Coral

Unfortunately, for me the story makes me like Robin less (especially in the later years) and solidifies my thought that Ted and Robin shouldn't be together at all. They pretty much showed us over and over that these two shouldn't be together. In fact, I'm not sure Robin should be with anyone. After 9 seasons and even after 25 years in the shows timeline - putting Ted and Robin together feels like putting a square peg in a round hole.

madcougar

Found this on a blog. One of several "alternate" endings. This one made me laugh pretty good, and yes, I would have much preferred.

Ted Is Crazy

After Barney and Robin's wedding, Ted went insane and was locked up in a mental institution. In 2030, it's revealed that Future Ted is talking to a pair of stuffed animals on a couch and he introduces them to "the Mother," which is just a lamp. The whole story was just the ramblings of a lunatic who never found true love, which is a terrible ending, but still better than the one they came up with.

Jackskeleton

Remember the old saying Show, don't tell? Yeah. HIMYM did a lot of telling us but not much in the way of showing us. After the wedding she was in maybe 3 scenes that had "the gang" together. Most of the interactions with Ted and the group were still without Tracy. Who was home taking care of the kids or who knows. And he looked tired. For a guy who is typically very loud and expressive. It just seemed odd to finally meet the mother and then just toss her in the back.

Especially clear when they glossed over her illness and death so quickly. They could at least put up text that said Tracy went back to her home planet.


As for Barney. Again, you cram the real thing that changed him into 2 minutes of screen time and not even give the girls name or anything. Just "Oh hey guys, I'm going to be a dad... FUCK!" to "Magic baby change over!" If that's the story they wanted to tell, and mind you, it's a good story arc for Barney, you spent the last 20+ episodes on the wrong shit.

onebyone

I would've supported that ending one hundred percent!

Also love that fan made ending under the yellow unmbrella. I may pretend that was the ending because the one we got sucked. I hate it more with each passing day.

OldBoy

this sucked!

Draven

But the story wasn't "How I Met Your Mother...and Everything That Happened For the Next 20 Years at the Same Level of Detail...Most of Which You Were Around For."

I am also one of those people who would have been fine with the last moment of the finale being Ted meeting the mother for the very first time in her very first appearance. Because I don't care what happened next as much as I cared about the journey to get there. The next 20 years of their lives is a completely different show.

Also, a point I read elsewhere I'd forgotten: Tracy was a widower too. Her husband was her "one" and he died. She ends up with Ted. She was Ted's "one" and she died. What's Ted supposed to do, stop being happy? Also it was pointed out that what Robin couldn't give him (kids, stability), Tracy did. Once she was gone, he was in a place to be with Robin because he didn't need those things anymore. I think that's a very realistic way to depict relationships.

Michael Corvin

I enjoyed the show while watching it last night(mostly for Milioti), but after sleeping on it, it's kind of a bullshit ending.

First at all the people finally coming with the backlash for a full season dedicated to the wedding weekend. I swear I was riding solo on that bus all season. Welcome aboard folks! It was a terrible idea going in and after 20 episodes dedicated to a wedding that is negated in the final hour is an even bigger slap(sgiving!) in the face.

Second, there were maybe 4 decent episodes this season BUT even through all the shit, Christin Milioti was the lone bright spot the whole season. For once I was actually rooting for Ted because their chemistry was great and the writers gave her a bunch of great lines. It's so hard to introduce a likable character so late in a show's run, but they managed the impossible and hit a home run. So to throw all that away just to fall back on the 'master plan' of Ted getting his cake and to eat it too was another slap(sgiving!) in the face. If they watched the damn show they would have seen how organic that relationship actually was and should have course corrected for the finale. (it's nice that they filmed the kids way back when, but you'd think they'd film a half dozen endings with the kids to fall back on, not to mention throw off the actors so they don't potentially spill the beans).

I mentioned it before the season began but my hope was for a season of Ted & Tracy courting. They could have still skipped the actual 'how I met your mother' moment until the finale. Also in regards to the mother, I thought having her take the gang's picture at McClaren's was terrible as well. She was part of the gang at that point and should have been in the photo.

The rest of the gang was too syrupy as well. So maybe I missed, so Marshall & Lily went to Rome and he still got to be a Judge at some point? Cop-out. Barney & Robin splitting after a 20 episode wedding? He gets to go back to being a horndog and she gets to be a career woman w/o kids. Win, win. Ted gets to marry the woman of his dreams, be the mother of his kids and when she kicks it, gets Robin (kids conveniently grown up so she doesn't have to be a stepmom) too? Fuck off.

Also crap that they didn't use Sagat for the voice over. I don't think we needed him on screen, but some consistency would have been nice.

Everyone who? Marshall & Lily were already married when we met the gang. Robin & Barney split and apparently Robin flew solo for 10 years until Ted came a knockin.

Realistic to a point but to fall back on an ex that always treated him like shit and apparently hadn't been around for 10 years anyway is just contrived.

stingermck

But people fall back to ex's all the time. It's easier to be with someone familiar than to start over with someone new. And in Ted's case being older he would make that choice.

RichC2

Plus you know, she came over for dinner with Ted and the Kids on what sounded like a regular basis.

Canis Firebrand

How much actual screen time did the mother get? Its probably less than the length of one episode. It makes sense that this is the way the show was going to go. Season 8 ended with seeing the mother face. Season 9 didn't even show her until a handful of episodes into it.

I still think the ending works and is a realistic one that happens a fair amount of times in peoples lives. Especially considering Draven's comment that Ted wasn't Tracy's "the one." It sucks that the mother died, but it looked/sounded like they had a good life together while it lasted. They had two kids who they loved and loved them. A person can't be expected to stay a widower or never want to venture back out into the dating world. Robin was Ted's familiar person and a safety net of sorts. Both were in a place that they could see making it work again where it failed last time, since they both wanted different things. I still think they grew and needed what happened to happen to put them in a place where they would be successful. Robin gets to play mother to two grown kids and it appeared they have a good relationship with "aunt Robin" so that makes it easier. Also, though I may be remembering wrong, didn't Ted call Robin his "one" in a past episode?

The one thing I wondered about is related to Barney and his child. The mother is never mentioned, other than she's #31. It's a bit odd to end the show with a "cliffhanger" of sorts like that. If the proposed How I Met Your Dad show happens, might this be a starting point for it? Or at least some of the story? I recall reading that the HIMYD show would feature a whole new cast, but maybe this is some way to call back to a familiar cast member in order to draw viewers in?

RichC2

The mother worked too well is the big problem, she was a little too perfect for Ted and a little too perfectly played by Cristin.

aktick

Exactly. And if S9 never happened, there would be far fewer complaints at this outcome.

TheKing

No, if this was after season 2, or 3 or 4 then maybe. The mother being perfectly cast sure added to it, but they killed the Ted & Robin relationship with the fans years ago. From the pilot, to the end of season 2, to the countless times they teased it again and again. Then they went and gave Robin a better mate in Barney, gave Ted a perfect mate in Tracy, and still went with their 8 year old ending.

aktick

Okay.

Canis Firebrand

I don't think the relationship between Ted and Robin was ever killed for good. It's always been an undercurrent in the show, even up to the moment of the wedding. Ted's always kept pining for Robin and there was a moment when Robin was headed to walk away where she probably considered calling it off with Barney and going for Ted. It might explain why the past women were never going to work out with Ted... Maybe he kept comparing them to Robin and they would never measure up to the ideal he held in his head for her. It wasn't until Robin actually was married that Ted opened to the idea of someone else. We don't know all the ins and outs of Ted's marriage, but I assume that he kept a small fire burning in his heart for Robin, even after being in a relationship and then married to Tracy. What friend (not secretly hoping it would win the girl) would go to such lengths that Ted did in tracking down the locket that Robin was distraught over losing? Ted did that hoping it would make Robin pick him over Barney. From some of the scenes in the last few episodes, it almost worked.

stingermck

madcougar

Too bad it wasn't about 20 minutes of cut scenes instead of 18.

onebyone

Truth!

Decker

All the pineapple talk : Did it have any importance beyond that S1 episode? Because it hardly seemed like a big deal to me in that episode (beyond being the title of the episode). If I never find out how a pinapple got into Ted's room, I'd be okay with that. If it were a recurring joke, I guess maybe that's different.

madcougar

I think it was a recurring joke, and the show really did a good job of tying up loose ends over the last couple of seasons. But again, the writers kind of wrote themselves into a corner on this one as Ted tells his kids he NEVER found out how it got into his room, but that it had been delicious.

JasonF

I assume Shawn and Gus snuck the pineapple into Ted's room.

I have mixed feelings about the finale. Ultimately, I think Josh Radnor is right that they basically gave us a part of an hour to get to where the characters were 6 years after Tracy's death and that's why it didn't work.

If they wanted to kill someone, they should have killed Ted. That gives a good reason for why he's telling his kids all these pre-Mother stories (Tracy doesn't know them and so can't pass them on to the kids), and adds a little bit of Randy Pausch pathos if that's what they're going for. I do wonder how much of this was them getting locked into an idea because they had planned it for so long and being too close to see that the idea no longer worked as well as it might have.

Coladar1

Someone else brought it up after I did, but I'm still furious Saget was totally absent from this episode. Nine years of hearing his voice, and then? We get some horribly filmed/edited cut back and forth between something recorded a decade ago and Josh Radnor filmed probably weeks ago.

Saget's voice - at the absolute very least - should have been used. And I still say it should have been Saget as 2030 Ted - put some heavy make-up and whatever else to alter his appearance closer to an older Radnor, but I think Saget naturally resembles an almost 20-year older Ted than Radnor in an atrocious gray wig ever could.

Anyways, catching up on the thread a thought popped to mind - I haven't really spent much time reading about this, but is there any chance they filmed multiple scenarios with the kids? First and foremost, beyond options, it dawned on me that they would have done this naturally solely to preserve the secret and prevent a leak. I'm sure all sorts of NDAs were signed by the kids actors, but nothing keeps a secret better than nobody knowing what the real ending would be.

Film one with Ted and the Mother happily still together, one where she died and Ted goes for Robin, one where Ted's dead and the mother goes for Barney. Hell, one where the mother dies and the true soulmates end up getting married: Ted and Barney, together at last. Bros forever!

So I have to believe they filmed alternates back in 2005, and I can only hope they might appear on the S9 blu-ray release. But have there been any hints/announcements that they did do exactly that, regardless of whether we ever see them or not?

godzilla rules

I think that if the writers didn't just crap out the last two episodes that the series finale would have played better. That and if they cut any mentions of Robin in the final few minutes. Make the relationship with the Mother mean more. This show was all build up and very little payoff.

Michael Corvin

that's what I figured:
I agree. The writers had their ending in mind and set for so long they didn't take into account Tracy actually working as a character and not just being a macguffin.

There have been a few good suggestions but this is a great one. Makes you wonder if the writers watched or were even fans of their own show. Did anyone really want Ted & Robin together? Having Ted on his deathbed sharing all these stories with the kids before he passes is brilliant. Way the fuck better than "hey kids, I met your mom at a train station. Can I sleep with Robin again?"

DaveNinja

Ted could have been dead and it was Bob Sagat playing the part of Tracy's new husband reading Ted's journal to the kids