‘How I Met Your Mother’ series finale review: We learn the mother’s name … and much more

Every time a commercial break on “How I Met Your Mother” took place, and we sat there and found ourselves wishing that there wasn’t one. This was an hour that we wish was two hours, since after going through a wedding weekend in 22 episodes, we had two that covered a full 17 years, from the wedding to the time that Ted started to tell his children the story.

It was ripe full of fun returns (Halloween parties, robots vs. wrestlers), but also stuffed full of sad ones. Finding out that Barney and Robin got divorced three years after being married was both depressing and realistic at the same time. Barney having a love child years later was pretty sad given the way that he handled it, but this eventually ended with him realizing that this was exactly what he needed in order for him to get his life back together.

Could a changed Barney eventually win back a changed Robin? Not so much. Warning: This article is about to take a turn…

The finale two minutes is where things went completely insane, and we’re still trying to process it. Why create such a huge curveball in the last two minutes? It feels like the entire story was somewhat of a mislead. Instead of this story being “how I met your mother,” it was instead “how I want to justify dating Robin to your children.” The Mother (otherwise known as Tracy) died six years before Ted told the story to his kids, and the story ended with Ted yet again stealing the French Horn.

We were down for plot twists, but the problem was that the finale actually minimized Ted and The Mother, and instead convinced us it was more about Ted and Robin, and the entire final season was all about Robin marrying Barney. It took something that was sad and realistic and went way too far out of left field. There were no hints that this was coming, and it completely changes the entire story to know that Ted really wanted to get back with Robin so many years after The Mother died.

Well, at least Marshall and Lily are happy … right? That’s something.

We wanted to be nice and reminisce over the end of this story, but we’re instead just angry as someone who really was nostalgic about the show ending. It wasn’t a complete disaster when it comes to laughs, but this was not the left turn we signed up for. It feels like we went to MacLaren’s and asked for a vegetarian platter, and we were instead served a steaming pile of steak. Two minutes changed nine years, and not in a good way. Grade: D.

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Photo: CBS