I am extremely glad that now they don’t have to spend so much time on whether or not Robin and Barney are going to get back together. We’ve known since the end of season 7 that they would end up together, so the strong emotional moment was in that season when we see Robin is the one Barney marries. That was a phenomenal ending to a season, but the price they should’ve paid for it was letting that relationship take a backseat to the other happenings of the show this season. That was not the route the show took, and this season has greatly suffered for it.
While tears were probably supposed to be shed during the proposal at the end, the most emotionally significant moment of the show was, as almost always, the one involving Ted. The theme of that one person you always keep coming back to may be overplayed in sitcoms, but it’s really the only type of visual media through which that can be properly shown. In a 2-hour film there simply isn’t enough time for that to work, but over the years of a sitcom it can be shown just as it is in real life. This episode may finally mark the end of the Ted and Robin saga.
Ted being able to let go of Robin for her happiness and for Barney’s happiness was huge. I don’t think that he actually still had strong feelings for her at this point, but telling her that Barney is planning to get engaged officially shuts the door on him on Robin. Ted Mosby is the man.
Some conspiracy theorists would still argue that Robin ends up being the wife, but I hope this episode puts those theories to bed. However, if you weren’t convinced she’s not the mother when the first episode of the show calls her Aunt Robin, or by the episode where we find out she can’t have kids, I don’t suppose that tonight’s episode will do anything to change your mind.
It’s time for Ted to start dating again. Whether the series ends at the end of this season, or at the end of next, the show, at its core, is about how Ted meets his wife. Ted is the only character left to care about relationship-wise and he has been all season.
These two episodes were easily tops this season, despite the qualms I have with the ending. The episodes were well-paced, funny, and moved the show in the right direction. Maybe my expectations have just drastically dropped for this season, but The Final Page was a gigantic step in the right direction for How I Met Your Mother. Hopefully the show continues in that direction and doesn’t fall back into its recent ways.
Other Random Notes
- It had been far too long since we’d seen Ranjit.
- Ted’s teaching style was completely modeled off of his old professor. “It doesn’t get any better than that!”
- The acknowledgement by Barney that his friends have no boundaries is the most clear he’s seen things in a long time.
- “It’s just a building. I mean I’m incredibly young for such an achievement, but it’s just a building. I mean Architecture Vision Weekly may have dubbed it more than just a building, but it’s just a building, so let’s not get carried away… Okay it’s huge.”
- A handlebar mustache is all it takes to gain some professor’s affection.
- 9:06 p.m. – Put on edible underwear.
- You certainly do not want to break a jinx swear.
- Marshall carrying that cigar for 2 years was great.
- Lily blaming Ted for uneven floors is completely valid. She wasn’t that drunk. Fail on Ted.
Check January 14th for my thoughts on the next episode in the eighth season of How I Met Your Mother.
