How I Met Your Mother writers made fans “Wait for it…”

If you’re one of the people who have made it to the middle of season 5 of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, stop reading immediately! Seriously, abandon ship! I will spoil things for you and I can’t be held responsible for your own negligence. So here is your disclaimer. Stop reading!

I hope only the true mother lovers are left now so I can say: Ted and Robin end up together?! How much is Marshall getting for winning this bet? In hindsight, the final episode was entirely centered around her. I should have seen that coming when the episode opened with the gang at MacLaren’s circa 2005 while first getting to know Robin.

Through the years we’ve watched Ted play cat and mouse with Robin in a Ross and Rachel fight to love’s end. Robin’s wedding was too much for Ted. Years later, the same rang true for Robin. But they were still there.

I admit my heart sank when Barney and Robin announced the divorce to their friends. Maybe I should have known what was going to come next, but I didn’t. The entire episode seemed like a downward spiral for the entire cast minus Lily’s surprising fertility and Ted’s love story with the mother.

I cringed as I watched Barney sink back into his one-man quest for debauchery and all things related to toil and trouble, peppered with one night stands. “This is Barney’s life journey? This is what it’s all about for him? No way,” I thought to myself. I went numb and held back tears for about forty minutes until he held the child he never wanted from a woman he barely knew. While it still bothered me there was no mention of who this child’s mother was, it wasn’t the point. The lesson to be learned was that Barney was irretrievably and irrevocably, finally in love with one thing and he would be for the rest of his life. And a glimmer of a tear found its way into my eye.

So the ship carrying Barney and Robin sunk, but for good reason we found with Barney and that we’d soon see for Robin too.

We also finally learned the mother’s initials matched Ted’s, ‘TM’ for Ted Mosby and ‘TM’ for Tracy McConnell. The initials were inscribed on her iconic yellow umbrella and the two disputed who really put the initials there while standing under the umbrella in the rain.

I know How I Met Your Mother fans were duped when Ted told the story of how Robin’s mother finally arrived at her wedding. His eyes began to well up when his wife asked, “What kind of mother would miss her own daughter’s wedding?” You could tell there was an immense amount of pain hiding behind Ted’s eyes. I wondered if one of their mother’s weren’t present for Ted and the mother’s marriage. But I realized that wouldn’t be all that sad for fans to deal with. Instead it was the mother who would be absent from their daughter Penny’s wedding.

And Ted’s tears were realized when we saw the mother becoming sick and eventually dying.

He ends his story with, “And kids, that’s how I met your mother.”

Penny and Luke are left wondering what the point of their father’s story was while it seemed to be more about Robin and less about their mother. They soon understand their dad’s intentions and urge him to call up Aunt Robin and ask her out. But he showed his kids one better and surprised her with the blue French horn outside her apartment window. Classic Dobler, Ted.

Which leads me to wonder, if Robin’s such a hot shot at World Wide News why is she still living in an apartment? How has she not hit Katie Couric status? Where’s the daytime talk show? Other criticisms? What becomes of the other character’s careers? There is no mention of Ted’s life as an architect. And what happens with Lily’s art career after she’s done living in Italy with her family? Who is Barney’s baby momma? Does Robin even say yes to Ted?

Just as you were thinking Craig Thomas and Carter Bays haven’t kept us waiting long enough, they’ve assured your lingering questions will be answered on one condition: if you purchase the season 9 DVD set. The writers promise there will be bonus footage earmarked for answering your questions. So you’re welcome I guess?

Nevermind the fact I was going through a whirlwind of emotions during your series finale, I will purchase your DVD set that I otherwise could have been watching on Netflix. But this footage is only exclusive to the season 9 set. Hooray. Well there you have it kids, one bittersweet series finale.