Why I did not like the last episode of HIMYM.

In 2010, when I went to live in Finland, I met an amazing person who introduced me to How I Met Your Mother.  During the long dark autumn nights, we sat and watch from season 1 episode 1, to the last one that was aired. So when I came back to Mexico almost 3 years ago, I was waiting every single week for the new episode. Well yes, the story became slow and less interesting with each episode, but I could not close that chapter until I learn how Ted found the love of his life, because that was the show about no?

WRONG! The last season was exasperating for me. It had great gags, as all series had, and the Mother was introduced. I thought that she was simply lovely and perfect fit for the group. With Ted letting go of Robin for her wedding to Barney and Tracy being introduced… I thought Ted will find happiness ever after. But no, the idea was other.  And the experience of last episode was spoiled for me by the Internet and HIMYM’s Fan Page on Facebook, as the ending was let away by them. So I went online and watch only the last part, and decided not to continue watching the last season (I was 3 episodes behind).

To date, everyone who was a follower knows that Ted and Tracy meet at the station and start dating, they have 2 kids and later, she dies. Barney and Robin’s marriage ends because Robin keeps working as reporter all across the globe while Barney still feels insecure (remember, I did not see the last episode), so Ted is telling the story of how he met Tracy to his kids because, now that Robin is single again, and he is a widower, he is asking permission to date her AGAIN! Duh!

It was wrong for me because of several aspects that I will enounce briefly:

•       I WISHED FOR TED’S HAPPINESS. You may say that from the beginning of the series his love was Robin and that you can see it coming. Well, I could not and that was because Ted is so relatable, that I felt somehow identified with him. Obviously I wished him the best with every fail, with every time his heart was broken. Ted was so vulnerable, and he even tried a relationship with Robin that did not succeeded… so I really wished that he finds love in the end.

•       THERE IS A BRO CODE. Perhaps no like the one of Barney, but there are implicit rules to dating & friends that have not been compiled. I have lost friends because of those rules. And one of them is that Ex-s are out of boundaries. So, at first, Ted was “over Robin” so Barney and she could go and look for their happiness. They even got married… and Ted let her go in that beach. Why going back?

•       I HOPED FOR TED TO MOVE ON. During 8 seasons we saw failed relationships, one after another. So finally in that beach, he seemed ready to move on and make a change in his destiny. And then The Mother appeared, yes! The best was yet to come… until she got sick and died… so he went back to his old love of Robin.

•       TRACY WAS PERFECT FOR TED. Everything he wished for was before his eyes, and she loved him back. She was made for living him, He was made for loving her. Fairytales fall short with this romance that took Ted years of concocting.

So the story was not about how he met the mother, but how he loved Robin above all and every single woman he met during his life. A friend told me that the last episode was meant to happen. I did not like it, but was not my show. What is true is that now I have no desire of watch it again, I have tried to watch re-runs, but they are not hooking me as before. I do not want to know the mystery of the pineapple, I have not called anything a Challenge Accepted or Legendary, and I am the one who re-reads Harry Potter series every 2 years even though some beloved characters die.

The scholar in me understand HIMYM perfectly, but the fan in me thanks the fates that I never bought the series on DVD, I would have regretted. Fans have taken different sides, but many of us coincide that the end meant a step backwards for the development of the characters and the series in general.

HIMYM is not Friends, was not meant to and will never be. It was hard to let go Friends, leaving he keys meant leaving a part of your heart there, it was bittersweet but lovable. HIMYM is bittersweet but for me, forgettable. (Remember, this is only my opinion as fan).