fit with the series. And now the show finished on the weakspot that is the opposite of life. So in other words, Ted getting married, having a couple of kids, seeing his wife fall ill and die, and telling his kids this story, were all just pit stops between Ted getting back with Robin. Once again the show failed by going the tragic route, and worst of all, it took place in the much anticipated finale. And for what?

Looking back, it definitely came off like the show was restricted to the kinds of stories it could tell by its name -- How I Met Your Mother. A story on how Ted ended up with Robin actually makes sense, especially when you consider everything that has gone on between the two of them. But since the show had to revolve around an older Ted telling his children the story of their mother, the show had to reluctantly give us this side story of Tracy, find a way to discard it, while still having the intent to tell the tale of Ted and Robin.

Tags: How I Met Your Mother, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, Cristin Milioti, Bob Saget, Last Forever, Downtown Train