That was an excellent wrap up. They went out well. Excellently done. Did Barney marry #31 or not though?
I wonder how much they paid those kids to keep the secret. Maybe they just used the proverbial “You’ll never work in this town again” threat.
I thought it was terrible. An entire season on a wedding that doesn’t last. Nine years to tell the story of meeting a woman who dies after barely any screen times. And it all ends up being about a relationship I didn’t care about I don’t know how many times ago they made it look like it was absolutely over.
HAted it. Barney & Robin have a season-long wedding just so they can get divorced and robin can be available for Ted when his wife dies??? Sorry they went for the drama of friends growing apart instead of the comedy this show was once good at. Hated it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually filmed dozens of potential ends. My bet is they did.
Both kids have talked about being under a pretty heavy NDA. I’m guessing it wasn’t a “You’ll never work in this town again” threat, but a, “If you leak this, you will owe us $X million dollars. Have a nice day.”
Tracy (Cristin Milioti) is awfully cute - it’d be great to see her on additional series.
I never really cared for Robin (too cold and stiff), and although the kids adore her (their words), how does she feel about getting involved with someone with kids? Or maybe she just doesn’t like babies (unlike Barney, apparently).
Some unanswered questions: did Barney marry #31 (and did she ever get a name)? what’s Lily’s baby #3’s name? does Marshall win his supreme court seat? and how did the mother die, anyway?
I’ve watched every episode in real time (or DVR that week), so it’s been a long journey but it’s nice to see it wrap up. There were several very clever episodes and it was nice to see some friends stay friends that long.
They did tape the kids before they looked too old, but I don’t think it was 9 seasons ago. They were not sure until season 8 or so ( IIRC Stella or Victoria could have been the mother)
The situation does make some sense, but am not sure how I feel.
Brian
I’m guessing it was both.
Robin’s had years to get used to being an aunt (at least 5 times over), plus people change. Marshall did get elected to the NY Supreme Court (not as impressive as it sounds); we saw is drunken election speech in a flash forward. Tracy died of generic Hollywood terminal illness.
They taped them before the start of Season 2.
I didn’t like it. Too much pain, too much unhappiness. That’s not what I want in my sit-com.
Oh well. Luckily, it’s just TV…maybe something else is on. 
I liked it. Having the Mother died was crazy dark but really the series was always about Ted and Robin. I think it helped that I re-watched the Pilot before the finale.
Very well done. They managed to put together an ending that appropriately summed up what the show was always about - this group of 5 people. The mother was always secondary, but the writers got everyone to take their eyes off the ball and become singularly focused on Ted meeting the mother. Nobody saw the final twist, which was made even better by the realization that the ending has been planned all along.
I hated that they broke up Barney and Robin two seconds after a season-long wedding, and I hated that they killed off the mother… right up until I realized where they were going. Then I was mildly impressed.
Very nice ending.
To me, it wasn’t dark, though. I need to have feelings about the bad things that happen to someone to call a story dark. The mother was around so little that I didn’t care about her at all. She might have meant a lot to Ted, but I didn’t see her enough to make anything that happened to her matter. In the end, she was just an obstacle to true love or whatever. It felt cheap to me.
ETA: I’ll drop out of the thread, though. I don’t want to be that guy ranting about a show other people really liked.
I think the show was possibly the most truthful of any show. Yes, the story of how he met their mother is one of the most important stories of his life, and he had years of genuine happiness and two great children come of it even though she died. But life goes on and no matter how important an event or series of events are, things can either go to shit (like with Barney and Robin), or can wind up for the best.
Life is confusing and weird and unpredictable. Destiny is what we make it. I thought HIMYM really was extremely realistic and poignant on these points.
It felt cheap to me too, Mithras. You’re not the only one who didn’t like it.
So the underlying message was that Ted was in love with Robin the whole time and the mother was a consolation prize.
I didn’t take that away from it at all. They weren’t right for each other for a long time, then they were.
Another +1
What a load of crap.