(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FINALE)
Last night’s hour-long season finale of “How I Met Your Mother” featured a birth, an engagement, and the shocking-reveal of a future wedding between Barney and (gasp!) Robin. After seven seasons, HIMYM writers just can’t seem to move on from the Barney-Robin-Ted love triangle, and boy am I tired of it. The finale wasn’t a total bust though, with Lily finally giving birth to Marvin WaitForIt Eriksen and Ted driving off into the sunset with Victoria (wedding dress and all). In fact, I’d say that the episode as a whole was rather satisfying except for that last 10 seconds, which left a bitter taste in my mouth.
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Everything seemed to be going so well as the episode began. Lily was finally having her baby after what felt like an eternity of pregnancy, and Marshall was able to bound into the delivery room just in the nick of time. After Marvin was born, Robin and Ted talk in the waiting room and have a long-awaited talk that patches up their fractured friendship. Not only do they set things straight, but Robin encourages Ted to chase after Victoria (yes Ted, please do!). After Ted’s out-of-the-blue phone call to Victoria, she agrees to meet him at MacLaren’s. When they meet up, Victoria is in a wedding dress and explains to Ted that she’s about to get married. Ted’s got a tough decision to make, but in the end he chooses Victoria.
Meanwhile, things with Barney and Quinn are getting better too. After the trip to Atlantic City, Barney returns home to find that Quinn hasn’t left him as he feared. They take a vacation together, and in the airport Barney (rather extravagantly) pops the question. Quinn says yes, and it seems that Barney’s playboy days may have finally come to a close. And this is where I wish the episode had ended, but…
Barney and Quinn go to Lily and Marshall’s apartment to tell them the good news. As Lily, Quinn and Marshall head into the baby’s room to change his diaper, Robin and Barney are left alone. Robin looks like she’s about to cry even though she claims she’s happy for Barney and Quinn. Oh no, not this again, pleeease don’t fall back on the Robin/Barney/Ted triangle again, please! But of course, in the closing moments of the finale, we flash ahead to the wedding and who is it marrying Barney? Robin, not Quinn.
After seven seasons of Robin bouncing back and forth between Ted and Barney, and a number of fake-outs and almost getting back together with them, I am so utterly tired of the love triangle between the three of them. I’ve lost count of how many times Ted has declared his love for Robin, then regretted it, then they almost get back together, then they have sex once but it’s a huge mistake, and so on and so forth. The same goes for Barney and Robin. I’m tired of Ted and Barney finding great girls that aren’t Robin, and then ultimately losing them because they still have feelings for Robin. Enough already! Can’t we all just move on? I’m tired of being led on by the HIMYM writers to believe that Barney or Ted finally found a great non-Robin match for themselves (or Robin a suitable non-Ted / non-Barney), only for the chick to get ditched five episodes later for – who else? – one Robin Scherbatsky.
Victoria is awesome, one of Ted’s best girlfriends throughout the series, so let’s hope to God that she sticks this time. I’m worried that once we get to that wedding scene of Barney marrying Robin, there’s still a chance that Robin will defect back to Ted and screw up a great relationship he was with Victoria or some other flavor-of-the-season. And I’m not looking forward to watching Quinn and Barney’s engagement crash and burn – I liked Quinn, she had a lot of spunk and didn’t take Barney’s crap. Still, I would have been okay with the “twist” ending of Barney’s bride not being Quinn if it had been Nora instead of Robin. Nora and Barney always had great chemistry, and the ending still would have been “shocking” without reverting back to the Robin problem.
Who knows what next season has in store for us, but here’s to hoping that Ted and Victoria actually work out and that the Barney / Quinn demise is quick and painless. I hope we get to that Robin / Barney wedding as soon as possible (maybe midway through the season) and that it goes over without any issues. Because sooner rather than later, HIMYM is going to be ending it’s run, and is it too much to ask that the characters enjoy a season without breakups and heart-break?
Moving On isn’t easy, bro!
Ted has only left one girl for Robin, and that’s Victoria. Throughout the series, he’s only confessed his love for her and then regretted it twice after the 7th season, one in the fifth, but that was because he was drunk at the time. Barney has really only left one girl for Robin and that was Nora! And there is no Barney/Robin/Ted love triangle because Ted’s out of the picture with Victoria.
in the beginning when it is barney’s wedding, the church scene is sunny. When they flash to robin in the wedding dress it’s raining. Don’t think barney is marrying robin.
also i think it is robin
“ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Barney is going to marry Robin! How long have you known that it was going to be Robin? A long time — or was that a recent decision?
CRAIG THOMAS: We’ve known it for a few seasons. We’ve known it for a while. Shooting that moment felt really emotional actually. It was like, “Wow, this has been an idea scribbled in our secret notebook for years.” Actually shooting that moment — and knowing the importance of that moment and what’s going to come from that in Season 8 — was powerful, when you consider how it informs the ultimate end of the series. It all sort of hit me — and all of us shooting it — at once. It felt very emotional shooting it.”
http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/05/15/how-i-met-your-mother-season-7-finale/
it started to rain though becoz ted mumbled some shit about the umbrella again… I REMEMBER
next season is the last season and the very last episode will be barney and robin’s wedding because THAT is when Ted MEETS the mother which is where the show will end. It was a shocking ending that will satisfy tons of barney-robin fans. and it sets up big plans for next season to see how things with barney and quinn end. and the victoria-ted storyline was the one of the episode i disliked the most. he is once again making a horribly bad decision. he said himself i know how it feels to be left at the alter. and like robin said he’s going for someone completely unavailable. and we all know he just helped her escape her wedding and clearly things aren’t going to work out since a series finale later ted will meet his future wife.
Soooo mad about this ending i saw it coming but didnt want it to come i hate barney with Robin
Cheap and manipulative. I’m done with this show.
I agree with your points of complaint but I feel like you are being soft because you are a fan of the show. I am a fan as well but I will not stand for this horrible writing. Read my thoughts here: http://tinyurl.com/7hs3udk
i read your other thoughts and i do agree with many of them. i agree 1000% with the ted-victoria complaints and the ted-robin complaints. ted and robin for me are also my least favorite characters and when they went back to the ted-robin relationship AGAIN when it was long passed it was quite aggravating but the way they developed robin and barney’s relationship makes me want to keep fighting for them. i don’t love robin but i do love robin and barney despite all of its fall backs. i think maybe if they had developed quinn and barney’s relationship differently i might have been more open to that sort of ending but it all seems a little unrealistic. barney was so anti-marriage, anti relationships and now he’s jumping into one with this person he just met who probably never planned on marriage or kids either.
and just in response to barney and robin and barney wanting kids…i think they ended that he didn’t want kids when he saw his friend in that baby store and then barney and robin did the dance in the doctors office when she wasn’t pregnant. just a side note 🙂
also i was wondering if anyone was wondering…there’s still that guy that robin is supposed to meet that she remet when barneys father was hanging out with the gang for the night and ted fake-proposed to her since they were pretending they were dating…future ted did say more on that later…so unless they forgot i think theres another love story for robin before barney…
You know funny thing is I watched the episode in full and thought wow what a great way to end the season, just to come and see lots of people complaining about it.
1. Ted Robin complaints. The whole point of Ted getting back together with Robin is to reinforce what that she is a really good friend through this episode she pretty much says hey you screwed up go get Victoria which in my opinion was the best part of the episode. Which leads me onto:
2 Ted and Victoria, I actually had to go back and watch the episode challenge accepted to see: He says that he meets the mother at a wedding: it is highly implied that it is at Barney’s wedding however it never actually says it. Now think back, how did Ted and Victoria meet? Oh yes at a wedding. There is hope for them yet. I loved Ted and Victoria, they were just perfect and I seriously hope it is Victoria (of course if it is they will break up ad get back together in true himym style) but they are meant to be together.
3 Barney an Robin. It’s funny lots of people complain about the whole Barney and Robin thing and try to list reasons why it is crap writing. It is not! An equal amount of people would complain if he married Quin. Saying Barney marrying Quin is bad writing is like saying, oh England beat America in some world cup, it was obviously the ref’s fault, America was supposed to win. England would think the same if America won. They can’t please everyone and personally I love Barney and Robin but it is just personal preference.
4. Barney’s development. What????? Everyone I talk to say this is the best part of this season, he slowly makes his way closer and closer to be a husband type, he starts out the season as…Barney then with Nora (who I actually preferred to Robin but meh at least he’s not marrying Quin, again personal preference) came along. Some of the best moments of the season were things like Barney climbing out a window as if he was on a 1 night stand and Nora calling him back to bed. I loved how slowly but surely Barney’s character changed while still keeping that thing that made Barney.. Barney. Sure he had some mishaps in the middle but all in al he (talking as a normal human being rather than as a character) made a turn for the better.
You know the only complaint that I have is that they showed that it was Robin. I love Barney and Robin and I’m happy that they are getting together again but it wil leave me all oof next season saying hey I’m not sitting here going I”m happy for Barney and Quin, I’m sitting here going when are they going to break up because I know they are. The finale of friends wouldn’t have been nearly as satisfying if they showed a season before that Rachel and Ross were gonna end up together. But all in all I thought this episode was great and i look foward to the next season.
Does Robin remind you of your ex girl friend who broke your heart or something, Bro? hehe…
There’s no way Ted and Victoria will end up together.
I was the biggest advocate of their relationship when it started. But it ended in an anti-climactic way, was revised this season only to be closed again, and then turned into something else out of the blue for the season finale. OUT OF THE BLUE. They were both motivated by fear. Ted was watching his friends get serious with their lives and was afraid, after Robin’s pep talk, that he wouldn’t find his wife. And Victoria was (oh-so-conveniently) with the wrong man until she got cold feet and ran away with Ted to justify leaving him at the altar. Let us not forget (since Ted brought it up) that he, too, was left at the altar. That’s a messed up thing to do to someone after having suffering it yourself.
This is such a red herring. We haven’t met the mother yet. This is their second to last season, so they’re pulling us in one direction just so they can change it up at the end and pull us another way. Same reason Barney was with Nora, and then Quinn – the dramatic excitement of seeing a twist. I LOVED Victoria, and I loved Ted with her, but if that was the way Ted’s journey to love was supposed to end, then seasons 2 and up served NO PURPOSE WHATSOEVER in the grand re-telling of the story to Ted’s future children, and the manner in which they re-introduced Victoria was just half-assed and insulting.
Marshall and Lily have a son. Barney and Robin are getting hitched. In the next (and final) season, we’ll finally meet the mother.
You sound very intelligent, I completely agree.