I don’t know why but I feel I have to come back to that show and to make a few comments. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been watching a few videos of HIMYM here and there, I don’t know… But I really want to give my opinion, my take, on the ending of the 9th season, the show’s finale.

A lot of people, from what I have been able to see, are upset over how it ended, either completely hating it or disliking parts of it a lot. Many are much more happy with the alternate ending (which I also like a lot, I’ll talk about that a bit later) than with the official one. Some, perhaps, are also unsatisfied with how the ending was sad, or bittersweet, because of How I met your mother being a sitcom, a ‘funny’ show, and all that. But frankly I liked the ending, I loved the show from start to end (despite the feeling that it got stretched a bit too much during the ninth season), I loved all the characters, all the stupid things they did and the laughy I had while watching it. The ending did bring a bittersweet taste but that is what makes it so awesome. Let me explain.

The main character, Ted Mosby, tells his kids the story of how he spends years (nine season in all) searching for his soul mate, the love of his life. His relationships have their ups and downs (mostly downs) but over time he learns that he can’t control everything and sort of lets chance decide, he decides to simply go with it. During all that time we know that the mother is not far but yet out of his reach (via the yellow umbrella, the roommate). Ted is already in love with her but he simply doesn’t know it yet. All this builds up to the final moments when they finally meet and they immediately know something is up and a few things are revealed which makes everything even better.

In the same time, Lily and Marshall have their times of love and their times of crisis (going as far as to break up at some point) but they slowly and (mostly) steadily make their way towards becoming a real couple (engagement, getting married, moving in to a better apartment, getting pregnant) and by the end they are the rock solid couple that unconditionally love each other (despite their few disagreements, like their children’s names for example). Their relationship isn’t really that interesting to follow on a dramatic point of view but they are still so awesome and likable that without them it wouldn’t just be the same. Plus they’re really funny! (“You sonnavabich!“)

Now, last but not least, Barney and Robin also slowly start circling around each other and finally end up falling in love and getting married (which the last season is all about actually). I won’t get into much details about this but let’s just say it isn’t easy, however they both love each other and it’s evident by the efforts they make to stay together and how well they end up being together. This is an awesome development for both their characters (Robin being afraid of commitment because of her inability to have kids and Barney being a ladies’ man) and it’s just so fun to see them struggle with couple issues throughout the latest seasons.

All this, in people’s head (I think) seemed to build up to a happy ending where everyone deserves to be happy forever. But unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) the ending isn’t anything like one could’ve expected. Or is it? I have to agree that the revelation of the mother’s death was quite a shock, it saddened everyone I believe (angered some too surely) however, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve watched almost all the seasons in a row that I feel that way, but I was sort of expecting this outcome. It is crystal clear (at least to me) that in the last season something has happened to the mother. And from Ted’s reactions and from what he says, it isn’t just a breakup, no, something much sadder happened.

What most people hoped didn’t happen and the mother is revealed to have fallen very ill and have died at a young age. This makes everything a lot less cheerful but I think that it’s what make the show awesome: it felt better that way, more realistic. Now, I’m not saying that everything was realistic, it’s a sitcom guys. But this sadness that taints the last episodes, the melancholy, is something that gives it a much more powerful vibe and I loved this. I, who is mostly a robot with no feeling before such things, actually felt sad and almost started crying when I watched it. Only to be surprised by the little twist at the very end, in which the kids allow Ted to go back to his old ways of courting Robin. Yes, because Barney and Robin broke up you see.

Wait. I didn’t say I was mad at this decision. Once again, and probably against everybody else’s preference, I really liked the fact that the Robin/Barney pairing didn’t end up working. I was sad and disappointed at first, of course, but life is life and things don’t always end up well. They remain friends though, which sort of makes things okay. Barney and Robin, however in love they were, were perhaps not destined to be together. It’s sad but it is so. No, I like this ending.

The only thing that made me tick was the fact that Ted went running back to Robin at the end. This, despite being acceptably fun to watch at the end, is not really something I liked. (And this is really what I wanted to talk about here) Ted has lost his wife a long time ago at that point (six years before I believe) but in the point of view of the viewer it’s only been a few minutes. And I think that is what made me (and many others) tick. I love Tracy as the mother and her death makes the show even better, but it should have ended with the scene where Ted finishes his story by saying  “And kids, this is how I met your mother…”. This is an awesome point to end everything.

Of course it’s sad, but why not mixing the ending with its alternate twin and add the “meeting your mother wasn’t that hard” sequence. That would have brought a smile back to our lips I think. The mother has to die for the show to be that awesome. Barney and Robin can break up, they are still both awesome and I love them. But Ted simply cannot go running back to Robin… at least not so soon. And I think that this is what I didn’t like about this, it all happened much too quickly! They should have shown Ted and Robin yet even older, say ten or twenty years older, and then do the ‘I still love you’ thingy. Or at least just making the damn thing a bit longer (by adding the “meeting your mother wasn’t that hard” sequence from the alternate ending) so that it would have seemed that a bit more time had happened. I don’t know, many things could’ve been done. The ending was a tiny-weeny too rushed in my mind, and it’s that fact that bugs me, not that Ted goes back to Robin, that feels strangely… okay.

Well, anyways, that is how I would’ve loved to see it end. But, sadly, in life you can’t have everything you want. HIMYM is still and awesome show and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I still enjoy it a lot and I hope that I will continue to love it ’til the end of times, all the while reflecting on its finale and trying to come to terms with the fact that Ted and Robin do, in the end, fulfill their 40-year-old-unmarried pact that they had. (Because yes, they had such a pact and this is what makes all of it okay.) It was one of the best show I have ever watched and I hope that one day I will get to watch an equally amazing piece of entertainment. Yup, I love How I Met Your Mother, that I do.

Thank you for reading this and, as a certain someone would say: Daddy’s home. *dundun dun dun dun dundun dun dun dun dundun*