Between 2005 and 2014, “How I Met Your Mother” supported an entire generation of dedicated fans. But how does it end? If you didn’t follow everything well or if your memory suddenly challenges you, we tell you the end of the series.
Warning, spoilers. The following article reveals key plot points of “How I Met Your Mother” as well as its ending.
It’s gonna be legend… wait for it… dary! Barney wasn’t wrong! Craig Thomas and Carter Bays’ acclaimed sitcom gave us 5 of the small screen’s most iconic characters. From the cult lines of Mr. Stinson to the endless conquests of Ted, passing through the past of pop star of Robin and the crazy adventures of Marshall and Lily, HIMYM – as it is nicknamed – made us laugh and even cry sometimes.
Nine seasons, 208 episodes… and an end that was not unanimous! Some hated, others approved. One thing is to be welcomed, however: the scriptwriters had shot the scene of the “revelation” with Ted’s children as early as 2006. They thus followed their initial vision, whether they like it or not.
Entitled “Last Forever”, episodes 23 and 24 of season 9, broadcast on March 31, 2014, therefore serve as the finale to the show. Remember, in the episode before them, Robin and Barney finally get married after a very long weekend that spans the duration. the final series thus begins during the party following the wedding, in the company of the whole gang which is then accompanied one last time…
HAVE YOU MET… TRACY?
Ted (Josh Radnor) is about to leave Chicago. Officially, for professional reasons but above all to rebuild his life far from a New York which has never been able to offer him what he has always been waiting for: the mother of his children.
Ted finally says goodbye to his friends, despite the insistence of Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), who would have seen him try to flirt with the musician of the group who performs on stage during the party, and despite the support of Lily ( Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel) who, having already met her, have a very positive opinion of her. The emotion is at its height, especially for Lily who had a hard time imagining her life and the future of the band without him. And his fears will prove to be partly justified…
While he is at Farhampton station, Ted is sitting on a bench next to an old lady to whom he entrusts, as he has always liked to do, his little stories. He wonders if he didn’t do something stupid leaving the party when the look he exchanged with the bass player was intense. The old lady, feeling invested with a mission, strongly advises him to turn back to meet her.
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Ted is still hesitating, then is about to give up definitively when he sees that she is there, on the platform a little further on, a yellow umbrella… THE famous yellow umbrella… in her hand. So he goes to her and understands by exchanging a few words that they are made for each other, that it is her. A thunderbolt in the torrential rain…
Finally, Ted decides to stay in New York to take full advantage of… Tracy, that’s her first name. Her name is Tracy McConnell (Cristin Milioti). Marshall thinks he made a mistake by getting carried away (again) too quickly while Lily is convinced that this time he is not mistaken. But images from the future quickly come to contradict him: Tracy announces to Ted that they have to postpone their wedding because… she is pregnant and wants to be able to get into her dress!
THE SEPARATE BAND
Everything seems to be going well for them, which is not quite the case for Barney and Robin (Cobie Smulders). The latter has more and more success on television, travels around the world and has very little time to devote to her relationship. During a new leap forward, which is about 3 years after their marriage, the couple announces to their friends that they have decided to divorce. The gang is stunned.
However, Lily and Marshall have great news to announce: they are expecting their third child. They then all make a promise to continue to see each other as much as possible, especially in the most important moments of each other’s lives.
A few months later, as Lily and Marshall throw a housewarming party after deciding to leave their old apartment for good, everyone reunites but the promises haven’t quite been kept.
Robin has been very absent, which leads to an argument with Lily. They agree, not without difficulty, that their lives have changed, evolved, that their friendship will no longer be expressed in the same way as when they were young, but that they will continue to be important to each other and to live beautiful things each on their side. Best friends forever. When the famous presenter crosses paths with a Barney back to his good old flirting habits, she doesn’t bat an eyelid. But when she meets Ted and Tracy, she can’t help but feel a pang in her heart, and the nostalgia of her first meeting with Ted overwhelms her…
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Many years later, Ted and Robin meet on the street by chance while he is with his daughter, Penny. The meeting is brief, superficial. The whole gang feels that Robin has changed a lot, that she has become cold, distant. And she just missed a very important moment in Barney’s life: he’s a dad! Dad to a little girl he had with a one-night stand. His daughter transforms him and Barney loses his bad habits for good. He no longer flirts with anything that moves. On the contrary, he protects the young girls he meets from predators as he has long been!
UNTIL DEATH DO US PART
Ted finally asks for his sweetheart’s hand! When the day arrives, Robin responds to everyone’s surprise. She confesses that it was Tracy who convinced her to come to the wedding. The reunions are warm. Complaints are quickly forgotten. Marshall announces that after becoming a judge, he will join the Supreme Court. A consecration. And the ceremony is going perfectly.
Ted’s voiceover continues to tell the story of meeting “the mother” to his children. He talks about all the simple good times, all the gifts life has given them, and then it comes to the moment when Tracy falls seriously ill…and dies. And he reminds them how much he loved her, how much he enjoyed every minute spent with her. How their mother was the great love of his life.
THE REVELATION
The children then appear on the screen and point out to him that he finally spoke very little about Tracy throughout his story while Robin was present all the time. They are convinced that he is still in love with her today and that if he told them all this, it was unconsciously to ask their permission to court their aunt Robin, without betraying the spirit of Tracy.
He initially denies it before realizing they are right. And they think it is indeed time, six years later, for him to move on, especially since they are very attached to Robin.
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The episode ends with the images of Robin who enters his apartment with his three dogs, who hears the doorbell, who looks out the window to find out who it could be at this hour and who then discovers that it is Ted …accompanied by a blue hunting horn. The famous. She smiled at him, happy. He smiled back at her. End of How I Met Your Mother.