This Alternate Ending Could Have Saved How I Met Your Mother

Often times deleted scenes are taken out for a reason. They often add unnecessary run time and don't support the overall story. But for How I Met Your Mother this deleted scene from the show's controversial finale could have saved the entire episode. How I Met Your Mother's ending falls pretty flat, but with some extra context it could have been seen in a different light. But why exactly did they cut this important scene from the finale of How I Met Your Mother?

#howimetyourmother #himym #nerdstalgic

Written by Chris Teregis
Edited by Paul Ritchey

[JayLiszte]

The worst thing is that they spent the entire last season building up barney and robin then immediately split them up.

[mbanerjee]

Breaking up Barney and Robin undid any character development for them both.
The show creators have no right to complain about not having enough time to make a proper ending when the last season is just wedding nonsense.

[DemoBytom]

I've said it before, I'll stay it again. The ending to HIMYM failed to deliver because it ultimately went against what the show grew up to be and represent, and most importantly teach.
Whether the showrunners intended it, or not, the show ended up being a great teaching about different relationships and what it takes to build and sustain them.

Lily and Marshal were the 'perfect' couple, that were always made to be together. And even they had to work hard to make it a reality and then to sustain it. It wasn't just given on a silver platter, they still needed to work in their relationship. This teaches us that no relationship is easy, and nobody is just given it without any effort.

Barney and Robin were two people "not made" for relationships. They were both self centered and focused on other aspects of their lives. And neither could build a relationship, because neither could truly commit. They both needed to learn how to commit and reprioritize their lives to make it happen. They both needed to "grow up". And this is also a valuable lesson - even people "not made for relationships" can find it and grow to be able to commit to it.

And then Ted, he's the one that's always stuck in his past relationship. One that can never let go and move on. He's the most important - the lesson we get from him is that you cannot move forward, you cannot find your happiness, if you constantly look back. Ted needed to finally let go of Robin to finally meet the true love of his life.

And then the ending erased most of that. Breaking Robin and Barney showed that, after all, they cannot grow up and form a lasting relationship. They couldn't commit to each other.

Getting Ted and Robin means that he never really got over her. The love of his life wasn't really love of his life after all.
And even more insidious - his wife was there "only" to give him kids, which Robin couldn't. After that he could return to Robin and have his happy ever after. And it's a really shitty take away...

Overall I love HIMYM, it really helped me get over my past failed relationships, it taught me how to be better, how to finally find The One for me and truly commit to her. It taught me how to balance life within relationship and how to.. just be better.
And this I refuse to acknowledge the series ending. To me the show ends when Ted meets Tracy under the umbrella. Nothing past that exists for me.

[nikkijessica]

I still believe that there is no way in hell that teens who sat through this whole story would just be totally cool and encouraging about their dad wanting to get back with his ex whom they refer to as "Aunt"

[taylorgayhart]

There are so many things that disappoint me about the ending, but one that I never see people talk about is the fact that Robin and Lily don’t stay friends, and that Robin is shown to be lonely and alone in order to get the career she wanted. Like what message were they trying to send. Even if they wanted this ending, why didn’t they at least keep Lily and Robin as best friends?

[markbogdan]

I was so happy when I saw the alternative ending with Tracy living. For me personally a far better ending than the one that aired.

[regibson]

The problem with the ending is the writers came up with it in the very first season. And then despite the show radically evolving from the first season they still kept the same ending. They just couldn't let it go.

[allencruze]

I never thought Ted secretly wanted Robin while settling for the mom. He literally let her go, like a balloon.

[mjvajda]

I do agree on this scene. I also imagine the ending as Ted saying “And that, kids, is how I met your mother.” Only to hear everyone in the next room groan and yell at Ted for finally finishing the story and they are ready to have the intervention they’ve long waited for…all while they’re still trying to figure out how to play bridge.

[trinaq]

I've always considered this ending to be the REAL, valid conclusion. Honestly, Ted recounting the moments that led up to him meeting and marrying Tracy, as well as the hint that Barney and Robin might reconcile, is more fitting of the show's style. I always watch that one instead.

[jl]

I truly don't understand how some people really think that Robin and Ted are "fine" as endgame. That scene on the final season when Ted literally says goodbye to Robin is one of the most well done scenes of the whole show. That scene where she is floating like a balloon in the sky and Ted is finally "letting her go". It was so emotional, so pure, so sad and yet so beautiful... And then at the end, after all those years, he admits to his kids that he still "has the hots" for her? Even the words are so... Lame. Is like all that we saw in that season was meaningless.

I love the show, is great comedy and is also comforting. But the ending is really problematic and I choose to ignore it.

[TrueScifi]

The problem I had with the final season was that till the last episode Barney and Robin's wedding was shown to us in a real time style. So for months, we as an audience were subjected to episodes that were all leading upto their wedding as the closure of Robin and Ted forever before he meets Tracey. But within 15 minutes of the Finale, Robin and Barney end up divorced. The whole finale felt like a Season worth of plot crammed into 45 minutes. I would have preferred watching that story spread across the entire Season as opposed to seeing the Wedding stuff, which amounted to nothing in the end. I don't know why the writers planned the Season like this. They already knew Season 9 was going to be the last one and also had the finale planned for a long time. All it needed was proper breathing time for us all to accept.

[Norm-R]

I always took Barney going back to Robin as more growth for Barney where each time he wasn't ready for an actual relationship, but then they got married and this dude who prided himself on banging every woman in New York finally settled down. It was a great closure for Barney's character that we kinda lose as well when Robin and him divorce. So Robin and Ted ending up together at the end doesn't just ruin the show for their characters. It ruins it for Barney too. And this scene where Ted and Robin have this one last closure moment makes a lot more sense to me. Though I would rather have seen Robin happy with Barney. And the crime I'm not even mentioning is just how weak Robin's character development is the whole series. Shes played as just this tool to bounce between guys to further develop their stories. She really has nothing but tacked on quirks of being a Canadian into hockey and her moments of actual development like being torn between being American or Canadian (which Barney helps her through) are very few.

[archive]

Fun Fact: The clock in Marshall and Ted's apartment is always set at 4:20. The only exception is in the second episode of season two, where it's set to 1:10pm

[rsienicki]

There is an alternate ending swimming around the Internet, I believe it was added to the DVD set. Where it basically end as it should, in my opinion. I loved this show, but this was a constant stream of romantic comedies and at some point I was tired to them coming back to Ted and Robin. I liked the idea of Robin and Barney. I feel they worked. So after 8 years I just wanted a simple, non twist, ending. And that ending gave it to me. It was ending on the platform where Ted is talking to Tracy, they laugh, camera pans out. Narrator says "See, kids? Easy. And this... is how I met your mother". Credits. Beautiful ending we deserved after that journey.

[MrJackfaire]

We watched a very different How I Met Your Mother. From the very beginning I figured Robin and Ted were never ever going to be the long term couple. The show seemed to be all about twisting romantic convention not rehashing it. I figured the reason Barney interrupted Ted's "I'm going to marry that girl" moment was that Barney was going to be the one to marry that girl.

The only time their relationship felt hollow and forced was the first time because they started trying to have the kind of relationship that Ted wanted. But neither one of them want the kind of life that Ted wants and it's okay to not want the same type of life as other people.

Hollywood usually feeds us this narrative that you have to settle down in the suburbs to have a quality life and that everyone that doesn't fit that narrow narrative of what life is has failed and is a loser character.

Barney and Robin love exploration, adventure, and never knowing what's coming next. Ted needs stability and normality. Neither one will ever be happy with how Ted lives.

The last two episodes are a huge "we don't know what we're doing" from the writers as to retroactively ask the question how the hell did they get greenlit in the first place.

They literally break up Barney and Robin the last time because Barney suddenly wants the kind of life Ted wants. Robin doesn't and divorces Barney. Then fast forward and Robin suddenly does want the kind of life Ted wants and doesn't get together with Barney again

It craps all over Barney, Robin, Ted, and the titular mother. Might as well just have Ted and Robin elope in episode one and tell the children "oh you don't exist". As far as I'm concerned those last two episodes are nothing more than badly written fan fiction that ignores everything that came before.

[ralphintheshadowrealm]

The whole finale just painfully reeks of "we already filmed this final shot, despite how much has changed we're keeping it". That ending would've made more sense if the show ended at season 3 but it just doesn't work anymore. There were too many episodes of Ted and Robin reiterating they don't belong together, and all the characters developed well beyond it. It ruins Barney's progression, it renders pointless the entirety of the final season, it throws away Tracy who was great. It was just so cheap. Plus it tossed away the potential for a good joke where at the end it cuts to Ted going "that's how I met you mother" and it cuts to the son and daughter who look visibly much older going "god finally, that was so long".

[jenniferangel]

Barney and Robin as the couple had several seasons of buildup, and it made sense the character development and I enjoyed them as a couple and so did a lot of people, I didn't mind the last season being all about the wedding but was in total shock when they split them up the last episode!

[samaron]

I honestly found Barney and Robin to be a far more compelling relationship, and the moment when Ted lets go of the 40 deal felt like the end of his and Robin's romantic story, her doubts about Barney seem to be entirely on her end, not Ted's, and by the end of the last season, it felt like she and Barney had worked through all of their hang-ups. Undoing a relationship that had been built to for half the show because of a character flaw Robin worked past in season 4 and that hasn't come up since was just cheap. I don't understand any of the decisions in the last two episodes, and if you're watching the show for the first time, stop after The End of The Aisle, it concludes the story well enough and will let you leave the show still liking it.

[PhilM_Jr]

The reason the "alternate ending" where Tracy lives works better in my opinion is because it teaches a valuable lesson that all of us go through. Our lives are a series of events resulting in coincidences and decisions that lead us down one road as opposed to another. Ultimately though, they all culminate and lead to the places we are happy to get to. All the clues and hints from the entire show culminate in finally finding the one for Ted, and that's more fulfilling than just going back to Robin again.