I've been reading the TWOP forums for a few years on this show, so I'm not surprised by the fact that Ted ends up with Robin. I'm not surprised at how they did it. But I am stunned that the Mother's death isn't handled... more respectfully? It's almost as if she as just a detour on the Ted/Robin storyline. It didn't help that the "kids"/Future Ted scene was painfully stitched together, with overacting kids and non-Saget-voiced Ted.
I think I was most upset over how Barney was treated. Years of character development, gone in the blink of an eye.
I loved the umbrella scene. In my mind, that's where the episode ended. The other small callbacks were nice, as well.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
No kidding. It went from being about a group of people who grow and change together to being about Ted and Robin who end up exactly where they started. Only now Ted has the kids he wanted without Robin having to bear or raise them. Instead of the mother's death being a tragedy, it is a convenience. Barney has one lovely moment with Ellie (possibly the most touching in the show) but we know nothing about what that means. Did he marry 31? Does he have custody? Is he happy? Marshall and Lily are remarkably absent at the end. The mother goes from being sick to gone-for-six-years-let's-move-on. Or rather, back. Meh.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
It wasn't terrible, but there were ways they could have made it better. I liked it, but I wish they had introduced the mother a couple of seasons earlier because I liked her character so much. She was so sweet. Ted and her seemed very happy together though, so I liked that a lot.
Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :
I wasn't impressed, and I think almost everyone put into words what I felt at one point or another. But honestly, with the hints that Ted had been dropping the entire time, what else was going to happen? And what ending, filmed in the early years of the show, when the writers admitted Barney and Robin's marriage was not part of the original plan could there be?
It would have been nice had it not worked that way. The writers did an amazing job of making Ted's wife likeable, or there wouldn't be half the outrage there is right now.
Honestly, the pacing of this entire season was off, the last episode needed to be many.
I thought it was bizarre that it took Ted and Tracy five years to actually bother marrying. 2010s marriage ethics? I dunno.
Ah well. Doing a nine year story is hard. And I enjoyed the ride.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
It would have worked if the series had been shorter. Two or three years of back and forth with Ted and Robin would have been okay. After this long, I was plenty convinced that they weren't a good match. Too much character growth. Even Ted said that he isn't that person any more.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I liked that she had a lot of dogs again.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
I think that it reinforced that any character growth over the series was erased. I wonder if Ted will make her get rid of them again?
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Though if I was her, I'd say no. I'd be like, why would I want to give up all of these dogs and my independence for you? No thank you. Dogs are awesome.
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
I can't understand why anyone would give up anything for Ted (except maybe the mother, because she was his soul mate). Ted is an incredibly awful character, and the reason why I had to stop watching this show in season 6 because I couldn't root for him to end up with anyone anymore.
Seriously, he's an absolute nozzle. Run Robin!
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Honestly, the worst thing about him was that he kept moping after Robin.
Posted by Vadon (Member # 4561) on :
I never followed this show. I saw half an episode here or there when it was on, but never an entire episode. On a whim, I watched the pilot on Sunday. I decided to pretend the last 30 seconds of the show didn't happen so I could just assume that Robin is the mother and that's where the series ends.
I think my strategy worked out just fine.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
I liked it.
There was no point in going over in detail how the mother died, since it is 6 years past, and he is telling his kids what they obviously already know, and is clearly still painful for him at least.
I _do_ think the episode was rushed, and should have expanded in some points, but I don't see that particular abruptness as a problem.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
I liked that the epilogue was so long and all the loose ends were tied up and very well explained. You rarely get that.
What annoyed me about this was that all the elements were there for the show to end well, but they chose not to.
Mother should have been introduced much earlier. Barney should have had the kid earlier. And I don't think he should have gotten together with robin.
I think most of the characters on this show actually stay pretty flat. They tried to shoehorn in some growth at the very end and it failed for me. They needed to play that out, but they never wanted to mess with a winning formula.
Posted by dansigal (Member # 12661) on :
I can tell you exactly what happened. 9 years ago they wrote a pilot script, and in order to make it clever and to catch CBS's attention to help it get picked up, they added that line at the end about "Aunt Robin" which is fine, it worked. One year later they knew they were in trouble. They had no idea the kind of chemistry Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders would have together and how much fans would love them together, but their hands were tied, they had done what they had done. So they got cute, they filmed that scene with the children because they didn't have enough faith in themselves to find an ending for Ted that was better what they currently had with him and Robin. And you know what, it would have worked fantastically if it was a 2-3 season show. But, as the years went by, things changed. Turned out Cobie and NPH also had really good chemistry together and a lot of fans really liked their relationship, and then even farther down the line they actually found an actress who worked great as the mother. But instead of ever taking any of that into account and course correcting, they were too in love with their own creativity, and they kept going back to that well again and again, and they stuck with it.
Posted by Swampjedi (Member # 7374) on :
Maybe so.
Now, a few days later, I am less annoyed by the episode. The final scene with Robin was 25 years after they broke up. That isn't unreasonable, I guess. Lord knows I'm not the same person I was even a few years ago. The things that made them incompatible (life goals, among others) have now been lessened/eliminated by age. The way it was shown on screen was painful, though.
Still, I'm done with the show. No reruns, no spinoffs, nope.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
So that show is dead to you? You must give it that look.
But really, I'd still say no. I don't think Ted and Robin are compatible at all and she has so many cool awesome dogs. I would never get rid of my spiders for some guy or girl. No way.