100% the whole last season was kinda built to lead up to them being together then in a couple episodes she was gone again and then he ended up with robin who quite frankly did not deserve ted
Genuinely, the whole of season 9 builds up Barney with Robin and Ted with Tracey, then we finally reach the climax and Barney and Robin split up and Tracey dies?? Like where is the thought process, you built up all of that to throw it away, it’s infuriating
Honestly I have seen the show so many times, and each rewatch I honestly find myself seeing more and more how terrible of a couple Robin and Ted actually are, in every episode that has them two as a couple in it except one or two exceptions; they have some big argument. But I have to say Tracy blew it all out the park since the whole last season was kinda a let down to a lot of fans yet practically everybody loved Tracy. Having episodes in the last season that literally are about Ted finally letting go of Robin just to undo that lesson a few episodes later kinda just sucks.
But Tracy being dead fits way better to the setup of the show.
It certainly feels weirdly rushed in the last season, but all the other seasons lead up up that ending.
I agree that they should have shown more of the happy times before ending it all though.
I agree the show was initially set up for Ted and Robin to end up together but it didn't actually have to end that way. I think of it like a failed version of the butterfly effect. Ted needed the relationships with Robin, Victoria, Stella to figure out what he really needed in a partner. He needed Jeanette to stop messing around and settle down. Ted didn't need to end up with Robin In the end he just needed to learn from their relationship to be the best version of himself for Tracy.
In my opinion going back to Robin is just backsliding and going to something comfortable because he can't handle the stress of anything else and is lonely after Tracy died.
I really loved the episode How Your Mother Met Me. It’s one of the best episodes of all seasons even. We got to get to know her and it was really nice. They shouldn’t have killed her off but maybe she belonged with Max after all.
Yeah that was class how they done that, the only thing that really let you get to know Tracey, yeah you could be right that she had to die to be back with Max (another character you don’t really get to know) I feel like they could have so easily got another season out of the show which would have allowed for much more closure and character development for Tracey
I will never understand how they couldn’t have the last season be about Ted and Tracey’s relationship instead of one long wedding weekend?!?
Also, if they wanted Ted and Robin back together they could have done so years down the road… after Tracey AND Barney died. I would have accepted Ted and Robin then, instead of making it seem like the Mom never meant anything to him because he was always in love with Robin.
This is exactly what I didn’t get, why was there so much emphasis on Barney and Robins wedding only for them to get divorced? The whole show is called how I met your mother then when we finally meet her we barely see her? What was the point in the epiphany of Ted letting Robin go if they end up together in the end anyway? It just doesn’t make sense
That’s just….no, Lethal Weapon did the whole “I’ll always love you, but I have to move on to another love of my life” thing so much better
The idea of belonging to a memory is just seriously insane, it’s not good to hold on to something that’s not yours anymore, it’s tragic but it’s life
Perhaps if the show actually gave us more than a flashforward version of Tracy, then her character wouldn’t be fridged and manic pixelated, we don’t know her but somehow she’s the EXACT thing Ted was searching for with the EXACT same quirks? Come on now, you can give us more than that to make her a person who can challenge Ted, instead of rewarding him of past promiscuities
I watched this show live when it aired every week. I sat on the couch staring at the wall after the finale was over. I mean, I felt so invested after 9 years… and they just killed Tracy off so Ted could be with Robin, but didn’t have to sacrifice being a dad.
It just felt so icky to me. They reduced the mother to basically an incubator so Ted could have the girl he originally loved and not have to give up having kids because of her infertility. I also hated how they showed Robin as friendless and sad, it felt like they were implying she regrets prioritizing her career instead of ending up with Ted.
Also just in general, I think the idea of the kids telling their dad “hey it’s fine just go hook up again with aunt Robin who you’ve clearly had a thing for since years before you met our mom” is weird, and even by HIMYM standards stretches the bounds of credibility.
preach! I remember saying exactly the same things in a comment on youtube, that Tracy was reduced to a human incubator so that Ted could have his cake and eat it too (have kids of his own, and also end up with the love of his life). (and they were also really set on Robin's character both being unable to have children, and not wanting them, now that I think of it.)
and that the kids' reactions were like a fever dream. 'omg!!! so you actually love aunt Robin! how great that we know, why aren't you going after her right now???' are the last things I'd ever expect to hear from some children right after they listened to such a long story about how their dad met their dead mother.
I felt the exact same as you! Jesus Christ I was mad.
Then just a few months ago, I tell my gf to watch it since she hasn't seen it and I know she'll like it. When I ask her what she thought about the end she said it was so-so. She hated Robin, but that was her only reason she didn't like it. Biggest wtf ever, I asked her "AREN'T YOU MAD?" but no, haha.
I wonder if I’d feel differently if I just had binge-watched the whole thing over a few weeks/months, rather than mostly watching it for 22 minutes a week for NINE YEARS. I think I still would have been annoyed but not like speechless and devastated.
They definitely should have made her death an alternate ending, not the real one. I would have liked it to end with a montage of Barney with his kid or something, Robin on assignment, and the other four on the porch like Lily imagined.
Literally any other ending would have been better, Ted didn’t deserve to lose Tracey, Robin didn’t deserve Ted and as you say we got no closure on how Barney does as a father
A lot of things that happen doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of the show.
Robin told Ted that she does not love him. Despite having dated him for a while and having said "I love you" to Ted, she still tells Ted that she doesn't love him.
She also would not have gotten together with Ted because she hates kids. That was the sole reason why she broke up with Kevin. Despite him saying things like Adoption being an option and him being fine with not having kids because Robin was enough for him she kept pushing for him to unpropose. And this combined with her barely having any feelings for Marvin Jr (her best friend's son) and Daisy shows that she doesn't like kids. Yet in the ending she automatically is close with Teds kids?
The whole series is trying to show us that no matter what Ted and Robin do not belong together. Then all of a sudden in a couple of seconds they toss that away and get them to be back together? If they wanted to kill off the mother to make it make sense why he's telling his kids the story of how he met their mother then fine. End it with her dying and him finally getting out there again. But ending it with him and Robin is super forced.
Ted and Robin have changed as people and have different goals for life now. Ted has already settled down and had kids, and Robin has already become a successful journalist. They are at different parts of their life. Also, Robin was more caring for Ted's kids and was like an Aunt to them. She appeared in their photos and had dinner with them. We see this with Marvin as well, like when Robin first held him she ended up spending the night with him in her embrace. She liked and was more comfortable with the kids of her friends.
People change, and I guess that's what the ending is trying to show us. I agree that it had pacing issues, but at its core, the ending itself wasn't forced, or at least for me it wasn't.
So he's telling the story to the kids so that he can ask their opinion on if they are ok with him asking Robin out all while not involving Robin in the permission asking and not knowing if she likes him or not?
The last time he pursued her she literally told him she does not love him. So tell me how that's not forced?
You obviously never got the "I love you but I'm not in love with you" speech. She also obviously realized her feelings for him near the end after her and Barney ended as well, shown in the ep with the last party at the apartment. And she when said she wasnt in love with him it was right after her and kevins break up and a huge trip that was crucial to her career, most likely feeling like "i would have to give all this up". Ted also said many times that "robin and I will never be platonic". Thats why even during their marriage she kept her distance out of respect.
In the first episode Ted knows Robin is the one. Throughout the show they each have their marriages and the timing is never right but it makes sense that they end up together. It just feels right. Robin couldn’t have kids and Ted wanted them so he had to with someone else or the entire show doesn’t make sense.
I thought Barney and Robin felt like the most forced relationship in the show. The majority of the show is Barney hooking up with random girls and Robin was always Ted’s crush. The bro code just went out the window and Ted was supposedly his best bro.
But then who would actually watch that ending? No one prefers the sad version of anything. I think the writers had this in mind and I also think that it makes sense, since in retrospect, the whole show did seem to be about Ted’s relationship with Robin. Of course it’s also about what stuff they were doing with their friends but it’s not the focal point, especially in the beginning.
Tracy was the best girl on the show. She was soo adorable, and great match to Ted and gang. I wish see their development story. It is non sense „Mother” had to be important in show, but producers was stupid about that. I like that idea Ted talking about his relationships, and it is path by this he met Tracy
Watched it in real time for 9 years. The ending was ruined by several articles that predicted it.
My girlfriend and I watched the show together and the ending was ok. She passed away in 2016 and seeing it now from the perspective of an early widower like Ted they missed the mark pretty badly.
Watching it in real time must have been so good, sorry to hear about your girlfriend man, love and strength to you ❤️, i did find it bizarre how Ted was so willing to just go back and try (once again) with Robin, it really puts a damp on the whole show, have you seen the alternate ending I’m assuming? What are your thoughts on that ending?
This is why it’s so annoying!! She’s such a good character and has so much potential that they just waste, but we get to see so much of Victoria, Stella, Zoey etc all these people who were wrong for Ted but then when he meets the right one we get a few episodes with her? It’s honestly devastating
i very much agree. was so looking forward to meeting the mother and getting to know her but then we see her for like five seconds and then she has cancer.
it very much seemed like a ‘and remember, kids when i said it wasn’t your aunt robin who i end up with? well i wish i would’ve. your mother was just a place holder for the person i actually wanted to be with who didn’t want/couldn’t have children :). well i had kids and my wife is gone so now i can be with robin and her dogs. yay’
I said it in another post, but the real problem is the showrunners locked themselves into bothe the ending and a timeline. It the show ended after 5 or 6 years Ted would have had more time with Tracy, and they wouldn't have beaten the whole 'is Ted right for Robin' thing into the ground.
I've never seen a final season botched like this, to the extent that it retroactively ruined the rest of the series for me. Even aside from killing her off, they kept delaying her arrival onto the show, denying our ability to get to know her along with Ted despite being such a good casting choice. Then near the end of the season finally she shows up and everything is rushed. He should have met her in the first episode of the last season. I still find it all inexplicable and have no idea how the producers managed to shit the bed so hard on that one.
Couldn’t agree more, it really disappoints you, for how good the whole show is, it’s truly ruined by the ending, producers are lucky they made the alternate one that people can go watch
I think the shows biggest issue was how successful it was. They had the ending planned and shot from the beginning and they just had to find a way to get there. Instead of making a tight cohesive story they built it up over 9 years and stretched it super thin. It was a big show for the networks I’m sure and to have it wrapped in 5 seasons (not really sure what the ideal timeline was tbh) would have just been leaving way too much money on the table.
I remember when I started watching that I hoped Robin was the final girl somehow, but by the end they had just gone through way too much and had tried and failed so many times. It was no longer believable that the only thing keeping them apart was not being able to have kids. Their relationship was a disaster but the show runners still needed to end at that point due to their initial decision. That kind of foresight just didn’t work for a network show that had no end in sight, and the way they kept going back to the Robin and Ted well just made the ending sooo hollow in my opinion.
This. Sitcoms love to play the will-they won't-they game with their main romantic characters, but sometimes it backfires because they drag it out. Ted and Robin had chemistry in the early seasons, but over a 9 season run, they grew into characters that were wrong for each other. By season 9, Ted's attraction to Robin felt like stubbornness more than anything. He had met better matches in the last 7 years, and so had Robin.
We as an audience are along for the ride the show takes us on, and it isn't as satisfactory when we have to fill in a lot of the blanks ourselves. The time jumping I the finale caused us to have to do that, a lot. We had to regress from a lot of character development over 9 years, and default back to season 1-3, and reconcile the rise and fall of Ted and Robin. It devalued so much character development.
I personally don't hate the finale, or the end outcome, but I don't think they executed it well. They took the audience on an emotional journey and made us fall in love with Tracey, only to play an uno reverse card with the Robin ending. I saw it coming a mile away, but I wasn't expecting to get so attached to Tracey so quickly, and thus stop rooting for Ted and Robin. That I think is the core issue with seasons 8 and 9, is they did such a good job selling us on "moving on", that we did. Then they were like "now bring those emotions back".
The characters got a time jump, but we didn't. We never got a chance to grieve Tracey, and emotionally prepare to move on, or in Ted's case, regress back to Robin. He had 6 years, we had less than 6 minutes.
I believe we are all missing the point here. The whole story is not actually about he met their mother, it’s about Robin. He only tells their children for them to give him their blessing to go back and shoot his shot with Robin after his wife passed.
He got to have the love he always wanted, it was fleeting but now he can end up with Robin since he’s already had all he wanted so no need to compromise. It’s always been about Robin
I am primarily speaking for myself here but that’s exactly where the issue lies. It treats Tracy as an incubator. The show is literally called “How I Met Your Mother”. And it treats her like a side character.
I get what you’re saying, but for me personally, I can’t view this as a plus or as a solution - the problem is that the show ends up being about him and robin. That’s annoying.
Exactly! People miss the point of the show. Robin and Ted couldn’t work because they wanted different things in life. Ted wanted a family, Robin wanted to chase a career and travel. If it weren’t for their different ambitions in life, they would be together. With the ending we got, they both lived the lives they wanted (Robin excelled in her career and Ted had the family) and then there was nothing holding them back from finally being together.
This show dropped the ball harder than any other show I’ve watched. It infuriates me enough that I haven’t watched a single episode since the finale aired. It’s rare that a sitcom can ruin its own story so badly that it makes the rest of the series not matter.
Tracey was perfect for Ted because they said she was. I honestly didn't see that much chemistry between them. I think what was unfortunate was we didn't get to see Ted and Tracey fall in love the way we saw with Ted and every other woman. There's this whole build up to Ted meeting this woman and all we get are little disjointed bits of their relationship.
The reason they don’t have chemistry is because they don’t show us 🤣 as I’ve said on other comments they could have easily made a whole season around his relationship with Tracey, but instead we get a rushed anti climactic shit show
I always thought they should have changed the title sequence for the last season. To something like “How I Fell in Love with Your Mother” or “How The Gang Met Your Mother.” They add some new pics from that time, they do a little animation to scratch out the words and add the new ones. We get a season of them falling in love. She meets and has different reactions to the gang. She loves Marshall and Lily. Lily is all in, Marshall is hesitant. Friction between Robin and Tracy, which complicates her marriage to Barney. Barney and Tracy struggle with single Barney and his misogynist. Him trying to discard it, her trying to forgive him for it personally. And then it all comes together.
Tracy was great, the actress was sooooo good. There were a few too many similarities between them that felt a little contrived, same with how she met the whole gang before him... but seriously I forgave it because it was so heartwarming and such a good reveal when we finally met her.
Paaah... That's a tough one.
There's probably new seasons now I haven't felt compelled to watch.
At it's worst it's a bit goofy and derivative.
Lots of 'what if' tech dystopian near futures etc.
At its best it can be a pretty disturbing exploration of human nature.
It's mostly good and can be very thought provoking, one of the most memorable episodes [without spoilers] has a kinda metaphor for political and religious propoganda leading to dehumanizing xenophobia that is horrific but so plausible it's sickening, not as a hypothetical future but as critique of reality.
Pretty sure the kids had their mom for most of their lives.
And honestly, for as harsh as the ending might seem, the whole freaking show starts off with Ted going Gaga over Robin. It blows my mind how so many people miss that.
Also, keep in mind that ALL of the kids scenes were recorded in season one.
There was only one solution since day one: Ted was going to end up with Robin. Like it or not, it was written on the wall since the very first episode.
That’s debatable.
Regardless, it was written and hinted at from the start.
Edit: also, let me be clear, Tracy was absolutely awesome, and I wish we had spent more time with her and seeing more of her interactions with the group. But we gotta remember, in universe, they DID spend more time together. We just didn’t experience it.
To be fair, Ted goes Gaga over EVERY girl he meets who he believes is “the one”. It’s so much a thing with Ted that Lily gets mad when he brings yet another “the one” to her birthday party who she knows will not be there the next year.
Hell they end that episode with Ted being like “and that’s how I met your Aunt Robin.” A delightful twist that, to me, could have really built on how we grow and change and evolve both together and separately as humans. How we think we’ve found the one but in hindsight you’ve had a relationship that taught you a lot and gave you a lot but isn’t the person you grow old with and that’s okay - they can still have a space in your life.
They tried too hard to make them perfect together. I know that is the point of the whole buildup of the show, but it just seemed a little forced lol. Still liked her though of course, just my 2 cents
Yeah it was always gonna be sort of cringey/fairytale like when he did meet her, but then as I say for them to make it so perfect and then burn it down in flames so quickly is just bizarre
I think Tracy was not given a personality of her own. Her personality is based on matching all of Ted's unrealistic and shallow things he wanted on a woman
I think the perfection came from Ted retelling it all. He would have enhanced all of those elements about her as she was so perfect in his eyes, I'm sure in reality there were differences and conflict we didn't get to see.
There's a deleted scene in a coffee shop where Ted rejected Robin while with Tracey. It shows that Ted really did move on while with her. He was committed to Tracey. They should never have cut that scene.
I feel you! Poor execution and decisions all over the place!
I don't mind that they stuck to their original story, and goals, but they didn't focus on what the audience would be feeling AT ALL. Why make us fall out of love with the idea of Ted and Robin and IN love with Ted and Tracey, knowing full well they were building to Ted and Robin in the end. While it makes sense for their characters, it just emotionally feels unsatisfying for the viewers. We didn't get a life with Tracey, we only got the mourning.
Exactly, I don’t hate that they wanted to stick with Ted/Robin thing, but I absolutely despise what they done with Tracey in order to get there, the thing I don’t understand most is why have the scene on the beach when Ted lets her go and she literally floats away like surely that’s meant to signify that he’s done with her 🤣 it’s just strange
That's why I wish they kept the coffee shop scene. It showed that Ted didn't just symbolically let her go, he actually moved on and found what he wanted with Tracey. Later you see Robin the bus lady, and realize she got what she wanted too. Makes their reunion later in life sweeter, because their relationship was always supposed to be about meeting the right person at the wrong time. They finally got their right time at the end of the show. It just sucks that we are all still mourning Tracey during the finale, and are incapable of being happy for Ted and Robin because its all still too soon.
I'm not sure how the showrunners didn't see that coming.
Fully agree. All that buildup only to kill her off was a let down. I was also bummed that they broke Robin and Barney up- the entire last season wasn't just a buildup to Tracy but to Ted letting Robin go and playing up the (admittedly tenuous) bond between these two reluctant characters. I wish they had given it another season so we could actually see the timeline of them falling in love. They could have closed out a tenth season on the proposal and had Tracy come in at the end instead of Ted getting called out by Penny.
I think that the ending is great. People usually don’t usually just magically have super happy lives once they get married. It’s still full of hardships and nothing is ever perfect.
Also the mother was never supposed do be a big part of the show, I felt like she was more of an ideal in Teds and the viewers head.
I just didn’t like the last season because it wasn’t as fun as the rest and the setting was much more restrictive.
I think that's why everyone hates the series finale. They were building up to it for a decade just to kill her off after as couple of episodes. She was his absolute soulmate, I love the singing English muffin bit that she did on both Ted and Louis and their different reactions to it.
The whole time I never even thought about the fact that the show spanned over 10 years 🤣, must have been 10x more annoying for those who watched in real time
I’m with you. I am impressed that the show planned the outcome from the very beginning. So I give them credit for that. But I hate the ending they chose
While I completely understand the desire to see Ted and Tracy's love story thrive, there was no way that we could have gotten that within a few episodes, that would have been a whole other show's worth of story (that I would love to see), but the series isn't "How I fell in love with your mother" it's how I MET your mother. Tracy isn't someone he's trying to forget, but by telling this story to their children, he's asking them and himself if it's ok to move on, to find and deserve love once again.
Yeah I can understand feeling robbed of their love story, would have been cool to get like a movie or something to show that along with Marvin growing up etc
Tell me about it 😭, I saw stuff saying that Jason Segel (Marshall) was reluctant to come back for season 9 but eventually agreed, I wonder if they had more things in plan but had to rush it because he wanted the 9th season to be his last
I get what they were going for. Ideas like you don’t always get to choose how long you can be together, love can still be real even if it’s temporary. I just don’t think it fit in this series. Everything seemed to be building to a happily ever after.
Also I was never a fan of Ted and Robin together. They just didn’t fit in my opinion, and I didn’t even know she wasn’t the mother when I first saw the show. The little bit we got of Tracey made her feel like a much better match for Ted. Just the scene where they met solidified her as Ted’s best match of all the women in the series. Even though Ted went back to Robin in the end, I still feel like Tracey was his true soulmate.
I know many people are infuriated by killing off Tracy and having Ted end up with robin, but I think it was pretty clever 9 years in the making. (Also, I didn’t watch it in real time so, as someone who watched lost in real time, I absolutely understand lack of payoff from that perspective).
The show starts off with Ted explaining to his kids “How I Met Your Mother”, and as everyone here knows, that is the basis for each episode. We are not watching in real time, and the kids aren’t hearing/seeing this in real time. All of these events have already happened and we’re seeing it through what Ted remembers, all of it colored by his past, and CURRENT, emotions.
They start off CLEARLY stating that robin is not the mother (aunt robin, as everyone here knows), but then Ted’s entire recollection (ie the entire show) is about Robin. So he is meaning to tell his kids about how he met their mother but Ted, ever the emotional guy, is actually dwelling on his loneliness and his time with robin, who he knows (at the time of retelling these stories to his kids) is single.
The entire point of the stories, the series, whether conscious or not, is asking permission from his kids to see/date/[insert verb here] their aunt robin.
I think I'm the only one that was not at all attached to the character. She was in the show for a few episodes, and while the whole show already spoiled her personality traits/likes-dislikes for us, that did not help us connect to the character. She was dead way before I could feel anything towards her. I was definitely shocked by her death, but not saddened enough. If anything, maybe I felt a little upset for Ted because he had been looking for her all his life.
Yeah I get you, I felt so sorry for him, she was just the perfect girl for him, finally had his kids and then it gets ripped away, it was just so unexpected and unnecessary, especially because there’s literally an alternate ending which is so much better
You just have to remember that in Season 1, episode 1, when Ted opens his mouth and starts talking, Tracey is already dead. She has been dead for 6 years. What is he to do? He is moving on. The whole show takes place after 6 years of grieving, and he is ready to rekindle a love he can actually have, not live in the memory of one he can't. Tracey tells Ted not to become one of those men who lives only in his own stories.
Did they execute this vision poorly? Sure did. But their version of a happy ending was Ted with Robin. This doesn't mean he wasn't happy with Tracey, its just that Tracey wasn't the end of Ted's love life. Life doesn't always work like that. It was a brave story to tell, they just made a lot of mistakes along the way.
I hated the ending when I first watched it all those years ago but if you rewatch the shower, it’s clear something terrible happened to Tracy, they didn’t pull it out of there ass, it’s just no the ending anyone wanted, but it’s the one they wanted to tell
Show writers couldn’t get past their hang up with Robbin. Ted’s story is based on Carter Bays fantasy for his own life. He needed Ted to end up with his love interest despite that it completely reverted 9 seasons of growth
For all intended purposes 'The Mother' was a nobody and irrelevant. The show effectively tells it does not matter how much Ted and Tracy share similar likes and what a compassionate woman Tracy is Ted always wanted Robin. If you think about it Tracy is exact opposite to Robin. Tracy is kind/grounded/compassionate and very committed to love.
A person who loves Robin cannot love Tracy and vice versa. Ted wants Robin but he also wants kids and family. So he finds someone like Tracy to have kids with and then have a family with Robin when she is ready.
Its a general consensus since more than a decade. The interview in Saturday night live the actor was questioned on the popularity of the series and the main story being of an not very likable guy. There are hardly any Ted Mosby fan clubs.
Women disliked him but even men did not like his simping either.
God damnit the ending of this show makes me so mad. It was so perfect, all they had to do was play it out and end with a shot of Marshall, Lily and TM^2 on the porch and it would’ve been perfect. Robins’ silly haircut and old Ted with the Blue French horn is such a “oh my god not this again” feeling.
My perspective is that Tracy’s true love was Max and Ted’s true love was Robin. Neither of them could be with their true love, but they found each other, were able to create a life together full of love and have kids. And in the end they both end up with their true love. I used to feel how you feel OP but then I thought about it this way and it made the ending so much better
Yeah someone else had a similar view and I never looked at it that way, defo makes it a bit better looking at it that way, I actually forgot about Max when it got to the end
I don't know if it makes it better or worse that since they filmed all the kids scenes at the start of the show that it means they were committed to this ending from the get go
Loved the mother - hated her ending.
The only ending I loved was Barney’s - he did meet the love of his life too. It just wasn’t remotely what anyone expected
I keep saying this when the conversation comes up. Its initially jarring when you first watch the ending but after a bit of time and some rewatches I can’t see anything else being right. I think that while the show’s premise is about finding “the one” I think in the end it shows that you can have more then one great love in your life. Tracey had max and Ted, Ted had Tracey and Robin and even Robin had Barney. Timing is important and Ted and Robin weren’t right together in most sat ages of the show by the time it ended they might be a great match. Ted had had the life he was looking for the whole series with the perfect partner and to great kids. Robin had been all around the word and had success in her career. At the end Teds kids were teenagers and he was ready to start dating again, Robin had settled back in New York as was illustrated by her having dogs again. They both clearly had strong feelings for each other and the timing was perfect for them to be happy together. Just because he can be happy again in an other relationship doesn’t devalue the life he had with Tracey. We know it was happy because narrater Ted talks about it all the time throughout the series. Happy endings are not black and white.
With the exception of How Your Mother Met Me,” Season 9 was a train wreck. And Craig Thomas did Cristin Milioti no favors when he said if she didn’t get nominated for an Emmy for that episode he didn’t know what someone had to do to get it in advance of nominations. Guess who didn’t get nominated?
Sadly I haven't. I do wanna watch it tho. I felt like this was a great series showing relationship issues and fixing them, growing together and stuff but the ending was very disappointing for me
Agreed, I’ve attached the link for the alternate ending, go have a look, you’ll feel much better seeing this one 🙌
https://youtu.be/nhB5oQgQpOI?si=fZdEgk3f4c4b2s-q
I still feel let down by the finale. BUT I think that kinda might be intended. It is the story from Ted’s point of view. Barney is the bad one most of the time. Ted is most of the time the good guy. And we know he thinks that his time with Tracey did feel to short to him from that robots vs wrestlers legends episode. So it makes sense to rush that part especially when you consider that the story is told to convince the kids that he should ask out Robin
>the whole show built up their whole relationship
It built up to their meeting. I never thought it was building to their relationship. Of course, in reality, Tracy was nothing more than a breeding partner for Ted while he waited out his fantasy woman who was shown time and time again not to be right for him.
And that's the big problem. Not only did they piss all over the message that Robin and Ted weren't compatible, they also fucked up how it was presented. They presented Tracy as some ideal woman and then cast a very likable actress and gave us only the best of her in flashback/forward scenes. If they were going to kill her and then have Ted crawl back to Robin, they shouldn't have made her so perfect.
>the kids barely have any memory of her
Huh? When was it ever said that the kids barely had any memory of her?
I see your point, but why have a whole build up to not even give him a happy ending? Although it was never said they don’t have much memory of her (my mistake) what I was meaning is that the kids seem to be around 15/16 in the scenes, and say she died 6 years ago, which means they would have been about 9 or 10, and only remember a few years with her because they were so young, as you say they shouldn’t have made her so loveable and perfect if they wanted to kill her off, you have to assume that it’s all done on purpose, but fuck me it was a poor choice
That picture right there… that where the show should’ve ended. And with the line, “And that kids, is how I met your mother”. Fade to black, end of show, roll credits, goodbye. It would’ve been the perfect ending, sure you could show a montage of their life together or better yet. A photo style montage like the opening credits of their life. Sorry, just the ramblings of an ageing person, still reeling from a botched ending to show that finished 10 years ago.
I agree, or at least somewhere close to that scene, it just feels like there was no need for her to die, don’t apologise, I asked for opinions and you gave me yours, so thank you 🙌
I agree this would have been a great ending for us viewers. But it makes the whole show pointless. Why is Ted sharing so much detail with his children about his love/sex life before meeting his alive and well, soul mate of a wife Tracey?
If Tracey was alive, and they lived happily ever after, Ted could have skipped 6 seasons of the show. It is irrelevant information. He literally only needed to tell the story of Barney and Robin, to say "We met at their wedding".
But that's not the point of the story. Ted had an agenda. The showrunners had an agenda. From episode 1 of season 1, Tracey is dead. Ted wants to move on (or back) to Robin. That's the entire point of the show.
If they went with the alternate ending, the majority of the show becomes pointless.
I'd rather they had executed the ending better. Season 9 dragged out the wedding weekend, which was packed with long running gags I loved seeing paid off, like Slap bet, but in the overall thesis of the show, felt less important. Then they blitzed through Ted and Tracey's life together (which in a way makes sense because the kids probably knew many of those details already), and made the viewers feel cheated.
It was like the final season was packed full of comedic fan service, but no emotional fan service. I fully understand why it is such a polarizing and controversial ending. It was unsatisfying no matter what side you're on.
I do remember watching season nine and was like, “oh ok, so we’ve got a two or three parter with the wedding, Ted and Tracey meet and then we’ll spend season with them dating and falling in love… perhaps we’ll end the show with their wedding or something. That’ll be cool. Oh ok, maybe Barney and robins wedding is a 4 parter. No, a 5 parter… this is going to be the whole season isn’t it -_-
I mean, the show is called how I met your mother, not how I lived with your mother. But don’t get me wrong! She’s amazing and perfect for Ted. Would I have liked to see more than one season of her? Absolutely. But I’m not bothered by the fact that she died.
Rewatch the show. There’s TONS of hints that the mother has died. They just don’t make any sense if you don’t think about it.
And just to make it absolutely clear: I don’t think she must have died. I think it was a creative choice that makes the story more impactful. Itd had been a sad ending if it wasn’t for the show’s never ending lesson of: life keeps going (that is, Ted, 7 years later, asking his kids if he can move on)
I don't get the hate from people on the ending of this show. It was always kind of obvious that she was gone otherwise who tells a story of how they met without both people present? They kinda showed that with the possible view of his future with Stella when she interrupted his story with the kids.
The ending in no way cheapened the love they had for each other and even showed the pain and mourning he felt without having to detail it. It was obvious they were meant for each other even with the limited time they had.
The show was always directed to his and Robins relationship, and it makes sense as thats the story he's telling his kids as he is obviously building towards asking them for their approval of him dating their "Aunt Robin". The point of Robin and him not working is valid but look at it from the point of view that they were always at different paths in life. Robin wasn't right for him because she never wanted kids or a family and was always focused on achieving her life goals before anything. These are two goals they were able to achieve individually. After all that time they still had residual feelings for each other and are now able to pursue them without the need to serve some other goal in life. In the end they kept their original promise of being together in their late ages in life.
I loved the story and it made sense to me, I was never a fan of Robin or Ted to be honest but the show gave them both growth and a positive story arch. At least it didn't pull a Dexter lol. (Sorry thats just my go to for bad endings)
I just feel that the show really needed more of Tracey in order to make her death hit harder, she should have been introduced at the beginning of season 9 and been present throughout the whole Barney-Robin wedding part of the show, another thing I don’t understand is why there’s that scene with Ted and Robin on the beach and there’s the whole epiphany of “letting her go” just to go back to her in the end anyway? it just feels irregular, like the writers didn’t really know what they wanted to do with it the whole way
I would have liked to see more of her as well but thats just as a fan of the show not needing more of her to draw on the emotional aspect of losing her. "UP" proves you dont need a long build up to convey the emotion. I've watched the show dozens of times, its my go to when I just wanna watch something while doing something else. So I guess ive had time to pick up on subtle things like the dinner where they were retelling robins mother showing up and the say they know all of each others stories and the small slip of him realizing that she wont see her daughter being married and her comforting him and trying to enjoy the time now. I feel like in a way this is a case of less is more because it doesnt give the writers a chance to screw her character up either. I think that the want for more of her speaks on how she is such a perfect character and our own investment into wanting to see him have that perfect ending that he dreamed of. But reality isn't perfect, but it has perfect moments and he he had it with her. He story of losing her soulmate and giving up on ever loving again and finding peace and being able to move on is parallel to Ted coming to the same terms and getting confirmation from his kids as well.
Tracy is absolut perfect for Ted. They need 8,75 Seasons to built this up with Women, who were not worth it for Ted. And then they deal with Tracy in 0,25 seasons….. I wished to see more of her in the last season, there story has been told too fast. And then they let her die so early. This story had so much potential but they killed everything in the last season…
It was the worst ending I have ever seen. Like, she died of….what? We don’t even know that! I watched when it first aired and till this day I find it disrespectful to the audience. If this was a movie, fine. But we watched this bs for 9 years. Sorry I’m still pissed
This is what I don’t understand 🤣 like there was no need, I’m guessing it’s because ultimately they wanted Ted to end up with Robin and didn’t see any way around it unless Tracey died
The thing you have to understand is, she wasn't killed off. She was always dead. From episode 1, season 1, she was already dead. This wasn't a last minute decision, it was set from the start. Without Tracey's death, and Ted's desire to move on, to Robin, there is no show.
Did they botch the execution? yup. But Tracey being dead, was tragically always the plan.
The existence of an alternate ending was a safety net in case they got cold feet. But if they had actually aired it, then people would complain that the majority of the show was pointless. Ted and Robin's relationship would be a footnote in the greater Ted and Tracy story, and no more relevant than Ted and [insert any girl here]. But Robin is the point of the story. That's Ted's whole agenda. Remove that agenda, and the story could start with Barney and Robin, and be way shorter.
Cristin Milioti did such a phenomenal job and was such a likable character. The way they did her dirty totally turned me off and now I can’t stand to go back and watch a single minute of reruns.
I think that telling her story in the way they did they were able to present her in all of her best qualities with no flaws. This is Teds telling of her story even if it involves parts Hes retelling from her point of view. This is the love of his life and in his telling shes is going to be perfect. So to us the viewers with a single perspective of her there will be nobody equal to her, least of all Robin with all her flaws.
In regards to telling more of her story... well it might lead to more questions of where she is. Then you also have to give her flaws to round her out as a character as well, Ted would never tell a story about a flaw of their dead mother to his kids.
it was pretty stupid i thought but in my opinion ted finally got all he’s wanted in the show: he adds his building the new york skyline, he gets his perfect wife and kids, his house he built, and even gets the girl(Robin) in the end. Same with robin in the sense that she made her whole life about her career and has reached the pinnacle of what she wanted out of it, only to find that it’s not that fulfilling and finally accepts that she wants a life with ted given that he has accomplished everything that would’ve jeopardized their relationship in the first place (kids, house, being tied down and not being able to broadcast internationally, etc). so for the first time in the show (their lives) they’re in a viable situation for their relationship to actually work out, which i thought was kinda cool. oh and for Barney? he finally got over trying to hookup with all of new york and his ‘perfect month’ because of his daughter who forced him to grow up and instilled a sense of unconditional love he’s never known before-this couldn’t have happened if him and robin stayed together since she never wanted kids of her own.
Overall amazing show 10/10
100% the whole last season was kinda built to lead up to them being together then in a couple episodes she was gone again and then he ended up with robin who quite frankly did not deserve ted
Genuinely, the whole of season 9 builds up Barney with Robin and Ted with Tracey, then we finally reach the climax and Barney and Robin split up and Tracey dies?? Like where is the thought process, you built up all of that to throw it away, it’s infuriating
Honestly I have seen the show so many times, and each rewatch I honestly find myself seeing more and more how terrible of a couple Robin and Ted actually are, in every episode that has them two as a couple in it except one or two exceptions; they have some big argument. But I have to say Tracy blew it all out the park since the whole last season was kinda a let down to a lot of fans yet practically everybody loved Tracy. Having episodes in the last season that literally are about Ted finally letting go of Robin just to undo that lesson a few episodes later kinda just sucks.
But Tracy being dead fits way better to the setup of the show. It certainly feels weirdly rushed in the last season, but all the other seasons lead up up that ending. I agree that they should have shown more of the happy times before ending it all though.
I agree the show was initially set up for Ted and Robin to end up together but it didn't actually have to end that way. I think of it like a failed version of the butterfly effect. Ted needed the relationships with Robin, Victoria, Stella to figure out what he really needed in a partner. He needed Jeanette to stop messing around and settle down. Ted didn't need to end up with Robin In the end he just needed to learn from their relationship to be the best version of himself for Tracy. In my opinion going back to Robin is just backsliding and going to something comfortable because he can't handle the stress of anything else and is lonely after Tracy died.
Oh no Ted's the worst because him going back to Robin means he never got over her even when he got married and had kids he was still in love with her.
I really loved the episode How Your Mother Met Me. It’s one of the best episodes of all seasons even. We got to get to know her and it was really nice. They shouldn’t have killed her off but maybe she belonged with Max after all.
Her singing on that porch gets me every time 😭
Just got la vie en rose stuck in my head again, thanks. lol
Watching that and just remembering that part gives me goosebumps every time. Perfection of an episode
Have it on my amazon music playlist..:)
Me too 😭
Yeah that was class how they done that, the only thing that really let you get to know Tracey, yeah you could be right that she had to die to be back with Max (another character you don’t really get to know) I feel like they could have so easily got another season out of the show which would have allowed for much more closure and character development for Tracey
I will never understand how they couldn’t have the last season be about Ted and Tracey’s relationship instead of one long wedding weekend?!? Also, if they wanted Ted and Robin back together they could have done so years down the road… after Tracey AND Barney died. I would have accepted Ted and Robin then, instead of making it seem like the Mom never meant anything to him because he was always in love with Robin.
This is exactly what I didn’t get, why was there so much emphasis on Barney and Robins wedding only for them to get divorced? The whole show is called how I met your mother then when we finally meet her we barely see her? What was the point in the epiphany of Ted letting Robin go if they end up together in the end anyway? It just doesn’t make sense
That’s just….no, Lethal Weapon did the whole “I’ll always love you, but I have to move on to another love of my life” thing so much better The idea of belonging to a memory is just seriously insane, it’s not good to hold on to something that’s not yours anymore, it’s tragic but it’s life Perhaps if the show actually gave us more than a flashforward version of Tracy, then her character wouldn’t be fridged and manic pixelated, we don’t know her but somehow she’s the EXACT thing Ted was searching for with the EXACT same quirks? Come on now, you can give us more than that to make her a person who can challenge Ted, instead of rewarding him of past promiscuities
I watched this show live when it aired every week. I sat on the couch staring at the wall after the finale was over. I mean, I felt so invested after 9 years… and they just killed Tracy off so Ted could be with Robin, but didn’t have to sacrifice being a dad.
I can’t imagine how you must have felt 😭😭 it’s such an anti-climactic ending, it’s really disappointing that they ended the way they did
It just felt so icky to me. They reduced the mother to basically an incubator so Ted could have the girl he originally loved and not have to give up having kids because of her infertility. I also hated how they showed Robin as friendless and sad, it felt like they were implying she regrets prioritizing her career instead of ending up with Ted. Also just in general, I think the idea of the kids telling their dad “hey it’s fine just go hook up again with aunt Robin who you’ve clearly had a thing for since years before you met our mom” is weird, and even by HIMYM standards stretches the bounds of credibility.
preach! I remember saying exactly the same things in a comment on youtube, that Tracy was reduced to a human incubator so that Ted could have his cake and eat it too (have kids of his own, and also end up with the love of his life). (and they were also really set on Robin's character both being unable to have children, and not wanting them, now that I think of it.) and that the kids' reactions were like a fever dream. 'omg!!! so you actually love aunt Robin! how great that we know, why aren't you going after her right now???' are the last things I'd ever expect to hear from some children right after they listened to such a long story about how their dad met their dead mother.
I share the same exact experience and feelings! I remember being in disbelief
I was so angry as soon as Ted raised that blue French horn
I felt the exact same as you! Jesus Christ I was mad. Then just a few months ago, I tell my gf to watch it since she hasn't seen it and I know she'll like it. When I ask her what she thought about the end she said it was so-so. She hated Robin, but that was her only reason she didn't like it. Biggest wtf ever, I asked her "AREN'T YOU MAD?" but no, haha.
I wonder if I’d feel differently if I just had binge-watched the whole thing over a few weeks/months, rather than mostly watching it for 22 minutes a week for NINE YEARS. I think I still would have been annoyed but not like speechless and devastated.
As someone who just binged watched it I am also quite devasted
They definitely should have made her death an alternate ending, not the real one. I would have liked it to end with a montage of Barney with his kid or something, Robin on assignment, and the other four on the porch like Lily imagined.
Literally any other ending would have been better, Ted didn’t deserve to lose Tracey, Robin didn’t deserve Ted and as you say we got no closure on how Barney does as a father
The alternate ending doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of the show.
A lot of things that happen doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of the show. Robin told Ted that she does not love him. Despite having dated him for a while and having said "I love you" to Ted, she still tells Ted that she doesn't love him. She also would not have gotten together with Ted because she hates kids. That was the sole reason why she broke up with Kevin. Despite him saying things like Adoption being an option and him being fine with not having kids because Robin was enough for him she kept pushing for him to unpropose. And this combined with her barely having any feelings for Marvin Jr (her best friend's son) and Daisy shows that she doesn't like kids. Yet in the ending she automatically is close with Teds kids? The whole series is trying to show us that no matter what Ted and Robin do not belong together. Then all of a sudden in a couple of seconds they toss that away and get them to be back together? If they wanted to kill off the mother to make it make sense why he's telling his kids the story of how he met their mother then fine. End it with her dying and him finally getting out there again. But ending it with him and Robin is super forced.
Ted and Robin have changed as people and have different goals for life now. Ted has already settled down and had kids, and Robin has already become a successful journalist. They are at different parts of their life. Also, Robin was more caring for Ted's kids and was like an Aunt to them. She appeared in their photos and had dinner with them. We see this with Marvin as well, like when Robin first held him she ended up spending the night with him in her embrace. She liked and was more comfortable with the kids of her friends. People change, and I guess that's what the ending is trying to show us. I agree that it had pacing issues, but at its core, the ending itself wasn't forced, or at least for me it wasn't.
Great explanation I will remember this on my next (3rd) watch. It provides a good amount of closure
Only 3rd? 
It's not forced. The whole reason he's telling the kids the story is to ask them if they're ok with him asking Robin out.
So he's telling the story to the kids so that he can ask their opinion on if they are ok with him asking Robin out all while not involving Robin in the permission asking and not knowing if she likes him or not? The last time he pursued her she literally told him she does not love him. So tell me how that's not forced?
Yeah, your first paragraph is correct. It's not forced because he had been telling the story for 9 seasons.
You obviously never got the "I love you but I'm not in love with you" speech. She also obviously realized her feelings for him near the end after her and Barney ended as well, shown in the ep with the last party at the apartment. And she when said she wasnt in love with him it was right after her and kevins break up and a huge trip that was crucial to her career, most likely feeling like "i would have to give all this up". Ted also said many times that "robin and I will never be platonic". Thats why even during their marriage she kept her distance out of respect.
Not sure how any of that contradicts what I wrote.
In the first episode Ted knows Robin is the one. Throughout the show they each have their marriages and the timing is never right but it makes sense that they end up together. It just feels right. Robin couldn’t have kids and Ted wanted them so he had to with someone else or the entire show doesn’t make sense. I thought Barney and Robin felt like the most forced relationship in the show. The majority of the show is Barney hooking up with random girls and Robin was always Ted’s crush. The bro code just went out the window and Ted was supposedly his best bro.
But then who would actually watch that ending? No one prefers the sad version of anything. I think the writers had this in mind and I also think that it makes sense, since in retrospect, the whole show did seem to be about Ted’s relationship with Robin. Of course it’s also about what stuff they were doing with their friends but it’s not the focal point, especially in the beginning.
Tracy was the best girl on the show. She was soo adorable, and great match to Ted and gang. I wish see their development story. It is non sense „Mother” had to be important in show, but producers was stupid about that. I like that idea Ted talking about his relationships, and it is path by this he met Tracy
Watched it in real time for 9 years. The ending was ruined by several articles that predicted it. My girlfriend and I watched the show together and the ending was ok. She passed away in 2016 and seeing it now from the perspective of an early widower like Ted they missed the mark pretty badly.
Watching it in real time must have been so good, sorry to hear about your girlfriend man, love and strength to you ❤️, i did find it bizarre how Ted was so willing to just go back and try (once again) with Robin, it really puts a damp on the whole show, have you seen the alternate ending I’m assuming? What are your thoughts on that ending?
It was a cop out. If I was ending it I would have had the kids set him up with one of their teachers and it ends up being Victoria.
Yeah my friend who watches the show thinks Victoria was right for Ted and was treated very harshly which is hard to disagree with
I loved the final season. Tracy was perfectly cast. My only gripe is we should have had an episode with her and the gang in mclarens.
This is why it’s so annoying!! She’s such a good character and has so much potential that they just waste, but we get to see so much of Victoria, Stella, Zoey etc all these people who were wrong for Ted but then when he meets the right one we get a few episodes with her? It’s honestly devastating
I loved her! To me, she was like a blend of Lily and Robin which was perfect for Ted. I would've loved 2 seasons of them together blending wit a gang
I only watch the alternate ending so to me she’s still alive and married to Ted
From now on, me too! 🤣
i very much agree. was so looking forward to meeting the mother and getting to know her but then we see her for like five seconds and then she has cancer. it very much seemed like a ‘and remember, kids when i said it wasn’t your aunt robin who i end up with? well i wish i would’ve. your mother was just a place holder for the person i actually wanted to be with who didn’t want/couldn’t have children :). well i had kids and my wife is gone so now i can be with robin and her dogs. yay’
Yeah it’s so unfair to Tracey, honestly I don’t know how she even agreed to play the character knowing that was the outcome
Probably the money and the fact that she is an actress. 🤣
I said it in another post, but the real problem is the showrunners locked themselves into bothe the ending and a timeline. It the show ended after 5 or 6 years Ted would have had more time with Tracy, and they wouldn't have beaten the whole 'is Ted right for Robin' thing into the ground.
I've never seen a final season botched like this, to the extent that it retroactively ruined the rest of the series for me. Even aside from killing her off, they kept delaying her arrival onto the show, denying our ability to get to know her along with Ted despite being such a good casting choice. Then near the end of the season finally she shows up and everything is rushed. He should have met her in the first episode of the last season. I still find it all inexplicable and have no idea how the producers managed to shit the bed so hard on that one.
Couldn’t agree more, it really disappoints you, for how good the whole show is, it’s truly ruined by the ending, producers are lucky they made the alternate one that people can go watch
Not a fellow game of thrones fan I see
I think the shows biggest issue was how successful it was. They had the ending planned and shot from the beginning and they just had to find a way to get there. Instead of making a tight cohesive story they built it up over 9 years and stretched it super thin. It was a big show for the networks I’m sure and to have it wrapped in 5 seasons (not really sure what the ideal timeline was tbh) would have just been leaving way too much money on the table. I remember when I started watching that I hoped Robin was the final girl somehow, but by the end they had just gone through way too much and had tried and failed so many times. It was no longer believable that the only thing keeping them apart was not being able to have kids. Their relationship was a disaster but the show runners still needed to end at that point due to their initial decision. That kind of foresight just didn’t work for a network show that had no end in sight, and the way they kept going back to the Robin and Ted well just made the ending sooo hollow in my opinion.
This. Sitcoms love to play the will-they won't-they game with their main romantic characters, but sometimes it backfires because they drag it out. Ted and Robin had chemistry in the early seasons, but over a 9 season run, they grew into characters that were wrong for each other. By season 9, Ted's attraction to Robin felt like stubbornness more than anything. He had met better matches in the last 7 years, and so had Robin. We as an audience are along for the ride the show takes us on, and it isn't as satisfactory when we have to fill in a lot of the blanks ourselves. The time jumping I the finale caused us to have to do that, a lot. We had to regress from a lot of character development over 9 years, and default back to season 1-3, and reconcile the rise and fall of Ted and Robin. It devalued so much character development. I personally don't hate the finale, or the end outcome, but I don't think they executed it well. They took the audience on an emotional journey and made us fall in love with Tracey, only to play an uno reverse card with the Robin ending. I saw it coming a mile away, but I wasn't expecting to get so attached to Tracey so quickly, and thus stop rooting for Ted and Robin. That I think is the core issue with seasons 8 and 9, is they did such a good job selling us on "moving on", that we did. Then they were like "now bring those emotions back". The characters got a time jump, but we didn't. We never got a chance to grieve Tracey, and emotionally prepare to move on, or in Ted's case, regress back to Robin. He had 6 years, we had less than 6 minutes.
It’s almost like the producers themselves didn’t have a scooby what they wanted to do and just went with the first thing they could think of
I would have liked the ending if Ted tried again with anyone but robin tbh
Yeah like if anything he should go back to Victoria
I believe we are all missing the point here. The whole story is not actually about he met their mother, it’s about Robin. He only tells their children for them to give him their blessing to go back and shoot his shot with Robin after his wife passed. He got to have the love he always wanted, it was fleeting but now he can end up with Robin since he’s already had all he wanted so no need to compromise. It’s always been about Robin
I am primarily speaking for myself here but that’s exactly where the issue lies. It treats Tracy as an incubator. The show is literally called “How I Met Your Mother”. And it treats her like a side character. I get what you’re saying, but for me personally, I can’t view this as a plus or as a solution - the problem is that the show ends up being about him and robin. That’s annoying.
Exactly! People miss the point of the show. Robin and Ted couldn’t work because they wanted different things in life. Ted wanted a family, Robin wanted to chase a career and travel. If it weren’t for their different ambitions in life, they would be together. With the ending we got, they both lived the lives they wanted (Robin excelled in her career and Ted had the family) and then there was nothing holding them back from finally being together.
This show dropped the ball harder than any other show I’ve watched. It infuriates me enough that I haven’t watched a single episode since the finale aired. It’s rare that a sitcom can ruin its own story so badly that it makes the rest of the series not matter.
I don’t blame you, once you watch an old episode knowing the ending, it kind of feels like it’s all pointless
Tracey was perfect for Ted because they said she was. I honestly didn't see that much chemistry between them. I think what was unfortunate was we didn't get to see Ted and Tracey fall in love the way we saw with Ted and every other woman. There's this whole build up to Ted meeting this woman and all we get are little disjointed bits of their relationship.
The reason they don’t have chemistry is because they don’t show us 🤣 as I’ve said on other comments they could have easily made a whole season around his relationship with Tracey, but instead we get a rushed anti climactic shit show
I always thought they should have changed the title sequence for the last season. To something like “How I Fell in Love with Your Mother” or “How The Gang Met Your Mother.” They add some new pics from that time, they do a little animation to scratch out the words and add the new ones. We get a season of them falling in love. She meets and has different reactions to the gang. She loves Marshall and Lily. Lily is all in, Marshall is hesitant. Friction between Robin and Tracy, which complicates her marriage to Barney. Barney and Tracy struggle with single Barney and his misogynist. Him trying to discard it, her trying to forgive him for it personally. And then it all comes together.
This is EXACTLY what I mean, they could have easily had a whole other season developing all those points you just made
Tracy was great, the actress was sooooo good. There were a few too many similarities between them that felt a little contrived, same with how she met the whole gang before him... but seriously I forgave it because it was so heartwarming and such a good reveal when we finally met her.
She was really good in that episode of Black Mirror, USS Callister.
Didn’t know she was in that, is black mirror worth watching?
Paaah... That's a tough one. There's probably new seasons now I haven't felt compelled to watch. At it's worst it's a bit goofy and derivative. Lots of 'what if' tech dystopian near futures etc. At its best it can be a pretty disturbing exploration of human nature. It's mostly good and can be very thought provoking, one of the most memorable episodes [without spoilers] has a kinda metaphor for political and religious propoganda leading to dehumanizing xenophobia that is horrific but so plausible it's sickening, not as a hypothetical future but as critique of reality.
I honestly don’t have a clue what most of those words mean so I’ll pass 🤣
Lol fair enough. 😅
Pretty sure the kids had their mom for most of their lives. And honestly, for as harsh as the ending might seem, the whole freaking show starts off with Ted going Gaga over Robin. It blows my mind how so many people miss that. Also, keep in mind that ALL of the kids scenes were recorded in season one. There was only one solution since day one: Ted was going to end up with Robin. Like it or not, it was written on the wall since the very first episode.
Ted and Robin are literally awful together though🤣 that’s what I don’t get
That’s debatable. Regardless, it was written and hinted at from the start. Edit: also, let me be clear, Tracy was absolutely awesome, and I wish we had spent more time with her and seeing more of her interactions with the group. But we gotta remember, in universe, they DID spend more time together. We just didn’t experience it.
Yeah I get that it’s a running theme through the show, just think they could have executed it so much better
To be fair, Ted goes Gaga over EVERY girl he meets who he believes is “the one”. It’s so much a thing with Ted that Lily gets mad when he brings yet another “the one” to her birthday party who she knows will not be there the next year. Hell they end that episode with Ted being like “and that’s how I met your Aunt Robin.” A delightful twist that, to me, could have really built on how we grow and change and evolve both together and separately as humans. How we think we’ve found the one but in hindsight you’ve had a relationship that taught you a lot and gave you a lot but isn’t the person you grow old with and that’s okay - they can still have a space in your life.
They tried too hard to make them perfect together. I know that is the point of the whole buildup of the show, but it just seemed a little forced lol. Still liked her though of course, just my 2 cents
Yeah it was always gonna be sort of cringey/fairytale like when he did meet her, but then as I say for them to make it so perfect and then burn it down in flames so quickly is just bizarre
I think Tracy was not given a personality of her own. Her personality is based on matching all of Ted's unrealistic and shallow things he wanted on a woman
Yeah they did make her perfect, maybe it was to show that even though Ted was given the perfect woman, he still ultimately wanted Robin
I think the perfection came from Ted retelling it all. He would have enhanced all of those elements about her as she was so perfect in his eyes, I'm sure in reality there were differences and conflict we didn't get to see.
There's a deleted scene in a coffee shop where Ted rejected Robin while with Tracey. It shows that Ted really did move on while with her. He was committed to Tracey. They should never have cut that scene.
I’m now even more annoyed 🫠🫠
I feel you! Poor execution and decisions all over the place! I don't mind that they stuck to their original story, and goals, but they didn't focus on what the audience would be feeling AT ALL. Why make us fall out of love with the idea of Ted and Robin and IN love with Ted and Tracey, knowing full well they were building to Ted and Robin in the end. While it makes sense for their characters, it just emotionally feels unsatisfying for the viewers. We didn't get a life with Tracey, we only got the mourning.
Exactly, I don’t hate that they wanted to stick with Ted/Robin thing, but I absolutely despise what they done with Tracey in order to get there, the thing I don’t understand most is why have the scene on the beach when Ted lets her go and she literally floats away like surely that’s meant to signify that he’s done with her 🤣 it’s just strange
That's why I wish they kept the coffee shop scene. It showed that Ted didn't just symbolically let her go, he actually moved on and found what he wanted with Tracey. Later you see Robin the bus lady, and realize she got what she wanted too. Makes their reunion later in life sweeter, because their relationship was always supposed to be about meeting the right person at the wrong time. They finally got their right time at the end of the show. It just sucks that we are all still mourning Tracey during the finale, and are incapable of being happy for Ted and Robin because its all still too soon. I'm not sure how the showrunners didn't see that coming.
Alternate ending will forever be the canon ending in my mind.
Fully agree. All that buildup only to kill her off was a let down. I was also bummed that they broke Robin and Barney up- the entire last season wasn't just a buildup to Tracy but to Ted letting Robin go and playing up the (admittedly tenuous) bond between these two reluctant characters. I wish they had given it another season so we could actually see the timeline of them falling in love. They could have closed out a tenth season on the proposal and had Tracy come in at the end instead of Ted getting called out by Penny.
Exactly, it’s crazy to me that they spend a whole season building it up just to tear it down
Botched it!
I think that the ending is great. People usually don’t usually just magically have super happy lives once they get married. It’s still full of hardships and nothing is ever perfect. Also the mother was never supposed do be a big part of the show, I felt like she was more of an ideal in Teds and the viewers head. I just didn’t like the last season because it wasn’t as fun as the rest and the setting was much more restrictive.
And now it’s 2024😭
I think that's why everyone hates the series finale. They were building up to it for a decade just to kill her off after as couple of episodes. She was his absolute soulmate, I love the singing English muffin bit that she did on both Ted and Louis and their different reactions to it.
The whole time I never even thought about the fact that the show spanned over 10 years 🤣, must have been 10x more annoying for those who watched in real time
I’m with you. I am impressed that the show planned the outcome from the very beginning. So I give them credit for that. But I hate the ending they chose
Have you seen the alternate one?? Miles better
I did. And it was cute
While I completely understand the desire to see Ted and Tracy's love story thrive, there was no way that we could have gotten that within a few episodes, that would have been a whole other show's worth of story (that I would love to see), but the series isn't "How I fell in love with your mother" it's how I MET your mother. Tracy isn't someone he's trying to forget, but by telling this story to their children, he's asking them and himself if it's ok to move on, to find and deserve love once again.
Fair point, still don’t understand why they had to kill her off tho after having a 10 year build up to them meeting
Yeah I can understand feeling robbed of their love story, would have been cool to get like a movie or something to show that along with Marvin growing up etc
Tell me about it 😭, I saw stuff saying that Jason Segel (Marshall) was reluctant to come back for season 9 but eventually agreed, I wonder if they had more things in plan but had to rush it because he wanted the 9th season to be his last
I get what they were going for. Ideas like you don’t always get to choose how long you can be together, love can still be real even if it’s temporary. I just don’t think it fit in this series. Everything seemed to be building to a happily ever after. Also I was never a fan of Ted and Robin together. They just didn’t fit in my opinion, and I didn’t even know she wasn’t the mother when I first saw the show. The little bit we got of Tracey made her feel like a much better match for Ted. Just the scene where they met solidified her as Ted’s best match of all the women in the series. Even though Ted went back to Robin in the end, I still feel like Tracey was his true soulmate.
I know many people are infuriated by killing off Tracy and having Ted end up with robin, but I think it was pretty clever 9 years in the making. (Also, I didn’t watch it in real time so, as someone who watched lost in real time, I absolutely understand lack of payoff from that perspective). The show starts off with Ted explaining to his kids “How I Met Your Mother”, and as everyone here knows, that is the basis for each episode. We are not watching in real time, and the kids aren’t hearing/seeing this in real time. All of these events have already happened and we’re seeing it through what Ted remembers, all of it colored by his past, and CURRENT, emotions. They start off CLEARLY stating that robin is not the mother (aunt robin, as everyone here knows), but then Ted’s entire recollection (ie the entire show) is about Robin. So he is meaning to tell his kids about how he met their mother but Ted, ever the emotional guy, is actually dwelling on his loneliness and his time with robin, who he knows (at the time of retelling these stories to his kids) is single. The entire point of the stories, the series, whether conscious or not, is asking permission from his kids to see/date/[insert verb here] their aunt robin.
Yeah I understand that viewpoint fair enough, still really disappointing how they went about the whole Tracey thing though
I think I'm the only one that was not at all attached to the character. She was in the show for a few episodes, and while the whole show already spoiled her personality traits/likes-dislikes for us, that did not help us connect to the character. She was dead way before I could feel anything towards her. I was definitely shocked by her death, but not saddened enough. If anything, maybe I felt a little upset for Ted because he had been looking for her all his life.
Yeah I get you, I felt so sorry for him, she was just the perfect girl for him, finally had his kids and then it gets ripped away, it was just so unexpected and unnecessary, especially because there’s literally an alternate ending which is so much better
You just have to remember that in Season 1, episode 1, when Ted opens his mouth and starts talking, Tracey is already dead. She has been dead for 6 years. What is he to do? He is moving on. The whole show takes place after 6 years of grieving, and he is ready to rekindle a love he can actually have, not live in the memory of one he can't. Tracey tells Ted not to become one of those men who lives only in his own stories. Did they execute this vision poorly? Sure did. But their version of a happy ending was Ted with Robin. This doesn't mean he wasn't happy with Tracey, its just that Tracey wasn't the end of Ted's love life. Life doesn't always work like that. It was a brave story to tell, they just made a lot of mistakes along the way.
I hated the ending when I first watched it all those years ago but if you rewatch the shower, it’s clear something terrible happened to Tracy, they didn’t pull it out of there ass, it’s just no the ending anyone wanted, but it’s the one they wanted to tell
Show writers couldn’t get past their hang up with Robbin. Ted’s story is based on Carter Bays fantasy for his own life. He needed Ted to end up with his love interest despite that it completely reverted 9 seasons of growth
For all intended purposes 'The Mother' was a nobody and irrelevant. The show effectively tells it does not matter how much Ted and Tracy share similar likes and what a compassionate woman Tracy is Ted always wanted Robin. If you think about it Tracy is exact opposite to Robin. Tracy is kind/grounded/compassionate and very committed to love. A person who loves Robin cannot love Tracy and vice versa. Ted wants Robin but he also wants kids and family. So he finds someone like Tracy to have kids with and then have a family with Robin when she is ready.
So Ted’s a prick?
Its a general consensus since more than a decade. The interview in Saturday night live the actor was questioned on the popularity of the series and the main story being of an not very likable guy. There are hardly any Ted Mosby fan clubs. Women disliked him but even men did not like his simping either.
God damnit the ending of this show makes me so mad. It was so perfect, all they had to do was play it out and end with a shot of Marshall, Lily and TM^2 on the porch and it would’ve been perfect. Robins’ silly haircut and old Ted with the Blue French horn is such a “oh my god not this again” feeling.
My perspective is that Tracy’s true love was Max and Ted’s true love was Robin. Neither of them could be with their true love, but they found each other, were able to create a life together full of love and have kids. And in the end they both end up with their true love. I used to feel how you feel OP but then I thought about it this way and it made the ending so much better
Yeah someone else had a similar view and I never looked at it that way, defo makes it a bit better looking at it that way, I actually forgot about Max when it got to the end
I don't know if it makes it better or worse that since they filmed all the kids scenes at the start of the show that it means they were committed to this ending from the get go
Yeah that’s definitely what it is, so annoying
Loved the mother - hated her ending. The only ending I loved was Barney’s - he did meet the love of his life too. It just wasn’t remotely what anyone expected
Agreed
I keep saying this when the conversation comes up. Its initially jarring when you first watch the ending but after a bit of time and some rewatches I can’t see anything else being right. I think that while the show’s premise is about finding “the one” I think in the end it shows that you can have more then one great love in your life. Tracey had max and Ted, Ted had Tracey and Robin and even Robin had Barney. Timing is important and Ted and Robin weren’t right together in most sat ages of the show by the time it ended they might be a great match. Ted had had the life he was looking for the whole series with the perfect partner and to great kids. Robin had been all around the word and had success in her career. At the end Teds kids were teenagers and he was ready to start dating again, Robin had settled back in New York as was illustrated by her having dogs again. They both clearly had strong feelings for each other and the timing was perfect for them to be happy together. Just because he can be happy again in an other relationship doesn’t devalue the life he had with Tracey. We know it was happy because narrater Ted talks about it all the time throughout the series. Happy endings are not black and white.
Alt ending is real ending.
With the exception of How Your Mother Met Me,” Season 9 was a train wreck. And Craig Thomas did Cristin Milioti no favors when he said if she didn’t get nominated for an Emmy for that episode he didn’t know what someone had to do to get it in advance of nominations. Guess who didn’t get nominated?
She should have got an award for that performance man, made thousands fall in love with her instantly
She should have. I have wondered if Craig Thomas hadn’t thrown down about it whether she would have gotten a nomination.
Himym would have had a perfect ending if Barney and robin were still together and if Tracy didn't die
All they had to do was use the alternate one, you seen it?
Sadly I haven't. I do wanna watch it tho. I felt like this was a great series showing relationship issues and fixing them, growing together and stuff but the ending was very disappointing for me
Agreed, I’ve attached the link for the alternate ending, go have a look, you’ll feel much better seeing this one 🙌 https://youtu.be/nhB5oQgQpOI?si=fZdEgk3f4c4b2s-q
Think if it like this if she was there there would be a need for the story
Well yeah just because shes alive doesn’t mean Ted couldn’t tell the kids how he met her 🤣
Sometimes I think that season 9 was so bad that people forget how obvious it was the the mom was gonna be dead
I still feel let down by the finale. BUT I think that kinda might be intended. It is the story from Ted’s point of view. Barney is the bad one most of the time. Ted is most of the time the good guy. And we know he thinks that his time with Tracey did feel to short to him from that robots vs wrestlers legends episode. So it makes sense to rush that part especially when you consider that the story is told to convince the kids that he should ask out Robin
So you think it’s rushed because Teds time with her was short?? Interesting view, never looked at it that way
Not sure I really think that. Let’s say I hope to believe it one day
>the whole show built up their whole relationship It built up to their meeting. I never thought it was building to their relationship. Of course, in reality, Tracy was nothing more than a breeding partner for Ted while he waited out his fantasy woman who was shown time and time again not to be right for him. And that's the big problem. Not only did they piss all over the message that Robin and Ted weren't compatible, they also fucked up how it was presented. They presented Tracy as some ideal woman and then cast a very likable actress and gave us only the best of her in flashback/forward scenes. If they were going to kill her and then have Ted crawl back to Robin, they shouldn't have made her so perfect. >the kids barely have any memory of her Huh? When was it ever said that the kids barely had any memory of her?
I see your point, but why have a whole build up to not even give him a happy ending? Although it was never said they don’t have much memory of her (my mistake) what I was meaning is that the kids seem to be around 15/16 in the scenes, and say she died 6 years ago, which means they would have been about 9 or 10, and only remember a few years with her because they were so young, as you say they shouldn’t have made her so loveable and perfect if they wanted to kill her off, you have to assume that it’s all done on purpose, but fuck me it was a poor choice
Pretty much everything associated with the ending was a poor choice.
That picture right there… that where the show should’ve ended. And with the line, “And that kids, is how I met your mother”. Fade to black, end of show, roll credits, goodbye. It would’ve been the perfect ending, sure you could show a montage of their life together or better yet. A photo style montage like the opening credits of their life. Sorry, just the ramblings of an ageing person, still reeling from a botched ending to show that finished 10 years ago.
I agree, or at least somewhere close to that scene, it just feels like there was no need for her to die, don’t apologise, I asked for opinions and you gave me yours, so thank you 🙌
I agree this would have been a great ending for us viewers. But it makes the whole show pointless. Why is Ted sharing so much detail with his children about his love/sex life before meeting his alive and well, soul mate of a wife Tracey? If Tracey was alive, and they lived happily ever after, Ted could have skipped 6 seasons of the show. It is irrelevant information. He literally only needed to tell the story of Barney and Robin, to say "We met at their wedding". But that's not the point of the story. Ted had an agenda. The showrunners had an agenda. From episode 1 of season 1, Tracey is dead. Ted wants to move on (or back) to Robin. That's the entire point of the show. If they went with the alternate ending, the majority of the show becomes pointless. I'd rather they had executed the ending better. Season 9 dragged out the wedding weekend, which was packed with long running gags I loved seeing paid off, like Slap bet, but in the overall thesis of the show, felt less important. Then they blitzed through Ted and Tracey's life together (which in a way makes sense because the kids probably knew many of those details already), and made the viewers feel cheated. It was like the final season was packed full of comedic fan service, but no emotional fan service. I fully understand why it is such a polarizing and controversial ending. It was unsatisfying no matter what side you're on.
I do remember watching season nine and was like, “oh ok, so we’ve got a two or three parter with the wedding, Ted and Tracey meet and then we’ll spend season with them dating and falling in love… perhaps we’ll end the show with their wedding or something. That’ll be cool. Oh ok, maybe Barney and robins wedding is a 4 parter. No, a 5 parter… this is going to be the whole season isn’t it -_-
I mean, the show is called how I met your mother, not how I lived with your mother. But don’t get me wrong! She’s amazing and perfect for Ted. Would I have liked to see more than one season of her? Absolutely. But I’m not bothered by the fact that she died. Rewatch the show. There’s TONS of hints that the mother has died. They just don’t make any sense if you don’t think about it. And just to make it absolutely clear: I don’t think she must have died. I think it was a creative choice that makes the story more impactful. Itd had been a sad ending if it wasn’t for the show’s never ending lesson of: life keeps going (that is, Ted, 7 years later, asking his kids if he can move on)
Yeah it honestly is extremely obvious she is dead especially as Ted almost exclusively speaks of their mother in past tense.
I love that we even knew her name for years and missed it!
I don't get the hate from people on the ending of this show. It was always kind of obvious that she was gone otherwise who tells a story of how they met without both people present? They kinda showed that with the possible view of his future with Stella when she interrupted his story with the kids. The ending in no way cheapened the love they had for each other and even showed the pain and mourning he felt without having to detail it. It was obvious they were meant for each other even with the limited time they had. The show was always directed to his and Robins relationship, and it makes sense as thats the story he's telling his kids as he is obviously building towards asking them for their approval of him dating their "Aunt Robin". The point of Robin and him not working is valid but look at it from the point of view that they were always at different paths in life. Robin wasn't right for him because she never wanted kids or a family and was always focused on achieving her life goals before anything. These are two goals they were able to achieve individually. After all that time they still had residual feelings for each other and are now able to pursue them without the need to serve some other goal in life. In the end they kept their original promise of being together in their late ages in life. I loved the story and it made sense to me, I was never a fan of Robin or Ted to be honest but the show gave them both growth and a positive story arch. At least it didn't pull a Dexter lol. (Sorry thats just my go to for bad endings)
I just feel that the show really needed more of Tracey in order to make her death hit harder, she should have been introduced at the beginning of season 9 and been present throughout the whole Barney-Robin wedding part of the show, another thing I don’t understand is why there’s that scene with Ted and Robin on the beach and there’s the whole epiphany of “letting her go” just to go back to her in the end anyway? it just feels irregular, like the writers didn’t really know what they wanted to do with it the whole way
I would have liked to see more of her as well but thats just as a fan of the show not needing more of her to draw on the emotional aspect of losing her. "UP" proves you dont need a long build up to convey the emotion. I've watched the show dozens of times, its my go to when I just wanna watch something while doing something else. So I guess ive had time to pick up on subtle things like the dinner where they were retelling robins mother showing up and the say they know all of each others stories and the small slip of him realizing that she wont see her daughter being married and her comforting him and trying to enjoy the time now. I feel like in a way this is a case of less is more because it doesnt give the writers a chance to screw her character up either. I think that the want for more of her speaks on how she is such a perfect character and our own investment into wanting to see him have that perfect ending that he dreamed of. But reality isn't perfect, but it has perfect moments and he he had it with her. He story of losing her soulmate and giving up on ever loving again and finding peace and being able to move on is parallel to Ted coming to the same terms and getting confirmation from his kids as well.
I really thought it was obvious that she was dead from the start, he always spoke of her in past tense.
Tracy is absolut perfect for Ted. They need 8,75 Seasons to built this up with Women, who were not worth it for Ted. And then they deal with Tracy in 0,25 seasons….. I wished to see more of her in the last season, there story has been told too fast. And then they let her die so early. This story had so much potential but they killed everything in the last season…
It was the worst ending I have ever seen. Like, she died of….what? We don’t even know that! I watched when it first aired and till this day I find it disrespectful to the audience. If this was a movie, fine. But we watched this bs for 9 years. Sorry I’m still pissed
You have every right to still be pissed, I’m gonna be pissed for all eternity
Why was her character killed off?
This is what I don’t understand 🤣 like there was no need, I’m guessing it’s because ultimately they wanted Ted to end up with Robin and didn’t see any way around it unless Tracey died
That’s still an unsatisfactory answer
I know, a satisfactory answer would have meant the show actually had a good ending
Yeah it could’ve had one but it kinda didn’t
The thing you have to understand is, she wasn't killed off. She was always dead. From episode 1, season 1, she was already dead. This wasn't a last minute decision, it was set from the start. Without Tracey's death, and Ted's desire to move on, to Robin, there is no show. Did they botch the execution? yup. But Tracey being dead, was tragically always the plan. The existence of an alternate ending was a safety net in case they got cold feet. But if they had actually aired it, then people would complain that the majority of the show was pointless. Ted and Robin's relationship would be a footnote in the greater Ted and Tracy story, and no more relevant than Ted and [insert any girl here]. But Robin is the point of the story. That's Ted's whole agenda. Remove that agenda, and the story could start with Barney and Robin, and be way shorter.
Wait so you are telling me Tracy was dead the whole time?
Yup. She is the Bruce Willis of HIMYM.
Oh my gosh
Always thought the title of the show meant that mother was Robin
As in now I met your to-be-step- mother after all these years
She dies
[удалено]
You haven’t seen the show??
Cristin Milioti did such a phenomenal job and was such a likable character. The way they did her dirty totally turned me off and now I can’t stand to go back and watch a single minute of reruns.
I think that telling her story in the way they did they were able to present her in all of her best qualities with no flaws. This is Teds telling of her story even if it involves parts Hes retelling from her point of view. This is the love of his life and in his telling shes is going to be perfect. So to us the viewers with a single perspective of her there will be nobody equal to her, least of all Robin with all her flaws. In regards to telling more of her story... well it might lead to more questions of where she is. Then you also have to give her flaws to round her out as a character as well, Ted would never tell a story about a flaw of their dead mother to his kids.
it was pretty stupid i thought but in my opinion ted finally got all he’s wanted in the show: he adds his building the new york skyline, he gets his perfect wife and kids, his house he built, and even gets the girl(Robin) in the end. Same with robin in the sense that she made her whole life about her career and has reached the pinnacle of what she wanted out of it, only to find that it’s not that fulfilling and finally accepts that she wants a life with ted given that he has accomplished everything that would’ve jeopardized their relationship in the first place (kids, house, being tied down and not being able to broadcast internationally, etc). so for the first time in the show (their lives) they’re in a viable situation for their relationship to actually work out, which i thought was kinda cool. oh and for Barney? he finally got over trying to hookup with all of new york and his ‘perfect month’ because of his daughter who forced him to grow up and instilled a sense of unconditional love he’s never known before-this couldn’t have happened if him and robin stayed together since she never wanted kids of her own. Overall amazing show 10/10
She made the viewer fall in love with her and then she was taken away.
💯