'How I Met Your Mother' Series Finale Review: 15 Major Spoilers, Ted Mosby's Misdirection Revealed [Watch Promo Video]
"How I Met Your Mother" series finale aired on CBS on Monday, Mar. 31. Creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays have tied as many loose ends as possible in the 1-hour farewell. Avid HIMYM fans now know whether Lily or Marshall should pay up in their bet on Ted's romantic ending. And finally, the mother's name was revealed.
Major Spoilers (Major Salute): This review contains major spoilers on "How I Met Your Mother" series finale. Read at your own risk.
15. "Heaven," the music of The Walkmen, capped the final scene of "How I Met Your Mother." The song carries these words in the first stanza: "Our children will always hear, romantic tales of distant years." And it ends with, "Remember, remember, all we fight for."
14. Barney wants to play Have You Met Ted with the wedding band's bass player.
13. "I kept this story short and to the point," is among the most insane lines in How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Episode 24 - the final HIMYM show.
12. "Mom is hardly in the story," Penny (Lyndsy Fonseca) notices.
11. Lily (Alyson Hannigan) gets pregnant a third time.
10. Marshall (Jason Segel) evolves from the gang's Judge Fudge to Fudge Supreme of the State Supreme Court.
9. Robin (Cobie Smulders) and Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) get divorced. In Barney's words, it was a very successful marriage that lasted three years.
8. Barney achieves a "perfect month," and gets the 31st (unknown) woman pregnant. Baby Ellie becomes Barney's greatest love, for ever.
7. HIMYM reveals the mother's name: Tracy McConnell (Cristin Milioti). She shares the initials T.M. with Ted Mosby. Their first conversation happens at the Farhampton station.
6. Ted (Josh Radnor) marries Tracy in a simple ceremony years after their second child Luke (David Henrie) was born.
RELATED: 'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9, Series Finale: Ted Mosby's Reason, Death, Pilot Flashbacks? Watch A Million Answers! [Watch Promo Video]
5. Robin RSVPs "No" to Ted's and Tracy's wedding. But Tracy convinces her to go.
4. The mother, Mrs Tracy Mosby, dies six years before Ted tells his kids the story of how he met their mother. The "45 days" theory makes perfect sense now.
3. Robin sees Ted in the gang's last Halloween party at the roof. She's hurting, calling Ted "the guy I probably should've ended up with," except in that party, he is "with the beautiful mother of his child."
2. Luke and Penny deduce that their dad just told the story of how he met their mother to justify why he still has "the hots for Aunt Robin." The kids love Aunt Robin, and pushes their dad to call her. Ted Mosby's last word in the series? "Or."
1. Lily should pay up Marshall. Widower Ted Mosby ends with divorcee Robin Scherbatsky. The last words in the entire HIMYM history? "For Pete's sake," as said by Robin.
How I Met Your Mother fans were treated to several years of time jumps in the series finale. In the end, everyone gets their deepest desires. Barney has always wanted to have a child. Robin has enjoyed the life she wanted to have. And Ted, well he gets more than one great love. (Ted and Tracy both "won the lottery" twice.)
Lily points out Ted's "emotional endurance" is remarkable. And it is. Fans are caught in mixed emotions. Why does the mother have to die? The showrunners make it bearable by revealing early on that the mother's first great love also died. It is just part of things that happen in real life.
That Ted Mosby ends up with Robin is not a huge surprise. It is, however, frustrating for many viewers who wanted How I Met Your Mother to not be a mere cliché. Still, considering the 9-year journey and how Ted Mosby got his happy ending(s), Thomas and Bays have created something wonderfully different and undeniably special.
WATCH: How I Met Your Mother Season 9, Series Finale Preview ('Last Forever' Sneak Peek Video)
Watch the series finale of How I Met Your Mother on CBS online or On Demand.
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