Short version, they went back to that same restaurant, someone recognized Ted and somehow forced him to bring it back and he did, since he broke up with Robin. It was towards the end of S2.
Here:
Of course then the problem is how is this a story about “How I Met Your Mother” where the vast majority has nothing to really do with that.
I don’t see how this is a problem.
The title is ‘how I met’ not ‘how I courted and lived with’ your mother
The story is about all the travails he went through on his journey that led to him meeting the mother.
But its not really that either. The kids had it right. It’s really about Robin (or, if you want to expand it - the Gang and how they came together and, in the finale, drifted apart).
No, I didn’t detect that in his voice. I have it recorded, I’ll look at it (listen to it) again. I think they were trying to make him sound older, but maybe it is intended to be a Saget impression, or maybe they did dub it, I don’t know.
More than that, it reduced the Mother — ostensibly the reason this whole tale is being spun — to nothing but a plot contrivance. (Who was it here that said the show could have been called How I Met the MacGuffin?) I was not a big fan of the show and so wasn’t all that bothered by the finale one way or the other, but that decision is storytelling bad faith.
Um…yeah. Haven’t we known this for 9 years now? It’s a story being told over 208 episodes, purposefully leading up to one single moment - how is that NOT a plot contrivance? It’s storytelling bad faith if the producers say that we’d get to that point after a few seasons, and they stretch it out to nine - but sticking to the show’s central conceit isn’t, in any way, bad faith.
This guy says Saget was left out of the last episode. Relistening I don’t hear it as a Saget impression, just an attempt to make Radnor sound older.
I noticed Saget’s absence as well and was a bit disappointed by it.
This article by a guy who never a saw a single episode except for the finale really did a good job summing up many of my reasons for thinking it sucked.
Yup, that was certainly written by someone who had never seen the show before. Who is an article like that even for? Anyone that doesn’t watch HIMYM won’t care and everyone that does watch it will know that half of his “jokes” were explained in previous episodes.
Whoah. Weird. A guy I’m Facebook friends with just posted a review of the finale and he’d never seen another episode either.
If you watched the series and thought it sucked I can respect that. But a guy who saw nothing but the finale doesn’t have an opinion worth paying attention to. It was a wrap-up intended for people who watched the series, not as something intended to stand on it’s own. It’s light comedy, full of inside jokes, I would have thought it sucked too if I never saw the series.
My husband and I were discussing the series finale today on a long car trip, and his biggest complaint about it was that it wasn’t funny. My response was that sitcom finales often are more poignant than funny, and I can live with that, but the whole last season wasn’t funny, and that ain’t right.
I also did not like spending 22 episodes to build up to Robin and Barney’s wedding, and the wedding itself is over in five seconds of montage and thrown away in the next episode with a tossed-off, “We got divorced.” Talk about all build-up and no pay-off!
While mostly a garbage article, it did have a funny line:
“You are sad that this set will no longer be used for things! After this, it’s getting converted into an ice cream shop for Chuck Lorre’s new sitcom, I Punched Her in the Face.”
I think you just helped me put my finger on what bothered me so much about the finale (other than it not being funny.)
It gets worse. They had the wedding as the central question for four seasons and the main setting of the last and then the finish the marriage within 4 minutes.
Why?
She’s already had sex with Ted after having had sex with Barney. She and Barney had a one-night-stand hookup (after her first breakup with Ted) that led to Barney & Ted’s temporary estrangement, and after Ted & Barney reconciled but before she and Barney became a couple the first time, she and Ted had a fuck-buddy relationship.
Worse the show ended up being “How we Passed Aunt Robin Around like a Biker Chick for 20 Years Whenever We Didn’t have Anything Better”
I finally watched the finale and I was prepared for “OMG SUX!” but I thought it was fine. But I am one of those people who has been “over” HIMYM for a while but kept watching anyway.
Ted got what he wanted - kids and Robyn. Robyn got what she wanted - no kids and Ted (they’re basically adults now).
As a woman in her 30s with a dog who doesn’t want kids, I’m glad to see that my TV counterpart didn’t end up alone forever. Of course she got tossed to the side for 15 years but hey…I can wait.
I’m not too enthralled with Barney as a dad. I don’t like that trope of “once you see your kid you will fall in love and be a perfect parent forever and ever.” Gag.
Most jarring part was seeing the cast from the first episode during the credits. Holy smokes has NPH aged - in a VERY good way!