‘How I Met Your Mother’ Controversial Finale Defended By Show’s Creator [Spoilers]
The How I Met Your Mother finale finally answered questions that fans of the show have been waiting nine years to find out, but the revelations in the final two minutes of the show left some with a bitter taste at the show’s ending.
As the show moved toward its conclusion, the meeting between Ted Mosby and the titular mother (who we find out is named Tracy McConnell), fan theories sprouted as to the real ending of the show. Several hints within the final few episodes led many to believe that the mother was actually dead at the time the story is being told, some 20 years in the future.
[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]
In the How I Met Your Mother finale, fans spreading this theory found out the truth -i- they were right. Ted details his meeting with the mother within the last few minutes of the show, but then reveals to viewers that she has actually died six years before he is telling the story.
But that wasn’t the only twist. Apparently for the last nine seasons Ted has had a different agenda as he’s telling the story — to let his kids know the full history with Robin, and to seek their approval to go after her one last time. The kids approve, and the final scene of How I Met Your Mother finale ends the way the show started, with Ted holding the blue trombone outside of her window.
Fan reactions to the finale were decidedly mixed. On Reddit’s HIMYM message board, which at one point had close to 20,000 people viewing it, was filled with posts mocking the ending and calling out what many saw as a cop-out ending.
“They filmed that ending back in like season 2 when the kids were young and they weren’t sure how long the show would last. Seven seasons later that ending has no basis in what the show became,” wrote one commenter. “It was no longer a show about Ted loving Robin, it was about Ted getting over Robin and finding his soulmate. But they refused to deviate from that planned ending no matter how little sense it made anymore.”
Many fans took to Facebook and Twitter to voice their displeasure about the How I Met Your Mother finale as well, but show creator Craig Thomas defended the ending.
We wrote a comedy with dramatic elements till the very end. Thanks for taking that ride with us. #HIMYM
— Craig Thomas (@HimymCraig) April 1, 2014
We did a finale about life’s twists and turns and that is not always what happens…but THANKS!
— Craig Thomas (@HimymCraig) April 1, 2014
The reactions to the How I Met Your Mother finale were not all harsh, however. Many supportive (but somewhat less vocal) fans praised the realism of the finale, seemingly understanding the “twists and turns” that Thomas and producers inserted.
