Reflections on the HIMYM Finale

I wasn't planning on writing about the epic one hour finale to the TV show How I Met Your Mother. It was met with very mixed reviews and I felt like my opinion was really not all that important. But I have received several requests to share my thoughts on the subject, and so today I shall. Or rather, WE shall. The majority of this post was written as a comment on the Entertainment Weekly website by my 18 year old son Will in a response to the negativity so many people were expressing. Please know we are not attempting to change anyone's mind- these are just our personal feelings about a show that we dearly love. Here's what Will had to say (in italics) with some notes from me as well:

The finale was the perfect ending. As a full nine-season long fan, I found it to be brilliant, the entire hour of it. The show has always been real. Even last week, the wedding between Barney and Robin which had been built up all season, was utterly downplayed so as to demonstrate real life, where the big moments flash right before your eyes. 

The finale was real. It wasn't a happy ending in many ways, but it was the perfect ending. It gave each and every character a fitting goodbye and an emotional end to their story. Life isn't always happy, sometimes it is sad, and life ending is always a sad thing, HIMYM did not shy away from this harsh reality (Editor's Note: Have you MET Robin & Barney? How was anyone who knows the personalities and characteristics of those 2 characters surprised that their marriage didn't last? And to those who felt like Barney changing immediately upon becoming a father was out of character, we had known for years that babies have an impact on Swarley. Remember when he found out his brother James was adopting?).

As for the final moment between Ted and Robin, it can be taken many ways, which is why it has incited so much debate. Let me make this clear though, Ted LOVED the mother with all his heart. She was his everything. Six years after she died, Ted's kids didn't want to see Ted grow old a sad man. Even the Mother herself told Ted to carry on without her earlier this season in a flash-forward. It just took Ted a few years to understand that it was alright to move on (Editor's Note: So many people are missing the point about Ted & Robin. The ending was not to show us that Robin had always been the one and Ted had "settled" for Tracy. Quite the opposite. Robin had always been Ted's "the one" until he met Tracy. As Lilly said when she saw Ted look at The Mother- "This is different." It was Robin, in the end, who finally realized that Ted had always been the one. And as often happens, life cycled back around.).

And of course it ended in a big gesture showing that through it all, Ted Mosby's heart will never be broken. No matter what the world may throw at him, he will always be the eternal optimist, the eternal believer. He will always be the guy with the blue french horn.
(Editor's Note: Will also wanted to point out that the final song, Heaven by The Walkmen, was commissioned by the show's creators several years ago for the finale and speaks volumes to the show's ultimate message- "Remember, remember, all we fight for...").

Judge Fudge...do I have permission to say LAWYERED?

Will pretty much says it all for me. But before ending this post I want to re-emphasize one more of the points he makes. If you are a long-time fan of HIMYM, then you knew going in that this was not going to end in some happily-ever-after fantasy. Think back to the passing of Marshall's dad, Barney's search for his father, the divorce of Ted's parents, Lilly's estrangement from her Dad, Robin discovering she is unable to have children and even Lilly & Marshall's break up. HIMYM was never just a sitcom. From the very beginning, the writers always knew where they were going. They always pursued something greater than mere laughs. For myself, my son and several of our friends who love the show the way we do, it was brilliant. And so was was the finale. In fact I think I may watch it a third time tonight just to be sure. And await the box set this Fall...the pineapple is still a mystery. And I GOTS TO KNOW!!!