How he finally met the mother (Season 9)

Fairly bittersweet ending. I can see why people are pissed ... there was enough development of Tracy's character in snippets over the course of the season that it seemed really heartless to just kind of gloss over her death as no big deal. I get that it had been six years, but as others have rightfully pointed out, the viewers didn't get that luxury. It was a knife twist, plain and simple. And knowing what we know of Ted, would he be any happier with Robin considering her world-traveling ways? I can't see him being thrilled with being the sort of guy who only sees his wife once a week, or however often Robin is around. Or has she finally settled down by the time we get to 2030?

There were a lot of wasted episodes earlier this season. When you spend 21 episodes centered on one event, you shouldn't be able to undo it in 20 minutes. And through all of it, we STILL never got to see exactly why Ted and Tracy were so awesome for each other, and why she was any different than any of the other women he dated. It was implied. That's bullshit, when you have so much time to work with. Then again, maybe it was intentional so the showrunners could get away with killing off the focus of the series so callously. You never got invested, so who cares, right?

I'm really conflicted about how I feel about the ending ... at it's core, this show was always about Ted and Robin, and I guess the writers never could really get away from that.

 

There was some heavy foreshadowing of that 2-3 episodes ago, mizzou. Ted and the mother got choked up when they were talking about living to see the kids become adults, or something like that.

 

I take issue with your point about there being no such thing as a perfect finale.
A perfect finale is one in which the point and spirit of the hours leading up to it is validated by the end result.

(SPOILER ALERTS FOR LOST, SEINFELD, THE WIRE, BREAKING BAD, THE SOPRANOS AND THE SHIELD)

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Ergo Lost was shit in that the whole show was based around a concept of mysteries and intrigue and time travel and the end essentially said "Yeah, those things weren't that important. What was important was the characters! And their journey! And please don't hate us because we couldn't write ourselves out of the mess we put ourselves into."
Ergo Seinfeld worked perfectly in that it WAS a show about the random things these characters went through over the course of their lives so you shouldn't expect some grand ending when all was said and done.
Ergo The Wire was perfectly in that the overall point to the show was that the machine rolls on day after day, year after year and things don't change.
Ergo Breaking Bad was done perfectly in that a man went to extremes to provide for his family after being diagnosed with a terminal disease, spent years amassing power and turning evil, and paid for his sins with his life but not before achieving that first goal and (at least a little) bit of redemption in the process.
Ergo The Sopranos worked because the story was about Tony and his relationship with his family and the many ways in which his gangster life was ruining any chance of a happily ever after. Regardless of how you interpret that ending (And I think Tony was killed), in the end he was with his family but never outside of danger.
Ergo the Shield worked because of Vic Mackey's decisions leading the way for the true and inevitably only fate that seemed appropriate for his character.
The point is, the ending of a series is, perhaps, the most important part of a series. If you don't stick that landing, or at least land in the general vicinity of where your story has taken you, you've really undone any and all goodwill you accomplished in the moments leading up to it.
So in that sense, last night's HIMYM simply didn't work. Not when you spend 2+ seasons building a relationship with Barney and Robin and laying the groundwork that Ted would never find happiness until he let Robin go only to find out that Barney and Robin really weren't going to last and, deep down, that Ted never ever ever let Robin go after all.

 

Here's my other issue. If Future Ted is able to wax so poetically about his love for Robin in this story to his kids, then clearly he never really let her go right? So, in that sense, even if he did love Tracey more than any other woman, deep down he still always held a torch for Robin correct?
So doesn't that pretty much invalidate the entire concept of this show ... which was that Tracey was the love of Ted's life.
F**k I hate this.

 

I enjoyed the Lost finale.
Didn't like the Seinfeld finale, but I'm not a big Seinfeld guy.
The Wire is awesome.
Thanks for the spoiler alert on Breaking Bad. Hoping to watch it once we get in our new house.
Thanks for the spoiler alert on Sopranos. Just finished season one.
Thanks for the spoiler alert on The Shield. Would have seen the finale but you were too cheap to buy Season 6 and I couldn't borrow it and find out what the fuck happened.

And for everyone on the board, Schieza and I are buddies so this is all in jest.
Except The Shield thing. I really got into that show and as far as I know, it ended in season 5.

 

That makes sense. I have two episodes from March left on the DVR that I haven't watched.

 

Right.

It certainly implies that Ted "settled" for Tracey and now six years after he death, he finally gets to be with his true love.

I get the concept that people can fall in love more than once, but so much of the show is Ted being a hopeless romantic looking for the love of his life.

 

I did have a lot of trouble that he found the right one and then hedged on committing to her for, what? Seven years and two kids? That made no sense to me.

 

The only reasons Ted ever wanted to be with Robin are

a) She's hot
b) She turned him down, and when a woman turns you down, you should just keep being nice to her until she gives in and gives it up.

 

That's actually not true. The 04-05 season was canceled, but the NHL resumed play in October, 2005 and the show started in September, 2005.

 

I had a problem with him still having that french horn. Ted, let it go.

 

Regarding whether and why Ted and Robin would want each other, you guys are overlooking one important part: the Ted of 2030 is not the Ted we know as of now, in either mood or circumstance. In 2030 he is a fiftysomething (presumably successful) architect with two high school kids who has been through a hellish event. He would be looking for something entirely different now than he would have the first few times through with Robin. Back then he wanted a total life partner. Now he would want someone who fills a relatively small role in his life once kids, grandkids, friends (Marshall/Lily), work and everything else is taken care of.

Don't you know people in their 50s or 60s who are kinda sorta hooked up with someone, but in a way that makes the person secondary? I sure know a lot of people like that. So I might be rationalizing and the writers didn't explicitly paint it that way, but the circumstances are not all that far-fetched.

Do any of us let go completely? I'd say feelings can stay dormant until the time is right, but that in nearly all of our cases if we were suddenly on our own and "the one that got away" were back in play, we'd go for it. And I don't think it's any commentary on the quality of our marriages as they existed.