How I Met Your Mother series finale angers fans
By Tribute on April 1, 2014 | 3 Comments
After a long and successful nine-year run, “legendary” sitcom How I Met Your Mother finally wrapped up its final season last night with an epic – and unexpected – ending. The series managed to score an all-time high rating, attracting an impressive 12.9 million viewers, but many fans were upset about the final twist in the plot. Many ongoing theories were confirmed in the finale – the legendary “Mother” turned out to have been dead for six years by the time Ted Mosby sat down to tell his kids the story of how he met their mom, thus proving the “dead mother” theory that fans were speculating about all season long. Fans were caught off-guard when the last scene played out, revealing that Ted was subconsciously asking for his two kids’ blessing to date their Aunt Robin (Cobie Smulders) all along, which they happily gave. The show ended right where it started, with Ted chasing down Robin with the blue French horn he once used to win her heart.
This surprising plot twist was definitely a shocker for longtime fans of the show, who took to Twitter to express their feelings. While some fans were satisfied with the bittersweet ending, others felt cheated by the hasty finale, which zoomed over Robin and Barney’s (Neil Patrick Harris) divorce and Ted’s short-lived happily ever after. Disappointed fans felt like they weren’t given enough time with the Mother onscreen, especially considering the fact that the entire show is based on the idea of how Ted meets the Mother: “@RahulRachuri1: Disappointed with the ending. We have waited nine years for the mother and we got see her for like 20min! #HIMYMFinale #letdown.” Other similar tweets read: “@Mark_B99: Ended too quickly, shouldn’t have dragged out the first few episodes so much and then dropped so many bombs on the viewer #HIMYMFinal” and “@macachia: how we destroyed 9 years of character development in one 40 minute episode #HIMYMfinale #HIMYM.” Despite the backlash, some fans were satisfied when the final credits rolled: “@Jeff_G_Yu: If you’re upset about #HIMYMFinale than you don’t understand the message of the show. All along it’s been about the journey, not the ending.” ~Yara Matar
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The question is: Which would you prefer in a slap bet, 10 slaps immediately, or 5 slaps over time?
That ending took me totally by surprise. It did feel a bit rushed at times. A minute after you find out Tracy(the mother) got sick and died(it was emotional), the pace changes and you find out about Ted’s possible intentions towards Robin.
As a 9 year fan of the show the finale left me disappointed(mainly because they brushed through things too quickly, imo) and yet still happy with how everything worked out for (most of) the characters.
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Happy that Ted and Robin find happiness together.
Happy for Marshall and Lilly still going strong.
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Not happy about Barney’s life.
Not happy Tracy the mother died.
Not happy with how rushed the end of the episode was(though I can see how that plays more to an emotional impact for the viewer with regards to having that longing feeling and bitter sweet ending for the series as a whole).
Not happy with them playing up Barney and Robin’s romance the entire season only to have it end in divorce within 2 minutes.
@MovieMarco, I would take the 10 immediately. The reason being that I’d rather get the embarrassment over with ASAP rather than getting unexpectedly shamed over the course of however long at the most inopportune moments. Though, I wouldn’t take the bet unless I was going to win…
Long live HIMYM!
I thought the final episode was incredibly rushed, but I liked the ending. I think the creators and writers followed each character to their logical conclusion. We had seen SO many snippets of the future, so let’s not complain about not seeing Ted and Tracy together for enough time. Barney loves Robin, but with Robin’s hectic schedule (hinted earlier in the show), there was no way Barney would be able to last so long without his comfort zone. This is a guy that’s built on shaky emotional foundations, and travelling ALL of the time like we knew Robin would have to, would definitely fry their relationship.
The fact remains that if this REALLY was about the mother, this show would have started in season 9. This show was an ode to Ted’s personal growth with his friends by his side. And with Robin finally willing to settle down emotionally (Barney = proof��kind of), and Robin’s realization for how much she wanted Ted on her wedding day (take out the panic, it still makes sense), combined with Ted’s unrequited and unresolved love for Robin (yes, they were only dampened by Ted’s love for his friends, and even then he still wanted to go to Chicago to get away before he met Tracy), it was only a matter of time that they would get back together if Tracy were to die. This series followed not only Ted’s growth, but his love for Robin, starting in episode one, and finishing in the series finale.
Barney was bound to screw up eventually, but we also knew that all he needed was a reason to be emotionally solid to be the amazing guy we all knew was inside of him on a consistent basis. Robin’s constant travels and emotional issues did not make her a strong enough “rock” for him, but fathering a child and seeing her for the first time is a strong enough emotional trauma to shake even Barney. I’m not sure if he was ever made to settle down with any woman as a wife, but settling down for a child makes sense for Barney.
Finally, yes, the finale was quite bitter. But guess what, life is messy, and the finale embraced that. It stayed true the characters and did not bow to the cookie-cutter ending demanded by its fans. These creators and writers maintained their loyalty to their characters and gave them a REAL ending, not a fairy-tale one. Many fans may have felt injustice for this “transgression”, but in the end, all of the characters seem truly happy, and I think that’s what we would have wanted for these guys. Love HIMYM!