So what were the clues that we were supposed to pick up that Momma was dead? The only thing I can recall was Ted and Tracy talking about Robin’s mom coming up for the wedding and Ted saying “what kind of mother wouldn’t come to her daughter’s wedding?” and Tracy getting that pained look on her face. What were others?
As far as I know, that was the only scene that led people to think Tracy was dead. Plus the fact that she is absent as Future Ted is telling the story.
When they were at Farhampton for their anniversary and realized they were an “old married couple” because they’d heard all of each others’ stories, she told him that she didn’t want him “getting lost in [his] stories.” The pretty clear subtext was “after I’m gone.”
But he explained why he did that. If he couldn’t make it work with Robin, he didn’t think he could make it work with anyone.
And I agree that Barney’s antics were hugely exaggerated over the course of the story. Of course, I kinda think that’s how he would have wanted it.
Barney’s “Can’t you just let me be me?” felt much too contrived, like the writers were saying directly to the audience “Yeah, we’re taking a shortcut on this one; so sue us.”
Otherwise, I kinda liked it. I think divorce for Barney and Robin was inevitable, neither of them had ever made the effort to develop any relationship skills.
I would have liked a bit more info on Lily’s journey. Why were they back from Italy - or did they even go? And what was she doing other than being pregnant?
The Italy trip was always only planned for a year. They did go, we saw it part of the trip in “Daisy.”
They probably did. Barney had no job tying him down so he probably believed that travel with Robin would be okay, and Robin had no idea that she would continue to be so successful and travel so much. That much made sense to me, people believe a lot of things about themselves that are sometimes untrue, and the world doesn’t always work out the way you planned.
Birth control fails. The real miracle is that given Barney’s lifestyle it only failed once in all those years.
I think the point was that Ted and Robin weren’t right for each other in their 20’s but maybe in their 40’s they are.
Also, in “Time Travelers”, there is the end scene where imaginary-Ted rushes to her apartment door and talks about how, while he will meet her in 45 days, he’d rather that he met her now, so they could have that extra month-and-a-half together.
Some people saw that as evidence that their time together was limited.
There was also the future-Ted episode last season where Future Ted imagines running over to the mom’s house to have an extra 25 days with her, and after the “What kind of mother isn’t at her daughter’s wedding” scene, it’s painfully obvious (though it wasn’t at the time) that it’s because she’s not around any more.
So narrator Ted was Ted’s own version of The Wedding Bride?
I think, though, that Ted needed Tracy to become a better person. If he ended up with Robin in the beginning, he would have still being douchey-Ted, but the Mother made him better and redeemed him. Yes, the mother was better for Ted than Robin and he loved Tracy as much as he possibly could, but life is also about moving on and not “living in your stories” or your memories.
Also kind of a ‘take that’ to the fans who complained that Barney being in love wasn’t they Barney that they knew and loved - Barney is supposed to be a womanizer! That’s where he’s funny. The creators said, ok, you want to know how that looks like for a man in his 40s to still be a womanizer? Here you go… happy? No… well that was our point.
Like the kids said at the end, the story was clearly not about the Mother in the first place since she was barely in it - it was a story about him and Robin.
Put me down as someone that liked the finale, even though I pretty much checked out on the shot mid-way through this final season.
This. Every time I saw Tracy during this season, I fell more and more in love with her, and wanted Ted to live happily ever after with her.
although Mithras did a fine job, this review sums up why I hated the ending so much http://http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/how-i-met-your-mother-finale-review.html
I wonder what the backup plan was if Cobie Smulders had left the show. Would the Mother have survived?
Why would Cobie Smulders have left the show? It was never stated outright, but the creators and actors treated like a Friends situation, either everybody came back or they would have canceled the show.
Maybe. Or they could have shot multiple versions of the scene with the kids talking so they, the kids, didn’t know the truth either. An advantage of doing that is that, if Cobie Smulders had ever decided to leave the show, they, the producers, would have had other options to end it.
ETA:
Shit happens. She could have died suddenly; she could have gotten ill; something else uncontrollable and unpredictable could have happened.
I hated the ending, by the way. It was a shoot-the-shaggy-dog story. I liked the Mother, and I liked Robin & Barney as a couple. Going through all these changes just to have Ted & Robin end up together felt like being jerked around.
I never watched the show and have probably the dumbest question ever asked about a TV show – do viewers know from the beginning that Ted is the dad?
Yes.
I don’t think that’s a stupid question. Having Bob Saget be the narrator could easily cloud the issue for someone who only watches intermittently.
Yes, but what you asked could’ve been the best twist ever.