HIMYM -- Season 4

The stuff with Stella in the car at the end of the episode was far too sappy for my tastes.

 

Entertainment Weekly said last week that they show won't reveal who the mother is until the series finale.

 

That's the stance they've had on it since day 1.

I read that while we don't meet the mother in the season finale this coming Monday night, we get a big clue about her (and not another swerve like a couple weeks ago).

 

THUD.

All that goat buildup, and that's it? Really?

And all that shit with bumping into Stella, and "if I'd gone left instead of right," and that's the big finish to the season? Really? Crap.

 

Bumping into Stella leads to the college teaching job, which leads him to the mother.

At least they sort of took a step forward with Barney and Robin. I'm not sure if that ruins Barney, but it was time to do something.

 

Right. It's the end of the season. Not the end of the series. What did you expect, some grand unveiling?

 

I didn't expect a Mother unveiling, but a helluva lot more than what they gave us.

And, how exactly did running into Stella lead to the teaching job? Pretty unrelated, IMHO. He took the teaching job because he f*cked up (or got f*cked out of) the hat building.

 

How did they get back to their own roof? Can't jump up to it.

 

Because bumping into Stella led to her husband getting Ted the teaching job. He just didn't accept until he lost the hat building job.

 

The goat story had been teased for so long, it was going to be almost impossible for them to actually pay it off well enough to do that hype justice.

This was the first season where they had no concerns about whether or not they'd be back next year, and for the first time with the finale, it felt like they were confident they weren't going anywhere. Season 1 had a bow put on things when Ted finally landed Robin just as Marshall hit a crossroads with Lily. Season 2 ended with Ted and Robin breaking up and Ted opening up a new chapter in his life. Season 3 ended with the proposal to Stella. Every one of those had a feeling like it could be the end (although you could make a case against that for Season 2).

This was the first finale that had stamp on it that said "We're not going anywhere." Didn't give us anything overly dramatic like past years, giving it that letdown feeling, but it opened a big door for the future.

 

I actually found the season finale quite satisfying. Nothing remarkable happened, and the goat conclusion was underwhelming, but to finally find out where the mother will be found without any additional tease or questions was kind of nice. And to say the kids already know that's where he met their mother is an interesting element as well.

 

This finale sucked. The Robin/Barney thing just doesn't seem remotely realistic. There hasn't been a leap that unrealistic since Edward Norton's reverse jam to end the game against the black guys in "American History X." The goat thing was stupid, although I assumed it would be stupid. If he marries one of his students, that's kind of creepy, given that he turned 31 and it's a college class that appears to be an introduction class.

Really big letdown for me.