had heard the theories that the mother dies and Ted ends up with Robin. I thought the writers would never do it. It's too stupid to be true. Then I saw it happen. And I thought I would hate it. But I didn't.
I loved it.
Most would agree that the finale should have ended with Ted meeting the mother. Ted gets his happily ever after. After all, that's the premise of the show. That's what we were all led to believe: the show is about Ted meeting the one and living happily ever after. And if HIMYM were like 99% of all other sitcoms out there, that would be how the story ends. After all, that is the plot to every single fairy tale since the beginning of time. The prince meets his princess and they ride off into the sunset. But HIMYM is not like 99% of all the other stories out there. And that's why I loved it.
We were told this is the story of how Ted met the mother. But that was a lie. This is a story of how Ted met Robin, they didn't work out, Ted then eventually meets his soulmate, they live happily for a while, but she dies prematurely and years later, Ted has to decide whether he will "live in the past" for the rest of his life, or take another shot at happiness. That's the real story. That's the big reveal of this finale.
And if you really think about it, this answers so many questions fans have had over the years. "Why does Ted ramble on for 8 years before showing the mother?" Because the story is not about meeting the mother. It's about giving himself a second chance at happiness after the mother. Robin is his second chance, so that's why the story starts with Ted meeting Robin. It looked like just a silly Red Herring in Season 1, but it's a very purposeful starting point to the story.
Another grievance that fans have is "why does Ted spend so much time getting over Robin only to end up with her?" and "the mother is so much better so why does Ted end up with her?" Make no mistake, Ted does not choose Robin over the mother. Quite the opposite. When both were alive, Ted clearly chose the mother over Robin. Ted had to get over Robin in order to end up with Tracy, and he did. Tracy is Ted's soulmate, not Robin. And note that Ted doesn't end up with Robin at the end of the show, he simply walks over to her apartment to ask her out. We don't know if he succeeds or not. That's not the point. The point is that he's trying to find happiness again after his soulmate had passed on. That's the whole point.
Now, I must address the question, "if the real story is of how Ted copes after happily ever after comes to an end, how is this a better story than happily ever after? Why couldn't the story have just been about how Ted gets the girl like all the other stories out there?" And now the beauty of the entire series starts to come into focus. This show is not just about how the guy gets the girl. It's about all the rich possibilities and complexities of life. It's about how Ted and Robin could have ended up together (Season 3) but didn't, because Lily fed them the words that led to the breakup fight, or because Robin hadn't traveled enough. It's about how Robin and Barney could have ended up together, but Robin couldn't put the marriage ahead of her career. It's about how Barney couldn't truly commit his life to someone until he had his daughter, and how he could never truly commit to Robin because Robin could never give him that daughter. It's about how Ted and Tracy could have lived and grown old together, but couldn't because of Tracy's disease. It's about how we all try to plan out our lives, but life gets in the way. And it's about how Ted could end up with Robin after all these years. Or not. We don't know. But Ted learns to embrace the possibilities and pitfalls life throws our way, and that's what gave poignancy to the story. That's what made the finale better to me than an ending where Ted meets the mother at the train station and it fades to black