“Suit up!”
It’s a tall task – virtually everyone I know hates the episode – but I think it must be done. Some would call it insanity, but I’m going to attempt to defend the finale of How I Met Your Mother in honor (or a small protest) of it’s recent deletion from the Netflix catalog.
If you don’t want spoilers for HIMYM, I suggest that you stop reading here.
Many people have deadpanned the last season as a whole, and while I personally like it, I won’t be addressing the whole of it here – just the final, the two part conclusion with the tragic and rapid-fire ending. Though I understand why people have a problem with the way the show ended, I see five good reasons that it works.
1. Tracy’s death brought me to tears
It is a testament to the strong work of Cristin Milioti that I found myself bawling at her character’s untimely end. Indeed, many were most upset at her passing – they argued that it seemed unnecessary, even contrived, especially when she was hands down the best match for Ted’s personality. Indeed, I would agree both that Tracy didn’t need to die and that no character in the show (except for Stella before her out-of-character plot twist) was such a strong match for Ted. Truthfully, if you are a person who prefers happy endings, the charm Milioti brought to the character makes it nearly impossible for anything other than her living a full lifetime with Ted would have been satisfying. Personally, though, I don’t mind when shows dare to twist sad – which brings me to my next point.
2. The only reason Ted would tell such a long story is grief
Ted Mosby is notoriously long-winded. Even he, though, would not tell a nine-season long arc to his poor children were if he wasn’t going through grief. The only justification for telling his children at least weeks worth of non-stop story regarding how he met their mother without her ever showing up to chime in on a chapter is that she has passed away. In fact…
3. Ted probably told the story to help himself move forward
Ted’s children lovingly prodded him at the end of the show, guessing that the purpose of this whole tale was to gain his children’s blessing to ask out Robin again, years after the death of their mother. While I think that’s part of the reason, I don’t find it quite so simple. Grief can be a long process, but from a psychological viewpoint, it can often be helpful for us to make sense of our loss through storytelling. It stands to reason that sharing Tracy’s story was a form of catharsis for Ted, and thus in a way he was earning his own blessing – not just to date Robin, but to move on from his pain.
4. Barney and Robin's divorce isn’t all that shocking
At least, not when you really think about it. Robin was married to her career from the beginning of the show. Barney was married to… well… being a bachelor. While it’s true that they both could have shifted their goals to reflect being with one another, I was not surprised by this outcome. I won’t say, however, that it didn’t disappoint me just a little bit – the work put into making the union on screen believable, especially the Playbook proposal, was particularly effective. This brings me to my last point, which is…
5. Barney was bound to become a dad – and a good one, at that
There is a small chance that in having sex with well over 200 people that one could avoid having a child. Barney Stinson avoided the inevitable for a long time, but in the end, having sex with 31 people in 31 days proved too big a challenge. Neil Patrick Harris, though, delivers one of the show’s most touching moments in his brief monologue to the newborn child. And ultimately, a retrospective look at the show makes Barney’s fatherhood even seem a likely outcome – consider the episode in which Barney’s brother gets married and he becomes an uncle. For all his cries against monogamy, Barney showed, on rare occasions, a strong paternal disposition.
