Who can’t identify with ultimate romantic Ted Mosby and his idealistic search for the woman of his dreams? He is convinced that his one true love is out there, somewhere, if only he remains strong in his quest.
Each episode begins in 2030, with the middle-aged Ted regaling his teenaged children with tales of his youthful escapades with his gang of five, including the womanizing Barney Stinson and lovebirds Marshall Eriksen and Lily Aldrin. It’s mainly stuff you would never tell your kids, not in a million years, but never mind — it’s an engaging framework.
In the pilot episode, Ted is convinced he has found “the one” when he meets beautiful, fiery Robin Scherbatsky. He even steals a blue French horn for her in the restaurant where they have their first date.
In the first of many plot twists, Ted announces, “And that, kids, is how I met your Aunt Robin,” at the end of that first episode.
Who hasn’t yearned for a soulmate and despaired of it ever happening? It’s a universal plight that explains the show’s appeal – that, along with terrific ensemble acting and some of the most clever scripts this side of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
When a beloved television series comes to an end, the expectations are high that the ending will be, well, perfect.
Perhaps that’s never been more true than with “How I Met Your Mother,” which had been building up to its denouement – to Ted’s meeting The Mother, Tracy, on a rain-soaked train platform – for nine seasons.
So it’s not surprising that some fans were outraged by the finale, with one online petition begging creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas to “fix” the ending.
Spoiler alert: By the end of the final episode, Barney and Robin divorce after three years of marriage. The Mother, Tracy, has been dead for six years.
It is Ted’s and Tracy’s long-suffering children who point out the obvious. His daughter declares, “This is a story about how you’re totally are in love with Aunt Robin and you want to ask her out, and you’re wondering if it’s OK with us.”
The kids give their blessing. Ted re-steals the French horn and holds it up to Robin, looking down from her Manhattan apartment window, in a wistful romantic gesture.
Many viewers felt robbed — as if the show had been one long tease, one cruel joke. They wanted Barney and Robin to stay together. They wanted Ted and Tracy to savor their long-fought-for happiness.
In one typical petition plea, Mina Petrova of London wrote, “It wasn’t supposed to end like this. I feel as though it’s a joke. Let Robin and Barney stay married, they were so right for each other, and most importantly Ted and Tracy should stay together. PLEASE change it!”
Fans have their vision, but Carter and Bays clearly had their own. As one critic noted, the series wasn’t really about meeting the mother, but about Ted’s and Robin’s “long journey to each other.”
I felt sad, too, about the death of the adorable mother, but the ending still seemed right, and satisfying, to me.
I was, admittedly, more invested in the emotional relationship between Ted and Robin, but the reason goes deeper than that.
Fans are indignant that the ending is so far from perfect – but doesn’t that mirror life? How often, after all, do we feel cheated by life? How often does it seem like one cruel joke?
In real life, couples like Barney and Robin get divorced, even when they love each other desperately.
In real life, as Robin tells Lily, “Friends fall out of each others’ lives.” They can’t forever stay “young and stupid, hanging out in McLaren’s Pub.”
In real life, mothers can die. And to whom do bereaved spouses most often turn for comfort? The people they know and trust the most. It’s no repudiation of Ted’s love for The Mother if he turns, at last, to his first great love.
The series ultimately refutes Ted’s romantic notions of one destiny, one true love. (He found two.) But it embraces a deeper form of romanticism.
“I can’t shake the feeling that nothing about me and Barney makes sense,” Robin confides to Ted on her wedding day.
Ted set aside his own unrequited love for Robin and delivered what may well be the show’s mantra. “Love doesn’t make sense; you can’t logic your way into or out of it,” he tells her. “Love is totally nonsensical, but we have to keep doing it or else otherwise we’re lost and love is dead and humanity should just pack it in. I know it’s cheesy but it’s just true. Because love is the best thing we do. You love Barney and he loves you, and that doesn’t have to make sense to make sense.”
He’s right. Love is messy. It’s far than perfect.
But it’s the best thing we do.
Contact this columnist at maryjomccarty@gmail.com.
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