I think it would have been nice for ole Bob to get an on-screen appearance after nine years of voiceover work. And within the reality of the series, it makes no sense. Why did we hear Sagat's voice for 99% of the story and then at the last 1% it's suddenly Radner's voice?
The Mother, er, Tracy, was a MacGuffin. Plain and simple. This show was always, first, the story of five friends in New York City and second, the love story of Ted and Robin. The finale succeeded in showing both of those things in spades. I think a lot of people are missing the point. I take this away from the series (and I'm bastardizing two HIMYM quotes to get there): "Whatever you do in life, it’s not legendary unless your friends are there to see it because life is too short to not do awesome air kicks." Whatever the case is, this is one of the most divisive finales in TV history. I will say that it was too rushed. I hope an extended cut is coming.
There could have been a scene where Josh is at the Doctors, the Doctor says that he has laryngitis, and then when Josh tries to speak, Bob comes out, so the Doctor gives him some syrup assuring him that his voice will be back to normal in a couple days.
^^ Or, a time traveling Bender shoots at him and lights his beard on fire, forever damaging and changing his voice. Yeah, I kept checking the time code. There was nine minutes left and nothing was resolved and they just kept moving further into the future! Was I the only one hoping that Number Thirty-One was going to turn out to be Robin? Either she miraculously got pregnant with future tech, or they had a surrogate birth?
But the thing is, as I see it, "the love story of Ted and Robin" long ago became the story of how Ted and Robin don't work as a couple, something the finale really didn't do anything to address.
It was...okay. In a way I'm kind of glad that they went with such an obvious and predictable ending, rather than throwing us a curveball at the last minute just for the hell of it, or leaving things up to the audience to decide for themselves. But I'm really bummed that things turned out the way that they did. This entire last season was all about how right for each other Robin and Barney really were, and how Ted finally realized that and made his peace with it, giving up his on-again/off-again pining for Robin so that he would finally be ready to meet his true soul mate. I actually found the finale to be rather insulting to the character of the mother. This story was ostensibly about how Ted met the mother of his children, the absolute perfect woman for him, but she's basically there long enough to give him his ideal number of children (one girl, one boy), then gets sick and dies, which is almost completely glossed over and addressed in what was practically a quick throwaway line. Then, to top it all off, after it's all said and done, Ted ends up getting back together with Robin, which the show had just spent nine seasons showing how incompatible they were and how both of them had better options. Now, I understand that they'd pretty much locked themselves in with this ending eight years ago, when they filmed Lindsey Fonseca and David Henrie's scene back during Season Two, but I think this ending would have worked better had the show ended earlier. I wish Bays and Thomas had been a little more forward-thinking and written several different variations on the ending to provide them with a little more flexibility as the show continued on and the characters developed in new directions. With that said, there were some things about the finale that I did like. Ted and Tracy's first meeting was fantastic, and pretty much met all my expectations. While I wasn't a fan of Barney ending up single again and going back to his old ways, I did like that his recklessness led to a baby daughter, whom he instantly fell in love with in the episode's best scene (which was also a nice callback to an earlier scene in the episode). At least he finally found a woman who could make him settle down. Marshall and Lily kind of got the short end of the stick here, but we already knew how their story ended anyway, so there wasn't really much for them to do. I wouldn't say that this finale was a debacle on the level of Lost or Mass Effect 3, but it was certainly disappointing. I was hoping for an ending that would wrap up the story with a neat bow, something that would leave me smiling whenever I go back and rewatch the series, but instead I feel like it's kind of cast a pall on the rest of the show. Technically the story ends on a "happily ever after" note, but I don't think it's the happily ever after that it should have ended on.
I totally get what you're saying. I don't even necessarily disagree with you. I liked the finale but I didn't love it and the Ted/Robin stuff plays a big part in not loving it. I think I would have loved it had we more or less gotten the same endgame and the show ended in season 5. I think what happened here was that CBS and the creators got too greedy. They had a hit and they didn't want to let it go.
I can't help but agree with everyone saying this ending would have worked better had they used it sooner. Instead they let us meet the Mother, and fall in love with her. All season long I was rooting for Ted ending up with her because she was perfect for him, and then they take her away from us. OK OK, I know it's like ten years or so of them being together, but it just seems like a cheat to end the show saying "Hey, he ended up with Robin after all!" It's not that I was against Ted and Robin, but I felt the show made a big case for why those two shouldn't be together, and the last season went to great lengths to show Ted letting her go...only to end up with her anyways? I don't hate the finale, but I'm really disappointed.
Oh, so much this! I loathe Ted and Robin as a couple. I'll just add this series to list a shows that I will pretend ended a year or so earlier.
Ted and Tracy were together for 11 years (2013 to 2024), married the last 4 (2020 to 2024). It was firmly established by Future Ted that she never had kids. Pretty convenient. Another clue that she would (or could) fit with Ted's new situation as a widowed dad.
For me, seasons 4 and 5 were so long ago that I can't say whether or not this ending would have worked there.
It would have been more palpable had we only met the mother for a brief moment at the end of the show, only to have the Robin twist sprung on us.
I stopped watching this show at the end of season 6 or 7, I can't remember what one. This finale confirms everything that I thought was wrong with the show. I haven't seen anything of possibly season 7 and definitely season 8 or 9 up until this point, I didn't even know who the mother was or what she looked like. I watched a downloaded rip purely out of morbid curiosity, and in the end, I'm glad I checked out when I did. What a steaming pile of garbage. Everyone is a caricature of themselves, they turn their worst personality traits up to 11 for a cheap laugh. I did think the mother was kinda cute though, her and Ted did have some decent chemistry. It's too bad the ending was telegraphed from a mile away. I actually feel sorry for people who watched it all the way through. This show should have wrapped up 3 or 4 years ago.
I was hoping that as well, and thought the reveal would be Lily saying "Another big moment that Robin has missed," then they walk in and see her holding the baby. So I'm not sure how I feel about this. I thought there were a lot of great moments and I loved seeing what happens in the future. I thought Barney had the best scene when his daughter became the love of his life, it was brilliant the way they tied it in with their earlier scene. I get the feeling though that we're supposed to be happy Ted ended up with Robin but I'm...not. I'm really sad that Tracy died because they worked so well together. The ending felt rushed, what with them glossing through the wedding and then, "she got sick" oh that's it. It seems weird because Tracy has only been in it for a season, and only in a handful of episodes at that, but it felt really disrespectful to her. I do agree with the point someone made above that it undid a lot of what this season had done. It kinda reminds me of the Lost finale in a way, not anything storywise but just the way I felt about it. I thought it was pretty much a perfect finale up until about the last 10-20 minutes, and I feel the same about this. I thought it was great but the last little bit just left me feeling cold. Still, it's been a heck of a ride and a great show. And kudos to the actors who played Ted's children for managing to keep it a secret for so long!
They didn't lock themselves into this ending, just because they filmed it didn't mean they had to use it. They could have chopped it up, adding new dialog recorded by Fonseca and Henrie over shots of old Ted, something like this: "This is a story of you being in love with aunt Robin" "No, this is a story of me dating and falling in love before I met your mother and ..." "You met someone else?" "No" "But you want to date again?" "Only if you're okay with it, I don't want you to think I'm replacing your mother" "Mom's been gone for six years, it's fine" etc. Before this finale I hated the idea of the mother being dead, but Penny's line about the mother barely being in the story and it not being about her makes sense, so I'm fine with killing her off, I just don't think Ted and Robin should have gotten back together, they did everything to kill this relationship and show how they weren't right for each other for years! Instead of Ted running back to Robin the show should have simply ended with him being hopeful that he will find love again, going back to Robin send the wrong message.
By the way, those people in the bar that Marshall spoke to, were they the ones in the new show? If not that scene felt really odd.